Baker’s Corner Funnel Cakes Pitcher and Mix

Around the time I entered middle school, my parents started getting season tickets to a nearby Six Flags. I was one of four kids, and while paying for six people wasn’t cheap, we went so many times each summer that it ended up being a pretty good value for us. One particularly memorable summer, I went 12 times with family and friends.

We usually packed lunches — getting our hands stamped before exiting the park gates and then eating with other park patrons on grassy areas out in the parking lot — which also saved us considerable money. On occasion, though, we’d spring for a treat inside the park. Of all of those treats, one of them stood out just by virtue of its over-the-air advertising. You can’t get within 50 feet of a kiosk selling funnel cakes without smelling them. On occasion, the six of us would sit down at a table and rapidly devour the fried dough and powdered sugar before racing off to another roller coaster.

For most of my life, I saw funnel cakes as the domain of theme parks and carnivals. We never made them at home, and for the longest time I didn’t even consider that I might be able to make them at home. Then, early on in the life of this site, I stumbled upon a most unexpected surprise: an Aldi take on funnel cake mix.

Six years later, I’ve decided to revisit this unique little item. Is it still what it was back in 2016?

Baker’s Corner Funnel Cakes Pitcher and Mix seems to now be an Aldi Seasonal Item. That means Aldi continues to restock it on shelves at certain times of the year. Specifically, this mix makes its way to stores during the summer months before potentially going into hibernation, figuratively speaking, for the winter. (Although we’re still seeing it in our local stores heading into the winter.) This marks a change over the years, since back in 2016, the mix was an Aldi Find that only got stocked one time each year. I can only speculate that it became popular enough to be worth shelving for more than the occasional one shipment.

Baker’s Corner is an Aldi-exclusive house brand. You can’t find it in other grocers. This brand at Aldi also includes products such as brownie mix, muffin mix, cake mix, and frosting.

At the time of this post, the funnel cake mix cost $1.99. That’s not only a lot less than what you’d pay for a single funnel cake at a theme park, but it’s about 50 cents less than the mix I bought from Aldi in 2016. Then and now, the container says it’s good for 8-10 cakes, so no matter how you slice it, this is a bargain as far as funnel cakes go.

Nutritionally, this a carb-heavy item, and it also has some sodium. The main ingredient is enriched malted wheat flour, and allergen warnings include wheat, egg, milk, and soy.

Preparation:

To cook this funnel cake, you’ll need the following:

• A bowl for mixing the pouch
• Water
• A whisk
• A skillet (the instructions suggest 8 inches or bigger) or deep fryer
• Metal cooking tongs
• A large amount of cooking oil (the instructions aren’t specific, but I used ~52 ounces)
• Powdered sugar or other desired toppings

In addition, the following are optional but helpful:

• A cooking apron to deal with potential oil splatter
• Paper towels to line plates and soak up some of the oil

Remember that you’re working with hot oil, so be careful.

Instructions. (Click to enlarge.)

To make the mix, you first remove the plastic mix pouch from the yellow pitcher. You the combine the contents of the pouch with 1 1/3 cups of water in a bowl. You whisk the mix and water until smooth; the batter should be about the same texture as waffle or pancake batter. After that, pour the mix back into the pitcher.

Next, you need your heating surface. You’ll need approximately 3 inches of oil in a skillet, but the oil will expand when heated, so be careful not to overfill. You’ll want to heat the oil to approximately 350-375 degrees.

Now it’s time to make the cakes. Hold the pitcher 2 inches above the oil and pour the batter in a circular motion, creating a lattice design. In other words, your goal is to have a funnel cake that looks like a funnel cake, with circles connected to each other. The instructions say to fry your funnel cake for about 30 seconds or until the edges are golden brown, then turn over and fry for 20 seconds longer.

Once done, remove the funnel cake from the oil, place it on a plate (again, I like lining the plate with paper towels to soak up excess oil) and let it cool for a few minutes. Finally, sprinkle with your favorite topping — powdered sugar, fruit, etc. — and serve.

Observations:

It took me some practice to get comfortable making these. There’s an art to getting just the right size and shape. They should be big but not too big, connected but not too thick. I also had to work on the cooking timing: mine took longer than the times listed in the instructions. The important thing there is to pay attention to when they turn golden brown on each side.

I found that the mix would drip a little after each round of pouring it into the oil. You can offset that some by tilting it back after each pour.

The mix makes a lot. I was able to make about 5 full-skillet funnel cakes, more than my family of four was able to eat in one sitting. I think there’s enough here to serve more like eight people.

My family unanimously loves these funnel cakes. They taste authentic, just like what we’d get from a circus or amusement park, with a light, crisp texture that is especially terrific when hot. We used powdered sugar as a topping. We’ve also experimented with topping these with vanilla ice cream, similar to how some amusement parks sell funnel cake topped with vanilla soft serve. Hard-scooped ice cream as a funnel cake topping isn’t the same, but it’s still fun.

As an added bonus, the yellow funnel this mix comes in is fairly sturdy, and it can be used in different ways after you’ve made your funnel cakes. We’ve found it makes for a cool kids’ outdoor water play toy, a bathtub toy, or a watering can for the garden, for instance, but you might find other uses for it, too.

The Verdict:

Baker’s Corner Funnel Cakes Mix is a terrific way to make funnel cakes at home. While it does take a few tools and a little time, the result is a dessert that does a great imitation of what you’d get at the fair, and for a lot less than what you’d pay at the fair. The pitcher it comes with is a nifty extra that you might use for other purposes after you’re done making funnel cakes.