Traditional recipes call for a fairly standard batter: flour, eggs, sugar, milk, baking soda or baking powder, but I discovered that you can make awesome funnel cakes with "complete" buttermilk pancake mix (look for brands that only require the addition of water).

Funnel cake traces its origins to the Pennsylvania Germans. However, similar dishes date back centuries in the Middle East and Europe and today include Striebele in Germany and tippaleipa in Finland.

It's simply fried dough. You can use bread dough or pizza dough, stretch it into a circle, drop it in hot oil and voila! Funnel cake, on the other hand, isn't dough at all.

In honor of National Funnel Cake Day on July 16, Carowinds is hosting a competition in which guests can submit an original funnel cake recipe.