Dolly Parton did not always walk her own theme park. Some visits she spent in her tour bus or up in The Dolly Suite, and none of that stopped her from eating. She just sent somebody. The order, by her own telling, was always the same: funnel cakes.
Parton, who died on August 25, 2026, at 80, could have eaten anything sold across 165 acres in the Great Smoky Mountains. The food she wanted was the plainest thing on the property, fried batter and powdered sugar, the same treat carnival-goers have been handed since funnel cakes showed up at fairs in the mid-20th century.
The Snack She Asked For By Name
Southern Living put Parton on its January/February 2025 cover to mark nearly 40 years since Dollywood opened in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, in 1986, and she used part of the interview to talk about fried dough. “The funnel cakes we’re famous for, so I never go there … even if I’m in my bus or if I’m in my suite, The Dolly Suite, I say, ‘Run and get me some funnel cakes. I can’t leave here without funnel cakes,'” she said. “I have to say, we have some of the best foods ever at Dollywood.”
Pressed on a favorite, she told Southern Living her favorite thing to eat at the park was everything, which is a politician’s answer from a woman who meant it. Her all-time dessert was banana pudding. Her all-time favorite food was a potato, in almost any form. The funnel cake was the one thing she refused to drive home without.
What A Dollywood Funnel Cake Actually Is
Crossroads Funnel Cakes sits in Rivertown Junction, right next to the park’s fairgrounds, and it is not the only spot in Dollywood frying them. The base is nothing fancy: a nest of fried dough served hot, plain or buried in powdered sugar, sometimes piped into the shape of a butterfly. That shape is not random. The butterfly stands in for the “W” in the Dollywood logo, and it traces back to her 1974 song “Love Is Like a Butterfly.”
The toppings are where the park shows off. Cinnamon sugar, vanilla glaze, caramel, hot fudge, Reese’s peanut butter, strawberry or apple pie filling, crushed Oreos, whipped cream, sprinkles, ice cream. There are preset combinations too, including salted caramel, an ice cream parfait and s’mores, plus seasonal runs like red velvet, pumpkin and a lavender honey version Parton helped make on “Good Morning America” in 2021. Dollywood chef Matthew Poorman has shared an official park recipe for them.
What makes the park’s version hold up under all that is restraint in the batter itself. Visitors keep noticing the same thing: the funnel cake is not very sweet on its own, which is exactly why a fistful of powdered sugar or a ladle of pie filling does not turn it into candy. Crisp outside, soft and a little doughy inside. Copy that balance at home and you have the thing she was sending people out for.
The Batter Takes Five Minutes
Flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, eggs, milk, vanilla. That is the whole shopping list, and every item is already in most American kitchens. Whisk the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet in another, then pour the wet into the dry and stir until it just comes together. Lumps are fine. Beat it smooth and you build gluten, which gives you chewy fried bread instead of a shatter-thin lattice.
Consistency matters more than any single measurement. You want batter that pours off a spoon in a steady ribbon, somewhere between pancake batter and heavy cream. Too thick and it plops into blobs that stay raw in the middle. Too thin and it disappears into the oil in threads. Add milk a tablespoon at a time to loosen it, flour a tablespoon at a time to tighten it, and test with one small cake before committing the batch.
Oil Temperature Decides Everything
Set the oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and keep it there. A clip-on candy or deep-fry thermometer costs less than a park churro and removes all the guessing. Use a heavy Dutch oven or a deep cast-iron skillet with about 2 inches of neutral oil, canola or vegetable, and never fill the pot more than halfway.
Much below 350 degrees, the dough drinks oil and comes out heavy and slick. Above 390, the outside browns before the inside sets, and you get a cake that looks finished and tastes like raw flour. Batter drops the temperature the second it hits, so fry one cake at a time in a 10-inch pan and let the oil climb back to 375 between rounds. That pause is the difference between the crisp shell the park turns out and a greasy pile on a paper plate.
How To Pour One, Butterfly Shape Included
An actual funnel works, but a plastic squeeze bottle is better. A ketchup-style condiment bottle gives you a narrow stream you can stop and start, which you cannot do with a funnel you are plugging with your thumb. A liquid measuring cup with a good spout or a zip-top bag with one corner snipped off will also get the job done.
Hold the bottle 4 to 6 inches above the oil and pour a loose spiral from the center out, about 6 or 7 inches across, then crisscross back over it in squiggles so the strands weld together. Use roughly 1/2 cup of batter per cake. For the park’s butterfly, pipe two overlapping loops on one side, two on the other, and a thicker line of batter down the middle for the body. It will not be neat. Nobody’s first one is.
Sugar Twice, In The Right Order
Cinnamon sugar goes on while the cake is still hissing hot, because that is when it sticks. Mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon in a shallow dish and either dip the cake or shower it from above. Powdered sugar comes last, pushed through a fine-mesh strainer right before it reaches the table, since it melts into a wet film if it sits.
Everything else is optional and should be served alongside, not poured on in the kitchen. Hot fudge, caramel, strawberry or apple pie filling, whipped cream, crushed Oreos, a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting into the hot dough. Buttercream icing is the sleeper pick, and it is the same move that makes Dollywood’s cinnamon bread worth standing in line for.
The Mistakes That Ruin Them
Draining on paper towels is the most common one. The underside steams and goes soft in about 90 seconds. Use a wire rack set over a sheet pan instead, and give the cake a shake to shed loose oil before it lands.
Stacking is the second. Funnel cakes crush each other, and the steam trapped between two of them undoes all the crisping you just paid for in oil and attention. Keep them in a single layer. If you are feeding a crowd, hold the finished ones in a 200-degree oven on the rack for up to 20 minutes, no foil over the top.
Reheating leftovers in the microwave produces something closer to a wet dishrag. A few minutes in a 350-degree oven brings back most of the texture. Honestly, though, make only as many as you plan to eat standing in the kitchen. This is a dessert with a five-minute window, which is precisely why a woman with a private suite at her own amusement park still sent someone running for a fresh one.
Worth Frying At Home
Of all the celebrity food habits worth copying, this one costs about three dollars and takes 30 minutes. The plain cinnamon sugar version is the best one, full stop. Toppings are fun and the butterfly is a nice trick for kids, but a hot funnel cake eaten over the sink with sugar on your shirt is the whole point, and it tastes like a Tennessee fairground no matter what state you are standing in.
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Q: Can I make funnel cake without a funnel?
A: Yes, and you probably should. A plastic squeeze bottle gives you far more control, and a liquid measuring cup with a sharp spout or a zip-top bag with the corner cut off both work fine.
Q: Which oil should I use?
A: A neutral one you can buy by the jug, like canola or vegetable oil. Save olive oil and butter for something else, since they color and smoke long before the dough is done.
Q: Why did mine come out greasy?
A: The oil was too cool, almost every time. Keep a thermometer clipped to the pot, fry one cake at a time, and let the temperature return to 375 degrees between rounds.
Q: Where do you get Dolly’s funnel cake at Dollywood?
A: Crossroads Funnel Cakes in Rivertown Junction, near the park’s fairgrounds, is the stand tied to her name. More than one spot in the park fries them, and the topping list runs from cinnamon sugar to Reese’s peanut butter.
