Flashy Funnel Cakes serving up treats to The Shoals
By Hayley Sylvester
Staff Writer
Brittany Drowns loves funnel cakes. They are her favorite treat when she visits the fair and the only treat she will eat. The downside: funnel cakes are available only once a year at a fair. With the Flashy Funnel Cakes food truck, now funnel cakes are available all year.
Drowns and her fiancé Wesley Lovelace found an empty food trailer on Facebook Marketplace. They purchased it and let it sit for a year because they couldn’t decide what to do with it. When she and her fiancé went to a Trail of Tears event, a vendor there served funnel cakes – but only one flavor. Drowns had a great question – why not more flavors? Flashy Funnel Cakes answered that question.
The ‘cookie monster’ funnel cake.
Lovelace built the truck himself. His father had passed away, and Lovelace needed a change. He was miserable working all the time, unable to spend enough time with his family. Lovelace and Drowns have four young children. A food truck seemed like the best idea. They could set their own hours, be their own bosses and have more time for their family. Keeping up with payroll was easier too. Drowns said they have one employee, Stephanie Demastus, who has been with them since day one.
Day One was Halloween 2022. Since then, Flashy Funnel Cakes has shared decadent flavors with eager customers all over the South. Drowns is an Illinois native and has yet to take the truck north or out west. Downs has done a lot of research about funnel cake food trucks and said, “We are the only truck in the United States that has more than 30 flavors.”
The menu is packed with incredible items and many, many choices. “Our most popular flavor is Strawberry Cheesecake,” Drowns said. “The original plain flavor is really popular too.” Other loaded funnel cake flavors include Peachy Cobbler, Strawberry Sunrise, Lemon Drop, and Cookie Monster, which is buried underneath chocolate sauce, vanilla crème, chocolate sprinkles and Oreo cookie crumbles. Flashy Funnel Cakes also sells Flashy Dogs. They make 13 different varieties. Popular hot dog flavors are the Rookie, a chili cheese dog, and the Pizza Puppy, which is a hot dog with pepperoni, mozzarella and marinara sauce. They also sell fried Oreos.
Drowns and Lovelace are staying busy with a packed schedule. At the end of April, Flashy Funnel Cakes will be attending the Crawfish Festival in Pensacola, Florida. They will also set up at the Shoals Cottagecore Festival on May 10. Come out and see them. Find them on Facebook and Instagram at FlashyFunnelCakes.
