With the nation stuck at home for pancake day this year and many of us trying to occupy young children while juggling working from home and homeschooling, we’re all looking for the perfect activity to keep our children quiet for longer than 5 minutes so we can go to the toilet in peace!
This pancake day, why not keep the kids occupied with some hilarious pancakes full of fun and frivolity? With the help of our pals at Absolute Digital Media, for pancake day, here’s 6 fun and quirky sweet treat designs.
FLUFFY AMERICAN-STYLE PANCAKE RECIPE
Firstly, a fool-proof pancake recipe to get you started (not saying you’re a fool or anything, but you are just about to fashion some hair out of streaky bacon). We’re using a fluffy American-style pancake batter, as it tends to be the easiest to shape and produces the cutest faces, too.
You’ll need:
150g – Plain flour
1 tablespoon – Baking powder
225ml – Full fat milk
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt
25g – melted butter
1 egg
Put the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a bowl and make a dip in the centre using a spoon. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk and egg together, and then whisk this gradually into the flour mixture. Next, slowly add your melted butter to the mix. The batter should resemble the consistency of single cream. Leave the batter to rest a while while you gather the kids together.
For frying, a heavy non-stick frying pan about 16cm across is best – cooked over a steady medium to high heat. Simply use vegetable oil, or if you’re feeling indulgent, butter.
MAKE YOUR OWN FACE
A super fun pancake design idea is to decorate your pancake as a self portrait! Using a pancake as your face, use all your favourite yummy toppings to decorate it. You could use squirty cream or bacon for hair, strawberries for a nose, even chocolate buttons for eyes. Use your imagination and go wild!
Or, if you need inspiration, here’s one we made earlier…
BUNNY RABBIT
If eating an image of a human face is a bit traumatic for the little ones, then why not create a cute bunny, instead? Simply use one pancake for the face, add blueberries for eyes, a strawberry for the nose and sliced banana for whiskers. For the ears, you can use anything from slicked melon to bananas – be creative! Finally, why not add two small marshmallows to give the bunny teeth? Come to think of it, these are just too cute to eat…
UNBEARABLY CUTE
A fun design idea we all need to try this year is an unbearably cute bear! Using a pancake as a base, add two chocolate drops for eyes. Then, with a smaller pancake, add this to your base pancake to replicate the bear’s mouth. With either fruit of your choice or even Nutella, add a cute nose and smile for the bear. Finally, we can’t forget the ears! Why not cut a smaller pancake in half and add one half to each side? Job done.
We just love the quizzical expression of the big fella…
MAKE A MONKEY
Another adorable animal to recreate is a monkey. With this one, feel free to layer the pancakes to create a 3D feel the your work of edible art.
Start off with the pancake base, and add a smaller pancake for a mouth. Add creme fraiche for the smile, and for the eyes and ears use some chopped bananas, oranges or even smaller pancakes. Then voila, you’ve got yourself a cheeky sweet treat! Apologies to any kids reading, ours is bloody terrifying…
FELINE FRIEND
If you have a cat as a pet then we’re sure that you’ll love to recreate a pancake version of your feline friend (note to editor: eating an image of your beloved family pet? Are you sure about this?).
Yes, we’re sure. Starting out with your pancake as the base of the cat, add a layer of Nutella or peanut butter to replicate the cat’s furry face. Then, using strawberries or grapefruit pieces as ears and blueberries or raisins for the eyes, you can get creative with your fruity toppings. For the nose we would suggest either a strawberry or a circular piece of banana. Feel free to add whiskers with syrup or even sliced banana or apple for the purr-fect pancake!
Wow, we’ve impressed ourselves with these guys…
WRITE A MESSAGE
Using a pancake as your base, use all your favourite pancake toppings to create a message to someone in your home. Once you’ve all decorated your pancake and written your special message, swap pancakes and let the other person enjoy your creativity and the loving message they’ve written.
Happy Pancake Day everyone!
If you’re keen to do things a little differently this year and explore the world from the comfort of your kitchen, then check out these 10 IDEAL pancakes from across the globe.