Cake Batter Pancakes

Did you know there are food holidays for just about every day of the year? There are also food weeks and food months – it’s sort of crazy, but definitely the kind of crazy that this food blogger can get behind. Of course, the problem is that I almost never know about a particular food holiday until it’s too late to cook or bake anything to celebrate.

Not this time though! Over the weekend I was hanging out on Twitter and saw several tweets from Rachael that alerted me to the food event for this fourth week of February – it’s National Pancake Week! I’m not dedicated enough to bake pancakes every day this week, but it just so happened that I’d made pancakes for dinner on Friday. Though I hadn’t originally planned to post them so quickly, it only made sense to share these pancakes today in celebration of the beginning of Pancake Week. Besides, these pancakes were really tasty, so I’m glad I’m telling you about them sooner rather than later.

I love batter in any form – cake, cookie, brownie….the list goes on and on. Yellow cake batter though? That’s definitely my favorite of all of them. So, when Jessica of How Sweet It Is shared these cake batter pancakes last month I knew it was only a matter of time before I tried them. The recipe is simple, and because these pancakes are so much fun, I think they’d be a great weekend project with kids. Like Jessica, I used rainbow sprinkles in my batter (very reminiscent of Funfetti cake) but it occurred to me afterward that chocolate sprinkles would have been a good option too. The pancakes are light and fluffy in texture, and in case you’re worried, they’re not as sweet as you might expect. The cake batter flavor is mild so these didn’t scream dessert to me. I just loved the whimsical nature of the recipe, definitely a repeat!

Cake Batter Pancakes
from How Sweet It Is

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup yellow cake mix
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 cups milk
sprinkles

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt together. Combine 1 cup of the milk, the eggs and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Depending on the brand of cake mix you use, you may need additional milk to achieve the proper consistency for your batter. I added about an extra tablespoon or two of milk to my batter; it was still fairly thick, but easily pourable. Fold sprinkles into the batter – how many you use is entirely up to you!

Preheat a skillet set over medium heat. I used a nonstick skillet and sprayed it lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Use a 1/4-cup measuring cup to portion the batter into the pan. Cook the pancakes on the first side until bubbles form on the top, about 3-4 minutes. Use a spatula to flip the pancakes and cook on the second side until golden and cooked through. Repeat with the remaining batter. You can keep the pancakes warm in a 200 F oven until you’ve cooked all of them, if desired.

(I served my pancakes with maple syrup, but Jessica made a glaze for hers – you can find that recipe over on her site.)

Makes about 12 pancakes