Pancake Gallery

For the last three months, well since February 25, we have hand pancakes every single Tuesday for dinner. Sound disgusting? Well, maybe it will make more sense when I tell you that we changed the day to Tommy Tuesday where he gets the say on what games we play and what food we eat. (Mainly I try to give him some special attention so that the new baby, Jonathan, doesn't inadvertently hog all Mom's attention). It's been working well I think.

Still wondering why Tommy is so attached to pancakes on Tuesday? I mean, the fact that he chooses may be explanation enough for some. Not for us. There is actually another reason: Bowser!

Yes, Tommy requested pancakes in the SHAPE of Bowser! I laughed it off the first time he asked. He kept asking...and I thought to myself, I'm an artist, surely there is some way. But how would I "paint" the pancake batter onto the frying pan? Someone else surely has tried this before. I googled "Pancake Art" and found some great tips!

First I tried frosting bags to squirt the batter onto the pan. That was ok. But my biggest hurdle was that I was hand-mixing the batter. Once I started mixing it with a blender, it was smooth and creamy. I also would add slightly more water until the consistency was just runny enough to be fluid.

It works!! Now I've stepped it up. I use condiment squeezy bottles that I got at a grocery store, I use extra water, I use food coloring for the different colors, temperature is at medium for best results, and I outline my shapes first so that the outlines stay nice and dark while the inside has some color. Even though I've figured all of this out, I still have duds each week. Some good some bad.

Regardless, take a look at our pancake gallery! Every week there is a Bowser blowing fire for Tommy and with the others I try to do something new. Funny though, Maggie got a heart the first week and has only ever wanted a heart. Even when I did a Carebear with a heart on its tummy, she did not want it. "I omee [only] want a heart pancake!" she whined. Ok ok. Fine. :) Enjoy!

And try it out sometime, it makes breakfast for dinner (or for breakfast) a lot of fun! Oh and by the way, I put ALL of them on--the successes and the failures...just because I thought they were fun ideas. They certainly aren't all perfect. One time I did a Leatherhead for Tommy--but he didn't like it as much as Bowser so we went back to Bowser. Notice all the changes to Bowser throughout the weeks. I started sticking to one piece of reference on Google.