Cake Batter Pancakes and Ketchup???

I've discovered the secret to making pancakes less messy. Well, I discovered it like Columbus discovered America. (Cause how can you discover somewhere that's already got people living there?) Anywho, I "discovered" this idea on Real Simple. Put your pancake batter in an empty (clean) ketchup bottle. (Of course you could use a catsup bottle, but only if you are a communist.  True Americans use Ketchup.  For REALZ.)

I used the jumbo 40 oz container, cause we use lots of ketchup in our house and it was the container I had on hand.  Using a funnel is highly recommended for putting the batter into the squeezy container.  If you spoon it in, you'll just make a huge mess, and that defeats the whole purpose of using the bottle.

Now onto the actual pancakes.  Remember when I wrote about Cake batter ice cream back in September?  Well I made cake batter pancakes from How Sweet It Is with some of my leftover powdered strawberry cake mix.

Oh, you should have seen Blockette's face when I told her we were having pink cake batter pancakes for dinner.  Man.  Cake? And Pancakes?  At the same time?  For dinner?  She about hugged my guts out and told me I was the best mom EVER!  Gotta love that.

I only slightly screwed up.  The recipe calls for sprinkles but I only had the tiny kind, not the jimmies.  So when I added the sprinkles to the batter they all dissolved.  This made the batter less pink and more of a slight weird pinky purple color.

I tried adding the sprinkles once the batter was on the griddle but they still weren't really visible once the pancakes were cooked.  And, I ran out of sprinkles before I used up all the batter.  Blockette was slightly sad at this, but really how sad could she be?  We were having cake flavored pancakes for dinner.

The pancakes also lost their pink color when I cooked them.

They browned up like regular pancakes.

This was sort of a bummer too, because Blockette and I were excited to have PINK pancakes. Again, really, how sad could we be? CAKE PANCAKES! For DINNER. Woot. Woot.

So what did they taste like?  They were an equal combination of cake and pancake flavors.  It was not like eating a slice of cake for dinner at all.  (Not that I have EVER done such a thing.)  The cake was not a lie, but it was not overwhelming either.

I don't I like these any better or worse than regular pancakes. I wouldn't open up a box of cake mix just to make these little guys, but if I had a box that was already open, I'd make these again.  They were a nice treat for Blockette.  Oh, and just to clarify, waffles still rule. Go team Waffle!


Cake Batter Pancakes from How Sweet it is makes about 12 pancakes
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 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 cups milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
assorted sprinkles

Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add 1 cup of milk, egg and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. You want the batter to look like regular pancake batter; not too thin, not too thick. This will vary greatly on the brand of cake mix you use. Start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed. I suggest a small taste test as well to see if the pancakes are flavored enough. Preheat a skillet on medium heat. Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter. Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 1 minute more.