One of the cooking-forums I frequent does a regular recipe exchange. The theme this time was breakfast foods. The recipe I received was for cake batter pancakes. As a kid I used to love pancakes, and requested them all the time. Now I hardly eat them anymore, and if I do, I usually go for (at least partially) whole wheat pancakes made from home-made biscuit mix (with lard instead of shortening!) These were very different from what I usually eat.

The cake batter pancakes were very easy to make and did have a distinct cake mix flavor. They were a little dryer than my usual pancakes. The recipe stated to make them with sprinkles. And I bet adding the sprinkles would make a huge difference – in flavor, texture and overall festiveness. I however forgot to buy sprinkles, so I had to do without. To make up for it I placed a pat of butter in between pancakes and poured some real maple syrup over them. I halved the recipe, which was more than enough for the two of us.

All in all I can say that if you like pancakes and box-mix-cakes, these pancakes are perfect for you!

Cake Batter Pancakes (recipe by Ommynoms, serves 4)

• 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 (see directions)
• 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.

Preheat a nonstick skillet over 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.