Minion Pancakes!!!

If you've watched Despicable Me - and its sequel - I'm pretty sure you'll agree that the Minions absolutely stole the show with their adorable antics and costumes. Naturally, children love them too. So in a bid to win my young nephews' affections - it is, after all, one of their favourite shows - I made them Minion pancakes! And with inspiration from Pinterest, I've learnt that there's only one thing you need to make any cartoon pancake you want


Squeezy bottle.

Yes, there have been many online fails too, but it's really simple once you get the hang of it. There are just a few simple rules to follow. But first, my pancake batter recipe:

Pancake Batter: 
1 egg, separated
1 cup milk
1 cup self raising flour (or plain flour with 1/2 tsp baking powder)

Mix in the egg yolk, milk and flour. It doesn't have to be a completely homogenous mixture, it just has to be mostly mixed. (No one likes tough, over mixed pancakes). Then use a whisk/egg beater/hand mixer to whip your egg whites to stiff peaks. Fold a third of the whites into your pancake batter to loosen it, then gently fold in the second third, then the final bit. You really want to retain as much air as possible because if the batter is too runny, you're going to have melty looking cartoon characters. (Btw I didn't use any sugar in the pancake mix because I figure that you are probably going to serve this with a variety of sweeteners like honey or maple syrup, so it's probably excess sugar that can be cut out.)

Next pour some of the mixture into a squeeze bottle and start heating up a nonstick pan on a medium high heat.

So, the rules:

• Keep the batter light and fluffy - as mentioned above, if it's too runny you're going to have trouble drawing
• Don't use any oil in your pan!! Yes it makes for a crispy pancakes, but your characters are going to be all pocked marked from the sizzling oil
• Since you're not using any oil, it's very important to use a reliable non-stick pan

So working confidently with your squeezy bottle, draw your desired shape. It helps to have practiced on paper first.

Once you're happy with it, let it brown up slightly. You'll notice the ends of some of the edges start to lift and bend. Once that happens, spoon over the rest of the pancake batter so that the pancake is whole, and let that cook. It might take a while to get used to the workflow - goodness knows that my first few pancakes were pretty ugly - but once you get used to it, it's pretty cool to see. And the best part? These pancakes also freeze pretty well, so you can pop them into a container once they're cooled and have them ready to microwave for another day when the kids just have to have special pancakes.

I've tried piggy-faced pancakes and Minion pancakes, but the possibilities really are as endless as your drawing (or copying!) abilities.

Have you tried anything off Pinterest that has worked well for you?