Cake Batter Pancakes

or, as I like to call them, Birthday Pancakes!!  I know I talked about Number One's birthday all last week, but I wanted to share these too.  Especially since the theme for Share A Spoon today is CAKE!! (I may have suggested this theme.  You know, maybe. But I'm not alone...others want their cake and eat it too!)  I was going to link up this cake....which was my first time making homemade icing.

But I thought I would go a little more non-traditional route...

Cake Batter Pancakes!

from How Sweet It Is

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour   I used 1/2 cup whole wheat

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 *How Sweet used vanilla almond milk. I used skim milk so I added a little extra vanilla extract

assorted sprinkles

Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add 1 cup of milk, eggs 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 (I use an electric grilled and turn it to 250 degrees). 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. Serve with vanilla glaze.

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tablespoon milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

assorted sprinkles

Mix milk, extract and powdered sugar until glaze forms. You may need to add a little more sugar or water/milk to reach desired consistency. Mix into glaze and drizzle on pancakes.

****The vanilla glaze would have been really good on these, but I was sending my kids to school and didn't want them on sugar overload (I think cake batter in the pancakes was plenty!), so we topped them with sugar-free pancake syrup. And more sprinkles of course.

My pancakes did not turn out nearly as big and fluffy as How Sweets.  I'm pretty sure I didn't let my pancake batter "rest" long enough...it was a school morning! And I added whole wheat flour.  The flavor was good, but not great.  It could use a little tweaking the next birthday that comes around.  They would have been better with the vanilla glaze!  But, the main thing is that it made Number One feel special on her birthday!  She had her party a few days before, on the weekend, so this was a way to honor her actual birthday.  Her special request for her birthday dinner?.....baked cheese sticks (the ones I made not long ago in eggroll wrappers)!  I thought that was pretty funny!  and yes, I made them.  'cuz I'm the greatest Mom ever.  Sometimes.

Now go check out all the other fabulous recipes at Think Tank Momma, Feeding Four, Miz Helen's, It's a Keeper, and Flip Flops & Pearls! 

Other linkys and hops can be found here.