You may have seen it done on one of several viral videos online: Colorful creations all made out of pancake batter. It’s art you can eat! Plus, it is actually pretty easy to do at home and is fun for the whole family. All you need to do it are some squeeze bottles, your favorite pancake mix (or recipe), and food coloring.
First, you need to whip up your pancake batter, so follow all the usual instructions. The key in making pancake art is the consistency of the batter. You want it to be a bit thinner than regular pancake batter, and it should be smooth, with no lumps. Add little bits of water at a time until your batter has the consistency of “runny ketchup,” so it is an easy mixture to squeeze out of your squeeze bottles. If the batter is too thin, just add a bit of flour to thicken it up. Once your batter looks good, then portion it out and dye it different colors using the food coloring. The more dye you use, the brighter the colors will be. Make sure to keep some batter with no dye added as it makes a good base color. Pour all the different colored batters into different squeeze bottles as this will be your paint pallet!
Turn your pan or skillet on to low heat. Not only is a low heat safer to use with the kids, but it will give you more time to create your artwork without the pancake browning on you. Add a little bit of butter to the pan, or spray it with cooking spray, so your pancakes don’t stick, and you are ready to make some artwork!
Some things to keep in mind while drawing: The main picture will be seen when you flip it over, so always paint what you want in the foreground first, and the background last. Also, since you will be flipping the pancake over, any word you want to write, needs to be written entirely backward, like a mirror image. Have fun, take pictures, and when you’re done, grab some syrup and chow down!
Michelle Oliver and her pancake art