Creative Pancakes for Mother's Day

I was first introduced to this fun way of creating free-form shaped pancakes by my amazing, bright, beautiful 14-year old step-daughter, Hayley.  We make them every time she visits now, and always have a lot of fun doing them together.  On her most recent visit we spontaneously started photographing our process, and I realized what a great idea it is for Mother's Day, or any day when you have time for a little fun in the kitchen with your kids.

Here's how you make them:

These can be made with any pancake mix or recipe.  Our favorite is the Vosges Bacon and Chocolate Pancake Mix (12 ounce).  It calls for buttermilk which I think really makes a huge difference. The batter is not too runny, and not too thick.

You can create the pancake shapes simply by dripping the batter from a spoon, but we prefer using a Tovolo Pancake Pen 3-Cup Batter Dispenser.

It makes it easier to draw the shapes and creates less mess.

I think this would be fun to do with kids of all ages. You can make all kinds of shapes - hearts, turtles, dinosaurs - all you need is a little imagination. Hayley and I take turns drawing and flipping them, while keeping the finished ones warming in the oven.

I hope you have as much fun making these as we do . . .