My name’s Brady. That’s my daughter Atley. I’m just a normal dude with a regular job and a family that I love. Sound familiar? Most likely, since you’re here. Atley is two and a half, and she loves pancakes. Me, I love to make her smile. One day while we colored, she asked me to draw several of her favorite cartoon characters. Well, I obliged to the best of my ability, an ability which…stopped improving at…well…at about her age. I suck at drawing. Despite this…she loved it. She recognized the characters, even insisted on more. Good kid. Still potty training, yet already grasps the nuances of advanced positive re-enforcement. I was giddy. So, knowing she loved pancakes AND my pitiable artwork too, I wondered if I could make some of those characters into pancakes.
So, I started trying. My artist creativity is so limited, it’s reasonable to say I have none. That’s the closest actual amount. I can’t draw anything from my mind, it’s rather shameful. So, I pulled up some pictures on my phone and sketched, best I could, from those images. I traced images from my phone… onto the griddle. Saturday mornings I’d ask what she wanted for breakfast. “Pancakes!!!” I’d ask her what kind of pancakes? “Elmo!” she’d yell. Or “Cat in the Hat!” or “Yo Gabba Gabba!” So, yeah…I needed to figure out a way to get her favorites… onto a pancake. I started experimenting…
I figured I’d throw these “experiments” up on Facebook, knowing I wasn’t the first to modify the classic round flapjack into a cooler shape, and thought nothing more of it. Turns out…I wasn’t as impressed with myself as my Facebook friends were. And, at their urging, I decided to start a blog about these pancakes. I’ll do my best to explain how I create them, mix in some relevant anecdotes perhaps… and you’ll soon discover, clearly, anybody can do it. That’s it.
In my efforts, I’ve discovered I’m a bit of a pancake purist. You say snob, I say purist. IT’S MY BLOG. I prefer no food coloring in the batter. I try not using fruits or whip cream or chocolate chips or whatever else to spruce-up these ‘cakes. You can if you choose to. (In fact, I now choose to as well. So much for all that purist talk.) My tools are 1. the batter, 2. a squirt bottle, and a distant 3rd… my expanding skills. Recall, I’m no artist… and neither are you, most likely. But, guess what… drumroll/spoiler alert…. your kid doesn’t care. Give it a try, the smile’s worth it. They don’t have to be perfect. Believe me… I made a Jabba the Hut pancake and Atley gave a gigantic grin and yelled “Walrus!!” … then, seeing my subdued reaction… “Seal?” What a great kid. Moral of the story… make your kid watch Star Wars first. Either way, get to that griddle and they’ll love ‘em whether you’re good or not. That’s what I do every Saturday (and some Sundays)… and my life is better for it. Hopefully yours will be too. Enjoy the site.
-Brady, The Pancake Dad
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Love it! Go dad!
thanks, jodi!
What a great dad you are, as well as a pancake maker and writer!