For a while now I’ve been wanting to have a go at pancake art, and this week I finally did it.
Here’s my first attempt – a reindeer pancake. I think that perhaps calling it “art” is a bit generous, I doubt I’ll be winning the turner prize any time soon. Although judging by some of the previous winners maybe I’ll be in with a chance 🙂
OK, I’ll admit it, it’s not actually my first attempt, it was my third. Here’s the first…
Erm…… I’m not entirely sure what happened with this one. The parts I did first ended up lighter than the parts I did at the end – not what’s supposed to happen.
The positive thing is that if I can improve so much after three attempts then just think what’ll I’ll be drawing after a bit more practice.
If anyone has any suggestions for what I should try next, please challenge me in the comments.
Five lessons I learnt from my first attempt at pancake art
I’m definitely no expert and I need a lot more practice, but I’ve learnt a lot just from my first couple of attempts.
1) Make sure the pan is hot before you start
If it’s not you’ll end up with a strange inverted picture like I had in my first attempt.
2) Don’t touch the pan with the bottle.
I used small plastic icing bottles, which have a tiny nozzles and were perfect for drawing the outline. However, if you touch the pan with the top of the bottle (as I did) it cooks the batter at the end and clogs it.
3) Fill the large areas as quickly as possible
I used the icing bottle for the entire pancake. However, you can clearly see lines across the face showing where I squirted in the batter. In future I’d use a small jug for these areas so that they fill more quickly and you get a more even colour.
4) Wear long sleeves.
I completely underestimated how hot it would be holding my arm over the pan. By the time I’d finished the first pancake my entire forearm was bright red.
5) I can’t make videos
I thought it would be a great idea to make a video of my first attempt at pancake art to share with you all, but it wasn’t great.
I set up the camera to give a great view of the pan. Unfortunately pretty much all you can see throughout the entire video is my arm, and it isn’t even in focus.
My voice also sounded funny. I know that happens when you listen to yourself back, I have made plenty of home videos in the past and I’ve got used to what I sound like. This was different, oddly fake-posh like a bad audition for Downton Abbey. Something I’ll have to work on if I want to try again.
Fortunately I did have a few moments when I moved my fuzzy arm out of the way and you can see what I’m doing (I think I was trying to stop my arm burning too much!) and I managed to get these screen shots showing my progress.
If you’ve ever tried pancake art or you want to give it a go I’d love to see a picture of your attempts. You can tweet them to me at @Charlotte’s Lively KitchenUK
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