In today’s post: For a fun Valentine’s Day breakfast, make these heart shaped lace pancakes! They’re a great way to make Valentines special for your kids.
My little kids and I are hooked on the British Baking Show. They love the competition, I love how polite everyone is, and we all love watching them make delicious treats. At least once an episode one of my kids asks “can we make that”? Usually the things they make are more complicated than I want to try at home, but as soon as we watched the lace pancakes episode we decided to give them a try. Like the contestants, we made heart shaped lace pancakes, which is perfect for Valentine’s Day, but my kids had so much fun they want to try them in all sorts of shapes for all the different holidays.
The contestants on the British Baking show only got to make one practice pancake, and then all the rest that they made were judged. I will admit it took me more like 10 practice pancakes to start making perfect ones, but the kids ate them all, even the misshapen ones.
They were so much fun to make and would be really fun for breakfast on Valentine’s day!
How to make lace heart shaped pancakes
Here’s a video that shows the process, and then written instructions follow:
To make lace pancakes you’ll need pancake batter and a couple of squeeze bottles. We used this homemade pancake batter which ended up being just the right consistency, and I purchased squeeze bottles at Walmart in the kitchen section. We also added a few drops of red food coloring to our pancake batter to make the heart pancakes even prettier.
Making the lace pancakes will be simpler if you have a griddle which you can keep at a consistent heat, but you should be able to make them on a skillet on the stove as well. I kept my griddle temperature just below 350 degrees.
Mix up your pancake batter and pour it into a squeeze bottle. Once the griddle is hot, squeeze a bit of batter out in a line to test the consistency. You want it thin enough that it comes out of the nozzle with clogging, but thick enough that it holds it’s shape and doesn’t spread all over the place on the griddle.
Thicken with flour or pancake mix and thin with milk or water as necessary.
Then, begin making lace hearts! I found it’s best to draw the outline of the heart first, then wait 15-20 seconds. Then I added dots of pancake batter all around the outside of the heart to give it a pretty lacey effect. Finally, fill in the center of the heart with swirls, lines, or zigzags, making sure they all connect to the outline of the heart.
Once you’re drawn the lace heart, let it cook for a few minutes before trying to flip. If you try to flip too early, the pancake will stick to the griddle and the “lace” will break and pull apart. Wait until the pancake has bubbles and looks somewhat dry before attempting to flip, and be sure to slide a pancake turner underneath one edge then the other to loosen it first.
The pancake will be pretty much cooked through before you flip, so it will only need a few seconds on the other side before you can remove it to a plate and eat.
If the pancake ends up getting too dark on the first side before it is cooked through enough to flip, turn down the heat on the griddle.
Looking for more Valentine’s Day fun? Visit these posts:
Raspberry Nutella Puff Pastry Heart
25 fun Valentine’s Day treats to make with your kids
Chocolate covered peanut butter hearts (like Reese’s!)
Valentines day candy gram printable
35 adorable DIY Valentines cards you can print at home
4 ways to make heart shaped cake without special cake tins
Me and my family love the British Baking show too! We’ve watched a few different groups go through the episodes. It makes me want to try new things in the kitchen. Those lace hearts look really cool. I usually just do sloppy heart pancakes, sometimes adding red dye. My dad used to do that when we were little for all the different holidays….turning food green, etc. Anyway, good ideas!