Fruity Pancake Pops

I made these fruit-shaped and fruit flavored pancake pops for my kids to bring to school for children's day party last year. Besides steamed cakes, this is another type of pretty cake that can be made without an electric mixer and oven. I made apple, orange, mango,  pear and mixed berry flavored pancakes with an extra oomph of chocolate flavor from the outlines.

I am far from being an expert at pancake art and am only able to do simple drawings on a frying pan. So do check out awsome pancake artists like Jenni Price and Jim. It's quite fun to make these pancakes and there isn't any complicated recipe to follow. Just arm yourself with pancake batter, a frying pan, spatula, some squeeze bottles or piping bags and loads of imagination and you are good to go! But be prepared to spend quite a while at the stove if you are a novice like me and making pancakes for two classes!

I used pancake mix bought from the supermarket but instead of water, I added fruit juices and a bit of food coloring. For the chocolate outlines, I added some cocoa powder. I added a bit of sugar to the pancake mix to sweeten it up a bit more as they are eaten plain at the class parties. You may wish to make your own batter or pancake mix.

Just some tips on making these pancake pops:
1. Prepare a thicker batter for the outlines and a thinner batter to fill and flood the outlines.
2. Have a template or drawing on hand so that you can draw more easily with a reference, especially for complicated designs.
3. Use low heat (if you don't have a griddle that can control the temperature) on the stove to prevent your designs from browning if you want to keep the color vibrant.

Steps:
1. Prepare pancake batter for the outlines (chocolate flavor) and insides of the "fruits" (fruit flavored). Prepare enough ice cream sticks to make the pops.
2. Fill a squeeze bottle with chocolate batter and another with fruit batter. I used piping bags for this as my squeeze bottles have pretty big nozzles. I used a wilton #5 tip.
3. Heat up frying pan (preferably non- stick) and lightly grease or spray the surface with oil. Draw the outline of the fruit with chocolate batter and wait for it to set. You may draw a few "fruits" depending on the size of your pan. Make sure that you leave enough space for the ice cream sticks.
4. Fill the spaces within the outlines with fruit batter. Be careful not to let it overspill out of the outlines. Wait for several seconds and then carefully place an ice cream stick in the middle. Add a bit of batter to cover the stick. When you see bubbles appearing at the top surface of the pancake, slide the spatula under the pancake and flip it over.
5. Cook the other side of the pancake until it is dry.
6. Leave it too cool completely on a cooling rack before storing. Pancakes are best consumed fresh from the pan. Since this is not possible, place the pancake pops between baking sheets and store them in an airtight container/ ziplock bags in the feeezer. Microwave for half a minute on high straight from freezer before consuming.

It takes practice to get the timing and heat right so don't give up if your first attempt fails.

Have fun with pancakes! This can be a great holiday activity with older kids too!

With love,
Phay Shing