Ice Cream and Cake for Breakfast

Every Sunday morning my husband makes us breakfast. It's kind of his "thang". I'm not a big breakfast person. It's probably how the tradition started, he wanted breakfast and since it's not important to me, I didn't make any. I'm more of a "Hey, let's eat skip breakfast but eat lunch at 10:45" kind of girl. Not brunch...Lunch. I don't like most breakfast foods...except for bacon, which I adore.

This week I ran across a breakfast recipe I thought I would like. My husband loves pancakes. I think they taste like soggy imitation maple flavored sponges. I'll eat one as long as it's very thin and saturated in syrup and butter. If he makes pancakes, I politely choke down one or two crepe like concoctions and eat 8 pieces of bacon to kill the taste. I could easily go the rest of my life without pancakes and not miss them. So, imagine his surprise when I brought him a recipe for pancakes. Special pancakes. Cake Batter Pancakes.

Ingredients you will need

Like most recipes, there are lots on online for this recipe. The recipe I used as my inspiration is from:

http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/cake-batter-pancakes-recipe/1/

Of course, I have never seen a recipe I didn't think I could improve upon so I did make some minor changes. Here's what you will need to start:

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake mix (the recipe called for Betty Crocker Supermoist yellow cake mix but I used French Vanilla cake mix instead)
1 Tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.

Mix dry ingredients

Now, add two large eggs, a teaspoon of vanilla (I use cheap imitation vanilla but usually add a little extra to compensate) and 1-2 cups of milk. Start by adding just one cup of milk.

Begin mixing in the wet ingredients

After adding the eggs, vanilla and one cup milk, begin to slowly add more milk. It will probably take about a cup more. Just add a little at a time until the mixture is the consistency of traditional pancake batter.


Add additional milk until consistency of pancake batter

Set the pancake batter to the side. In a separate bowl, make vanilla glaze. To make glaze, take 2 Tablespoons of butter, soften.  To the softened butter, add 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 Tablespoon milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.  Mix until smooth.  If it's not thin enough, add just a little more milk but be careful, you don't want to make it too thin.



Mix until thin and smooth

Icing or frosting is firmer and holds its shape. Glazes are thin enough to pour and drip down over the edges of something. Glazes are really just thin frosting.

Thin enough to pour but not runny

Liberally pour sprinkles in both the batter and the glaze. It looks so festive and happy you can't help but smile while you cook.  It's like a party in your kitchen that will soon move to your stomach.



A happy sight

Double happiness

Pouring the batter

Cook like traditional pancakes. Pour onto a hot griddle. When little bubbles start to appear, flip.

Flecks of sprinkles decorate breakfast

Pat of butter after flipping

As you finish the first batch, place in a dish and cover with aluminum foil. Place in a low oven to keep warm as you finish cooking the pancakes. Pour glaze over pancakes immediately before serving. Add a little powdered sugar and extra sprinkles on top. You can never be too festive.

What do you drink with cake batter pancakes? A frozen coffee beverage. This is along the lines of a Starbucks Frappuccino or McDonald's Iced Coffee drink. To make McDonald's iced coffee you simply mix 1/4 cup vanilla syrup, 1/4 cup half-n-half and 1 cup cold coffee. I make my iced coffee even better...

Iced Coffee Drink

Put one cup ice cream in a blender. I used vanilla but you can use different flavors depending on what you like. Next, add two cups cold coffee. If not cold, add a little crushed ice. Do not use warm or hot coffee. Blend well.

Why pay $3 bucks when you can make it yourself for pennies?



Buy reusable containers



Are you one of those people who spends $3-4 dollars a day on fancy coffee drinks? Well, stop it! It's so easy to make your own and take it with you. For less time than you spend waiting in the drive thru at McDonald's, you could make this delicious iced coffee and save tons of money. If you spend $3 a day on drinks, it will cost you $1,095 a year. Of course, some of those savings will be eaten up by Weight Watchers fees if you drink this high calorie drink every day.

Cake Batter Pancakes with Iced Coffee

I have to admit, we really do eat like Kings. Even I liked the cake batter pancakes.