Easy pancake recipes for children

Hooray it’s Pancake Day, so we are sharing easy pancake recipes for children and unusual topping ideas they might like to try.

Traditionally Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) was the day to use up all your eggs and fats before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Also traditionally, (or often?) pancakes are served with sugar, lemon juice and maybe a few sultanas. But pancakes are so versatile, they can be served with just about any topping.

We hope the ideas below inspire children to experiment with their own concoctions and have lots of delicious fun in the kitchen!

Basic pancake recipe

To save you looking up a recipe here’s one that makes 8 pancakes:

You will need:

100g flour

Pinch of salt

1 egg

300ml milk

1 tbsp oil

To make a pancake:

  1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
  2. Add the egg and half of the milk.
  3. Beat into a smooth batter.
  4. Coat the base of a frying pan lightly with oil and place on a medium heat.
  5. When the oil is warm pour about 3 tbsp of the batter mix into the frying pan.
  6. Tilt the pan until the bottom is covered in batter.
  7. When the pancake moves freely flip it over.
  8. Cook until golden.

Terrific topping ideas

Here are some pancake topping ideas to get your child started. Can they mix and match the ingredients here to invent toppings of their own?

Apple crumble

Spread apple sauce onto a pancake. Top with a few thin slices of apple sprinkled with crumble mixture.

To make crumble mixture you need 175g plain flour, 75g butter and 50g caster sugar.

Sift the flour into a bowl. Rub butter and sugar into the flour with your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs. Lightly press the crumble into a buttered ovenproof dish and place under a medium grill. Cook until golden. Once the crumble has cooled slightly it is ready to sprinkle onto your pancakes.

Go nuts!

Toast some nuts (almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts – anything you have in the cupboard) for 1-2 minutes. Top your pancake with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and sprinkle with a handful of nuts.

Herb and crunch

Smash up a Crunchie bar (you could place it under a clean tea towel and bash it with a rolling pin). Sprinkle the Crunchie over your pancake with a drizzle of honey, a pinch of salt and a pinch of rosemary.

Jam and peanut butter

Jam – any flavour – goes perfectly with pancakes. Spread it on, mix and match different flavoured jams if you like, and enjoy.

If you are a fan of peanut butter spread some onto your pancake before the jam. A quick tip: peanut butter can be difficult to spread, so put a few spoonfuls into a bowl and microwave it for a couple of seconds.

Millionaire’s shortbread

Sprinkle a pancake with crushed shortbread, broken chocolate (such as a Flake) and a drizzle of tinned caramel sauce. Easy!

Mixed berries

Top your pancakes with a mixture of berries – or just one type. You could have blueberries, cranberries, raspberries and/or strawberries. Drizzle with honey, golden syrup or maple syrup. Top with whipped cream or crème fraiche.

Rainbow stack

Make a stack of coloured pancakes. To do this, cook pancakes in the usual way but add a drop or two of food colouring to the batter mix.

Stack the pancakes into a giant sandwich by spreading chocolate spread or syrup between each one.

Salted caramel

You could make your own salted caramel sauce, but be careful as it gets extremely hot. Children must only make this sauce under supervision. Tinned caramel sauce is a safer alternative.

Drizzle caramel sauce over your pancakes and top with vanilla ice-cream and salted pretzels.

Sweet pizza

This is great fun as basically you make a pancake look like a pizza.

Use strawberry jam for the tomato base and desiccated coconut for grated cheese. Then add little pineapple chunks, black grapes (for olives), pink mini marshmallows (for ham chunks), and white marshmallows (for mozzarella cheese).

Has your child got any more ideas? Their imagination is the limit…

Savoury pizza

If your child prefers savoury food, they could use actual pizza toppings on their pancake.

Start by spreading the pancake with tomato puree and sprinkling with grated cheese. Then add toppings such as pepperoni, olives, tomato slices, peppers, anchovies and tuna etc.

More easy pancake recipes for children

If your child has enjoyed experimenting with different toppings, they might like to try completely new pancake recipes. We highly recommend Oreo Pancakes and Jaffa Cake Pancakes. Delicious!

For those with savoury tastes, try this easy ham and cheese pancake recipe from BBC GoodFood. This is a great recipe for a child who wants to experiment with savoury fillings.

Bring learning to life with TutorMyKids

At TutorMyKids we believe children learn best through real-world experiences like making pancakes. By making pancakes and experimenting with toppings, for example, children weigh and measure (maths), read and follow instructions (English), and learn through observation and experimentation (all subjects).

Whenever they can, our tutors bring real life into their teaching. They know that when learning is relevant children are motivated and their understanding is greater which leads to further achievement.

Our tutors offer English, maths, science, humanities and language tuition to children in Cambridgeshire. To find out more please contact us today on 01223 858421 or hello@tutormykids.co.uk.