While trying to figure out how to celebrate our soon-to-be two-year-old’s birthday in an already action-packed day, my husband came up with the idea of inviting the girls in our neighborhood (instead of the usual long list of all our friends) over for a breakfast celebration. It wasn’t long after that I saw a flower-shaped pancake mold on the Williams-Sonoma website and well, a party was born!
We invited all the girls (ages almost 2 to 15) and their moms (we don’t need to know their ages), suggesting they wear their PJs and wander over at 8:45. It was a girls-only party, so my husband and our 2 boys spent the morning upstairs, rejoicing over the fact that they got to eat breakfast upstairs in the gameroom. (Woo-hoo for them!)
I had the tables (adult and kid-sized) set with all sorts of pancake toppings: berries, bananas, mini-chocolate chips, whipped cream, butter, nutella spread and, of course, syrup. I served OJ, milk and mimosas to drink.
At about 9, we sang “Happy Birthday,” and our daughter blew out the candles on her stack of flower-shaped pancakes. Then each guest received her own stack of pancakes to fill, top and devour. (I made all the pancakes the night before and just heated them in the morning.)
After breakfast we opened the gifts and played with them for a bit before a few of the girls decided they wanted to play on the playset in our backyard. At about 10:15 the guests began leaving, and I sent each pair off with a heart-shaped pancake mold of their own.
The party was a great way to start the day, without consuming it. It was simple to set up, simple to host and everyone seemed to have a great time.
Making the pancakes:
Making the pancakes took much longer than I had anticipated, but that could be because I had to make three for each guest, so they would each have a nice stack. My flower mold was designed to make 3 flower-shaped cakes that had a hole in the center for berries and other filling. I used an Aunt Jemima mix, the kind that all you add is water. I find those pancakes always fluff up well. I also added a bit of flaxseed to each batch for some secret nutrition.
In making the pancakes, be sure you really get your griddle hot, and also preheat your molds on the griddle. I sprayed nonstick spray on the griddle and molds between batches. And, when using the molds, don’t completely fill them up with batter… the batter will expand as it heats.
After letting the pancakes cool on a cooling rack, I wrapped each stack in parchment paper and sealed the stack tightly with foil. I put them all in the fridge overnight.
About an hour before party time I put each wrapped stack in my oven’s warming drawer, set on high heat. (You could probably do the same with a 200 degree oven.) When I opened each packet for the party, all the pancakes were hot and still fluffy, just like they came right off the griddle!
Pancake molds:
I just checked the site and now they have stacking stars as well as the flowers!
Lots of fun shapes! Plus, many come in sets of 2 for about $5. Break them up for party favors.
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