{Recipes} Sprinkles Pancake Cake

 

Since we planned a breakfast themed dinner for my daugther's Rainbow Sprinkles Birthday Party, we decided to not serve a regular cake.  Instead, I made this "cake" out of birthday cake pancakes.  It was a nice mix of pancakes and cake -- sweeter then regular pancakes, but not super sweet like cake.  The six girls ate about one half of the cake when it was first served.  As the night wore on, they kept coming downstairs and cutting off small bites of the cake.  By the end of the evening, it was completely gone. 

 

Here's the cake before the glaze was added:

 

These pancakes would also be fun served for a birthday breakfast.  Especially for birthdays, everything is a little better with sprinkles on top! 

 

Sprinkles Pancake Cake (recipe adapted from How Sweet It Is)
Makes about 24 regular pancakes or one three-layer pancake cake

3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/3 cup yellow cake mix
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 - 4 cups milk
assorted sprinkles
Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
assorted sprinkles


For pancakes:  Add dry ingredients -- flour, cake mix, sugar, baking powder, and salt -- to a large bowl, whisking to combine.  Add about 2 cups of milk, egg and vanilla extract  to bowl.  Stir until smooth. Add more milk in 1/4 cup increments if the batter appears to be too thick.  You will want the batter to be the consistency of pancake batter. 

Preheat a large skillet to medium heat.  Stir in sprinkles.  At this point if you are just making pancakes, you can pour desired amount onto skillet and cook on one side until bubbles begin to form.  Flip and cook on the other side for about one minute. 

For pancake cake:  This cake has three layers of four pancakes per layer.  Start with the bottom layer of pancakes.  Pour enough pancake batter into skillet to cover the majority of pan, making about an 8" round pancake.  Cook until bubbles begin to form, carefully flip, and cook on the other side for about one minute.  Repeat for three more pancakes.  Repeat for the next two layers of four pancakes, making each layer a little smaller. 

For a cleaner edge, you can trim off the edges of the pancakes, using small plates as a guide. Gather three small plates, varying in diameter.  Lay plate on top of pancake.  Using a knife, trim excess pancake around the edge of the plate.  Stack pancakes from largest to smallest. 

For glaze:  Whisk together milk, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar until glaze forms. If glaze is too thick, add slightly more milk until you have the consistency you desire.  Stir sprinkles into glaze and drizzle over pancake cake.  Add more sprinkles on top, if desired.