This just in. We got a whole lot of snow this weekend on the East Coast, particularly in New York City and surrounding areas. (If you weren’t aware of this unexpected snowpocalypse, you must have been disconnected from the rest of the planet this weekend).
Pancakes and snow...yum.
Do you know what happens when a snowstorm blindsides you at the end of October, and you’re all snowed in with nowhere to go?
You throw on some tunes and play with pancake batter.
And then you end up with pretty and tasty Birthday Cake Pancakes.
Most normal people wouldn’t take a picture of these festive pancakes out in the middle of the snowstorm, but I’m not normal, and neither are you if you’re reading this. Besides, I wanted to celebrate the first snow of the season.
Unprecedented Snow Yields Unprecedented Pancakes
Yes, the snowstorm was much stronger than expected. Lots of trees got knocked down, the snow piled up, the power went down for many. MSNBC called it an “unprecedented” weekend snowstorm. It was apparently very bad.
But the pancakes were oh, so good.
And nothing made me happier than buzzing around the kitchen experimenting with my pancakes while watching the snow pile up outside the window.
The recipe was simple: I combined 2 cups pancake mix with 1 cup of yellow cake mix and mixed with water. Oh, and then I poured in about a half a can of sprinkles. You can never go wrong with ample sprinkles.
Hello Mrs. Jemima. I've missed you.
The rest is standard pancake procedure.
I mixed and poured more sprinkles.
The more sprinkles, the healthier.
I flipped.
Getting ready to flip er' over! Yes, I first poured on more sprinkles.
Then I piled them all onto a plate and congratulated myself for making such pretty pancakes.
Hello pretty birthday pancakes.
I always find making pancakes in the morning to be such a “gratifying” process. It’s extremely easy (although the flipping gets a little dicey), but when you see the finished product, you feel like you’ve accomplished something. You could lay on the couch all day with the satisfaction of knowing that at least you did something relatively productive in the morning.
Topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Even better.
And I suppose I could have laid on the couch all day. It was after all quite snow outside.
All of this...in October!
But, there was a little thing called Halloween to celebrate Saturday night, so the couch would have to wait.
Cupcakes and Cheeseburgers for Halloween
I had the brilliant idea of being this for Halloween:
The perfect costume for a cupcake lover.
The Birthday Carebear – this meant I could carry around cupcakes all night and wear a cupcake on my shirt. Seemed pretty smart and extremely fitting, considering my love for cupcakes.
Here’s what I ended up pulling together. Didn’t exactly look quite like the Care Bear, but at least it looked like some sort of costume.
Cupcakes and cheeseburgers - we are such a Sometimes Healthy Family.
That’s me standing the my brother’s fiance. She and my brother dressed up as Hamburglers. They brought cheeseburgers. I brought cupcakes. We are certainly a popular family – we bring treats wherever we go.
Flippin’ the Flapjacks
You know what the cool thing is about snowstorms?
When the weather is perfect the next day, you get to walk around and pretend you’re in a Winter Wonderland.
From snowstorms to a beautiful fall day.
So, that’s what we did. It’s more fun playing in the snow with dogs :-).
As Sunday night rolled around, I realized in the excitement of Halloween festivities, I nearly forgot about Cupcake Monday. But I couldn’t not bake anything, especially since it was Halloween! So I simple flipped around the recipe for Birthday Cake Pancakes and threw in some chocolate chips.
It is neither a pancake nor a cupcake - it is a Pancake Cupcake
2 Step Chocolate Chip Pancake Cupcakes
Sometimes you want cupcakes for breakfast. And sometimes you want pancakes for a snack or dinner. So, you might as well combine them and eat them whenever you want. These festive cupcakes are fluffy, dense, delicious and perfect for any occasion.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes.
Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes or 18 cupcakes):
- 1 cup yellow cake mix
- 2 cups pancake batter
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 cup syrup (to bring out the pancake flavor)
- Fun mix-ins (like sprinkles and chocolate chips)
Instructions:
- Pour cake mix and pancake mix into large mixing bowl and mix with 2 cups water until lumps are gone. Batter will be a bit liquidy. Mix in 1/4 cup syrup and whatever toppings your heart desires
- Bake at 350 degrees until for comes out clean. About 25-30 minutes.
Once again, the the baking process was pretty straightforward. I don’t do overcomplicated recipes, as you know.
I poured. I mixed.
Good enough to eat...straight.out.of.the.bowl.
I dumped on a bunch of sprinkles.
More sprinkles please!
I then dumped on a bunch of chocolate chips.
Oh yeah...these are gonna be good.
I drizzled in some syrup.
Kicks it up a notch.
I baked.
Oops. I spilled. I spilled a lot. But, at least I cleaned!
Check out these adorable little Pancake Cupcakes.
Stepping Up to the Plate for Halloween
All of this walking in the snow/cold weather cause me to feel a bit sick on Monday, so I decided I wanted to drink hot chocolate all day inside our office, which we call the “Arctic Circle.”
It was then I decided to create a hot chocolate/cupcake toppings bar.
A Chocolate Chip Pancake Cupcake Hot Chocolate Toppings Bar
The customers were very happy.
Happy customers.
I even included some candy corn and pumpkin marshmallows to get in the Halloween spirit.
Getting in the Halloween spirit!
There was some pretty interesting topping combinations.
Lindsay got creative with her cupcake creation (It was Lindsay’s last day at the office, and I was VERY sad to see her go. Lindsay, hope you liked the cupcakes for your last day! Good luck in the marathon this Sunday :-))
I'm going to miss you 🙁
Anjelica was game for some fun creations per usual, and added a little PB&CO Dark Chocolate Dreams to her cupcake.
Another happy customer.
Then there was the whipped cream/chocolate syrup topper. That looked pretty delicious.
If that doesn't look good, I don't know what lookin' good is...
But, my personal favorite was the syrup filling.
Fill er' up!
Brilliant idea.
Nothing goes better with Chocolate Chip Pancake Cupcakes than syrup…except maybe hot chocolate.
Now that's what I call a solid snack!
And on that very sweet note, I’m going to call it a night!
SWEET Dreams!
Question:
What’s your favorite type of pancake? Favorite pancake topping?
Sprinkles in pancakes. Pancakes as cupcakes. LOVE! I need to start baking things, clearly! I am fond of pumpkin pancakes & chocolate chip pancakes. And most certainly, the two combined!
Such fun baking went on! I’m so glad that all that snow hit the East Coast and not me out in WI! Snow makes me so…grumpy.
Pancakes… I like all pancakes. Pumpkin chocolate chip may have to take the win!
There are so many delicious combinations going on in this post that I don’t even know what I’m craving! Yum!!
I’m not a huge fan of pancakes, but when I do have them, they MUST have chocolate chips in them!
AHh I am loving your baking shenanigans! Chocolate Chips pancake cupcakes…dear lord do those sound tasty!! I really do love me some blueberry or banana pancakes. Pumpkin has been a new addition this year that has been rather great as well 🙂
Both of those recipes look amazing! But I can’t decide which sounds better…pancake cupcakes or cupcake pancakes…
heck yes! I love your “sometimes healthy” recipes. Miss you Jamie. I’ll see you soon, I WILL!
omg! so yummy. great pics 🙂
can you please get a job in my office?!?!?!?!
I am loving the cupcakes and pancakes. On a side note……I made your pumpkin beer cupcakes last week for a “secret santa” thing (I know it’s Halloween, it’s a long story). And they went over very well for the person I gave them too……so thanks!!!!
Your blog posts are so much fun to read 🙂 I have never made anything from semi-scratch with box and mixins. (I’m usually a all box girl, but now leaning towards scratch). This sounds like a perfect and fail proof intro. I’m obsessed with sprinkles so this will probably happen sooner rather than later. Have you tried any brownie mix mix-ups?
That’s such a cool idea to make a cupcake toppings buffet. Honestly, I like my breakfasts savory not sweet, so I don’t really do pancakes much. But when I do I like just the classic pancake with some maple syrup with a side of bacon also covered in syrup.
Wooo, thanks for the tasty treats on my last day. I will miss cupcake mondays but most of all, I’ll miss you! You are so sweet and always brightened my days. Let’s catch up post-race and I’ll fill you in on everything and recap the race. I’ll think of you during it! Miss you! 🙂