King Cake Pancakes for Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday
These shortcut banana pancakes are slathered in a simple icing and sprinkled with gold, green and purple sanding sugars. These King Cake Pancakes will remind you of the famous King Cakes eaten on Fat Tuesday for Mardi Gras. You put icing and sprinkles on donuts don’t you? Why not on pancakes?
Servings: 4 servings
Calories: 2.25pancakes
Equipment
- skillet or griddle
Ingredients
- 2 cups buttermilk complete pancake mix (I used Krusteaz)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional) * (Or, 1 tablespoon cinnamon-sugar)
- 1 ¼ cups water
- 2 small ripe bananas mashed with a fork (about ¾ cup)
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons half-n-half, whole milk, or 2 % milk (or half whipping cream and half water)
- Purple, gold, and green sanding sugars
Instructions
- Preheat an electric griddle to 350 degrees or heat a large cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat.
- Combine pancake mix, (cinnamon, if using) water, and mashed bananas in a large bowl, stirring just until moistened.
- Melt butter in a very small bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds. Add the vegetable oil and stir well. Brush a little of this mixture in a circle on the griddle for each pancake.
- Pour about ¼ cup batter per pancake onto the greased circles in the skillet. I use a ¼ cup dry measuring cup.
- Cook 2 to 3 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked when lifted with a spatula. If the edges look brown before the tops are bubbly, your heat is too hot.
- Carefully turn pancakes over with a spatula that won’t scratch the nonstick surface; cook about 1 minute more or until bottoms are lightly browned.
- While pancakes cook, whisk together powdered sugar and milk. (Add additional milk if icing is not able to “drizzle” to your liking.
- Stack 2, 3, or 4 pancakes on a plate (depending on your appetite) and drizzle with icing. (2 pancakes is a typical serving)
- OPTIONAL: In keeping with the King Cake tradition, you can place a tiny plastic baby between the layers of pancakes for someone to find. Or, a whole almond or other nut can be used. Tradition has it that whoever finds the prize inside was pronounced King or Queen. More recently, the tradition is that person is responsible for bringing a King Cake next year.
- Sprinkle with purple, gold, and green sanding sugars-found with the sprinkles on the cake decorating aisle. Pancake syrup can also be used.
- This recipe makes 9 (4-inch) pancakes using a ¼-cup measuring cup to spoon out the batter.
Notes
Note: These pancakes are amazing any day of the year with any color sanding sugar! Unicorn Variation: Unicorn Pancakes Use blue, pink, and purple sanding sugars and place a pointed sugar cone on the stack of pancakes. Using Wilton or Betty Crocker’s black cake decorating icing, draw two black eye lashes on the cake.
Traditional King Cake has cinnamon in the cake, so it is an option to stir in ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon or 1 tablespoon cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Tip: Combining butter and vegetable oil to grease the skillet is an excellent mixture to fry pancakes because the butter adds flavor and the vegetable oil has a higher smoke point and won't burn the pancakes.
