Smiley-Face Pancakes -- Good Morning!

It's been a while since I've had kids living in the house, as for me, I haven't been a kid since the Nixon Administration.  Despite these two things, however, I still occasionally get a hankering to make some kid-friendly food.  Things that I know would have made my boys smile and enjoy their meal much more so because of the extra effort and creativity.

This morning while fixing pancakes I decided to get in touch with my inner child and play around a bit, the end result were these smiley pancakes.  Easy, delicious, and FUN, you alone will have a great time with these, but with kids it should be a real fiesta.  And really, admit it, don't you want to be known as the best mom (or grandma) on the block?  neighborhood?  world?!  Well, I can't guarantee that making these pancakes will do it, but it can't hurt.

Here's what I did.  I followed the directions on the Bisquick box to make a simple batch of pancakes.  From this mixture I removed 1/3 cup of batter, put it in a small bowl and added 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of Hershey's Dark Cocoa, stirring both in well to make a darker batter.

 I warmed up the Griddle (I use a Cuisinart Griddler - love it!) and, using a small spoon, dipped it into the dark batter and carefully dropped batter onto the hot surface to make eyes and a mouth.  Wrong!  Don't do this unless you want pancakes with a bit of a sneer.  

Okay, I put the spoon in the sink, and grabbed a small icing bottle, poured the dark batter into the icing bottle and found this worked much better.  (In my haste, however I grabbed the icing bottle from the Dollar Store and found the tip kept getting clogged, so next time I'm going to use the nicer one that I got from Kitchen Conservatory.  As I said, I was just playing around, you can benefit from my mistakes and be well prepared when you decide to make them.) I formed eyes and a mouth on the Griddler, let them cook for about 30 seconds and then used a 1/4 cup measure to pour a circle of batter on top of this.  I let them cook until bubbles rose to the surface and flipped them over.  Cute!  Even my husband got a laugh out of these.  

The dark batter really doesn't stand out in taste because of the small amount, but what I did taste was really good and I may just consider chocolate-cinnamon pancakes in the future.  I also tried things other than faces like polka dots, stripes, and plaid with only so-so results.  Imagine, though, making Jack-O-Lantern faces on pumpkin pancakes!  The variations are endless and you are only limited by your, or your child's imagination.

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