Cake for Breakfast! Carrot Cake Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze!
I often do cooking demonstrations/lessons at libraries throughout Westchester County in NY. Sometimes they are for an audience of young tweens/teens, which adds a challenge to creating the program. Besides doing 2 dishes (therefore needing them to be pretty quick to prepare), and needing to be presented much like they do in short tv cooking segments, due to there being no actual kitchens to use (what I call presenting “through the magic of television” – in various stages of the recipes), they have to have “action” or actual engagement or they are not interested.
This week I presented at the Tuckahoe Library, in Tuckahoe, NY. It’s literally 3 blocks from my house so it’s very convenient. Haha! Through the library, the kids grew a summer garden so my challenge was to present recipes using their bounty. Among many other items, they grew tomatoes and carrots. Using the tomatoes was easy – I demonstrated the SIMPLEST dish, Fresh Tomato & Mozzarella Pasta. But what to do with the carrots…
My first thought was carrot cake. But that would be way too much “magic of television” to keep them inspired… when it hit me – carrot cake pancakes! I’d never thought about it before but fusing my basic pancake recipe and my carrot cake recipe has produced the most SPLENDID brunch excitement! I immediately knew it would be an instant hit with the kids and with you!
Tuesday’s demonstration went off perfectly – the kids loved ’em. By the time I got home, I knew I didn’t have the energy to start filming so I thought I’d begin in the morning. This gave me joy because it meant I was going to have a decadent breakfast!
When I woke up around 7:00a, I immediately got to filming even before coffee! What a waste to enjoy coffee alone when pancakes would soon follow. In no time, I was ready to film the intro and outro (yes, I do them at the same time) but that meant getting out of my pj’s, putting on makeup, and doing my hair. I was NOT going to sacrifice a hot delish pancake for vanity! So what you see is uncombed hair and an undone me! Truly an early morning, wake up and make breakfast video!
And boy, was it worth it. This is the perfect marriage of pancakes and carrot cake. It is going to start a whole new series of baked cakes in pancake form! Great flavor, not overly sweet, moist, and light. They only needed one more element to be true perfection – what’s carrot cake without cream cheese frosting? Maple syrup goes with pancakes so I made a simple glaze to get the full carrot cake flavor!
I can’t implore you enough to try this recipe…. it’s truly a griddle cake. A cake… made on top of the stove… in just a few minutes… YEAH!
Annette
Carrot Cake Pancakes with Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
Ingredients
Pancakes
- • 1 cup flour
- • 2 tsp baking powder
- • 1/2 tsp salt
- • 1 tbsp brown sugar
- • 2 tsp sugar
- • 1 tsp cinnamon
- • 1 large egg
- • 1 cup milk
- • 4 tbsp butter melted
- • 1 cup carrot shredded
- • 1-2 tbsp raisins
- • 1-2 tbsp walnuts
Maple-Cream Cheese Glaze
- • 8 oz softened cream cheese
- • 4 tbsp butter room temperature
- • 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Mix cream cheese, butter, and syrup until smooth. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, and sugar. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well blended.
- Heat and butter griddle then add small amounts of batter in the pancake size you desire. When edges start to come away and pinhole bubbles form, turn the pancake. In about a minute, take off the griddle and plate. Add a dollop of glaze and serve.
