If you need a birthday cake in a pinch that’s vibrant, scrumptious, and encourages guests to build their own “slice” with colorful toppings of their choice, then you’ll hit the jackpot with a birthday cake pancakes cake made from my favorite homemade pancake recipe!
My youngest turned one this month, and we celebrated with a playful birthday cake pancakes cake: fluffy diner-style pancakes exploding with bright, colorful jimmies and stacked high. The topmost pancake was “frosted” in cream cheese and speckled with even more sprinkles to suit the cheerful occasion. She and all the wee attendees were delighted!
Now, as a food blog author for almost 8 years, you might be wondering why I opted for a no-bake birthday cake for my one year-old’s birthday party.
This is why pancake birthday cakes are sensational!
- Less than 30 minutes prep.
- Tremendously easy. Anyone could do this!
- No frosting necessary.
- Guests cater to their own gustos by adding in-season fruit and available toppings.
- Most babies eat little to no sugar. Why have a cake the birthday girl can’t eat?
- Did I mention that this is lightning fast to get ready from start to finish?
- No baking required.
- Jet speed, I tell ya, jet speed!
- Colorful, pretty, sprinkles.
- Guaranteed to please.
This pancake cake was made from my very favorite pancakes recipe. I just tossed in a handful of colorful jimmies to make them birthdayriffic. Both kids and grownups scarfed them down after piling their own fluffy birthday pancake high with juicy ruby red strawberries, dark chocolate chips, seasonal jams, and more.
The birthday fiesta included a yogurt bar, so we made the yogurt toppings play double duty as pancake toppings too! Pretty much anything you’d put on an ice cream sundae is fair game, even the ice cream. P.S. If you opt for a yogurt bar, save yourself cash and make your own yogurt. I was sooo glad I did!
Pancake topping suggestions:
- sliced strawberries
- bananas
- chocolate chips
- whipped cream (spray)
- vanilla ice cream- here’s my favorite recipe
- honey
- hot fudge sauce
- lemon curd
- homemade caramel sauce
- apple butter
- jam
- marachino cherries
- sprinkles
- chopped nuts
So string up your favorite piñata and let’s make a pancake cake!
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 cups buttermilk
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled plus additional butter to grease the skillet
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup colored jimmies plus extra for topping the cake
- ⅓ cup cream cheese, softened
- 2 teaspoons powdered sugar, optional
- Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat.
- Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Whisk together buttermilk, butter, and eggs in a measuring cup.
- Pour liquids over the dry ingredients and stir just to combine. Add the jimmes and stir just a few strokes to combine. You don't want to overmix. A few lumps are just fine.
- Melt a pat of butter in the skillet and using a ⅓ cup measuring cup pour pancake batter onto the skillet. When bubbles appear throughout the pancake and the edge begins to turn golden, flip and cook a minute more until done.
- Place pancakes on a cooling rack and continue frying all the batter.
- Cool the pancakes completely before stacking on a pretty serving plate.
- Make the frosting by combining cream cheese with powdered sugar (or not) and smoothing it over the top of the top pancake.
- Toss on some sprinkles and enjoy all that time you just saved by making a pancake cake!
What did you serve at your child’s first birthday? Please share in the comments below!
Cheers,
I love it! I can’t think of a better birthday treat than pancakes! Heck, I might give us all an early birthday this weekend.
Now this looks like a lot of fun!
We are just heading into “Birthday season” in our house and my kids love pancakes.
What a great way to start an already special day!
Birthday season, yep, we’re just ending ours this coming weekend. My daughter is turning 5, so be on the lookout for her cake next week 🙂
This is such a fun idea! I really would love making birthday pancakes for my kids and hubby on their birthdays.
I love pancakes. Birthday pancakes? Yes please. These sound amazing and your girls are adorable! They sure looked like they loved those yummy pancakes.
This is a great idea! I love pancakes and agree with you that most 1 year olds don’t eat much sugar so why give it to them at 1? I love the idea of having a buffet where guest can help themselves to fresh fruit and treats!
This is neat. It’s like having dessert for breakfast and since we eat pancakes anytime, the kids would love this. – Yolonda
These birthday cake pancakes are indeed a great idea for a cake. It is awesome to have each person choose what to put on their single serve pancake. Thanks for the easy quick birthday cake pancakes and for sharing the recipe.
These look great. My girls love pancakes. I like the idea of birthday cake ones. I’ll have to make some!
Pancakes would make a great birthday cake. I will have to give this a try for our next birthday. It looks delicious.
My toddlers would love this. What a fun breakfast for the birthday boy or girl!
I haven’t tried making a birthday pancake. I am so sure that my son will going to like it, as I can see on your daughter’s smile!
What a scrumptious start to a birthday!
I love the idea of pancakes for breakfast any day!
Our kids never get tired of pancackes, we could totally pull this off.
This is an interesting spin on a birthday cake! My oldest had a doughnut cake this year! lol
My daughter loves pancakes! Her birthday just finished but I am so doing this next year. I think it is going to be a new tradition for us. 🙂 Thanks a lot for sharing it.
Brilliant!!! I love the idea of having pancakes for birthday!!! The kids love pancakes!!!
Thank you so much for sharing!!!
You bet! My kids always opt for pancakes on the weekends, so they were smitten to find a pancake cake for a birthday too. Hope you enjoy it Jake.