If you’re like me in that you don’t have an artistic bone in your body but you also love the holidays, you know how challenging it can be to live up to your own festive expectations. One big expectation I have when it comes to the holidays is having the perfect Christmas pancake breakfast.
For whatever reason, I have always imagined that Christmas breakfast is supposed to be the best, most magical breakfast of the year. I’ve attempted to recreate so many fun Pinterest ideas for this meal but most of them turn into undocumented Pinterest fails.
If you want to make fun, festive pancakes like the stuff of your childhood dreams with no skills or special equipment required, listen up. I was able to create all these cool designs with minimal stress and effort.
I promise that if you can flip pancakes, you can have a successful Christmas pancake breakfast that makes it look like you’ve gone all out. All you need is your favorite pancake recipe on hand and you’ll be good to go.
Add a Few Decorative Ingredients
If you’ve got bacon, chocolate chips, strawberries, and whipped cream—all things you should be enjoying on a glorious Christmas morning anyway—you can make some pretty easy pancake designs.
Whipped cream makes a perfect Santa beard on a round pancake. Add some sliced strawberries as a hat and chocolate chips as the eyes and you’ve got yourself a spitting image of the jolly man. The key is to make the strawberries in as straight of a line as possible and to not over-do it on the whipped cream. You can always add more later.
If you’re feeling adventurous enough to make oval-shaped pancakes, these ingredients can also be used to make a little gingerbread man. Make four ovals to use as the arms and legs, and arrange around a large circular pancake with a smaller circle on top. Add lines where the cakes overlap with whipped cream.
Two different-sized pancakes can also make an adorable snowman. Bacon makes a tasty scarf and chocolate chips can make the eyes and buttons. You can use these same pancakes to make a cute little Rudolph, too. Pile the two on top of each other and put a strawberry on the smaller for the nose.
Add Some Color
Just adding green or red food dye makes pancakes a little more festive but honestly, it’s been done. And it’s boring. If you cut a green cake into four triangles, you can easily build a pancake tree. Add decorations with whatever you’ve got on hand, or just add a dot of whipped cream for a yummy star.
Put Your Cookie Cutters to Use
I love making Christmas cookies, but it kind of stinks that those cookie cutters don’t serve any other purpose in the kitchen. That is, until now. Cook your pancakes normally, and once they’re cooled, those cutters can be used to easily punch out festive Christmas shapes.
Using these tips and tricks, your Christmas pancake breakfast is sure to impress. No ketchup bottles, hours of labor, expensive molds, or honest artistic skill required.