I’m fairly convinced that the world would be a better place if more sprinkles were involved.
I know. I just made pancakes. It seems I have an unnatural obsession with cake batter. Well I do.
But hear me out.
When I develop recipes, I try to make all of them for a purpose. We really hate to waste food in this house. Crab cakes for dinner, cake for a birthday party, quinoa as a side dish… it all works out. I get to share it with you and we get to eat it.
Then sometimes, I get ideas in my head. Ideas that get me so worked up that I must attempt the recipe and give it a shot as soon as possible, even if it isn’t something we will eat every day. Otherwise, I cannot stop thinking about it. These are the things that keep me up at night.
Case in point: it isn’t anyone’s birthday. It’s not even really close to anyone’s birthday.
But I don’t need an excuse to eat cake and sprinkles. I believe it should be a daily occurrence.
And because pancakes always need some sort of topping, I went with a sprinkled glaze.
Because nothing goes better with cake than more sugar!
These are just plain fun.
Sure, they would be best for a special occasion like a birthday, but they also work on a random Saturday in January when it’s -2 degrees outside and all you want to see is some sunshine.
And you don’t feel like getting on the treadmill, so you decided to eat cake instead.
That wasn’t me. I swear.
And yes, this means you will have an open box of cake mix, just like you did with the cake batter bark. This is okay. You will manage. Sure, you may find yourself mixing cake mix with odd ingredients, but so what? Mother Lovett always had an open box of cake mix in her pantry. Given hers were usually about 4 years old… but still.
Just do it.
makes about 12 pancakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup yellow cake mix
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 cups milk (I used vanilla almond milk)
assorted sprinkles
Combine flour, cake mix, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl and mix. Add 1 cup of milk, egg and vanilla extract and stir until smooth. You want the batter to look like regular pancake batter; not too thin, not too thick. This will vary greatly on the brand of cake mix you use. Start with 1 cup of milk and add more if needed. I suggest a small taste test as well to see if the pancakes are flavored enough.
Preheat a skillet on medium heat (I use an electric grilled and turn it to 250 degrees). Fold desired amount of sprinkles into batter. Pour batter in 1/4 cup measurements onto skillet and let cook until bubbles form on top, about 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook for 1 minute more. Serve with vanilla glaze.
Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
assorted sprinkles
Mix milk, extract and powdered sugar until glaze forms. You may need to add a little more sugar or water/milk to reach desired consistency. Mix into glaze and drizzle on pancakes.

Maybe the secret to choking down broccoli is throwing sprinkles on top?
Wishful thinking…












I’m Jessica and this is where I share my stuff. You will find a balance of healthy recipes, comfort food and indulgent desserts.
Thanks so much! Glad my mind isn’t the only one that thinks like this. I was washing out a coffee creamer container and thought “You know it would be fun to put a pan cake mix in here and give it
to the niece and nephew for Christmas! Oh and even better if it could have sprinkles like a cake mix! I wonder how you would make pan cakes w/ cake mix? Better go look this up.” Thanks for sharing your talent.
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http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1759163097153&set=a.1430881570320.2060169.1181280453&type=3&theater
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Thanks for the recipe! I made Red Velvet Christmas Pancakes with Sprinkles!
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So much fun. I would have loved these on my birthday as a kid!
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The cookie part didn’t work out so well for me, but the treats were FANTASTIC!
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my son’s birthday is today (new years day) and we made these pancakes for breakfast! this maybe a new tradition for our family! YUMMY!
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thank you for this recipe! just in time for our January birthday…my little guy turns 6 tomorrow :) this will make his morning.
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These look amazing! I used your recipe to make Chocolate Chip Cake Batter Pancakes. Here is my blog post on it. I really appreciate all your wonderful recipes. You have a great blog! Thanks a lot! :)
http://windowsandbananas.blogspot.com/2012/01/chocolate-cake-batter-pancakes.html
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yummy – can’t wait to make these – I agree sprinkles make everything better. I tend to add it to yogurt for the kids. I posted about breakfast food and added your link today!
http://www.thatsmykindofparty.com/2012/01/tuesday-traditions_10.html
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This is fabulous! I’ve had this saved for over a year, but got a serious craving for some cake goodness tonight, so I made these wonderful pancakes. I was actually going to make your one bowl cupcakes for two, which I’ve made before, but then I came across this & thought it would be more fun – plus, I hadn’t tried it yet! I live along so even these are too much for me, but I’m going to try freezing them with wax paper in between each pancake & hopefully they’ll be just as great when I reheat them later!
I haven’t yet, but I’m sure I’ll blog about the experience here: http://theyarntotell.wordpress.com/ sometime tonight with a link to your page. Thanks for the fun fun recipes!
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How many calories? lol
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Meg — January 18th, 2012 @ 7:00 pm
If you make them without the glaze but follow the rest of the instructions and yield 12 pancakes, it’s 105 calories a pancake. Of course, with the glaze, this will be higher.
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Just made these. They’re good. Doubled the recipe (7 kids). Eyeballed the batter consistency while adding small amounts of additional milk . But I used 4 tbsp melted margarine as I thought it might taste too dry. Tastewise, there was DEFINITELY a box cake mix /scratch pancake mix battle going on, and I keep hoping the SPM would win for some reason. Went with syrup as I was too chicken to do glaze for breakfast. Will probably try this again just to see if it all comes together with the glaze. Good recipe! The thought just passed about trying it with muffin mix or even brownie mix.
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Sprinkles may look nice, but they are actually made from bugs. Most people don’t realize this, but it’s true! Confectioner’s glaze, which is what they are made of, is actually bugs! So you are putting bugs all over your food. Ewe.
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anickH — February 6th, 2012 @ 7:14 am
no theyre not made from bugs. i justs looked this up. total myth.they’re made of sugar, cornstarch, vegetable oil, and food coloring!! http://www.chacha.com/question/are-sprinkles-made-out-of-some-kind-of-bug
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brittney — May 1st, 2012 @ 12:11 am
red food coloring comes from a crushed up bug. look it up.
karen — May 4th, 2012 @ 11:36 am
if you knew how many products you use that come from bugs, algae, etc…you’d never buy anything again! if you can’t stand the thought, just pick out the red ones.
blondie — July 9th, 2012 @ 5:17 am
The natural red color does, yes….so what? If you don’t buy natural dye, your food coloring won’t be made of ground beetle shells. Synthetic dye is made of petroleum…is that better?
@JB if you’re worried your sprinkles are made of bugs (even though it’s a ridiculous notion….btw ALL processed foods have some amount of bugs in them….), then make your own! You can find a recipe online. Problem solved.
cathy — July 29th, 2012 @ 9:59 am
Thank you Blondie! Some people just love to try to rain on others parades, it’s especially annoying when they don’t know what they are talking about! :) If it were true, the bugs I just ate tasted awesome!
Anywho, thanks How Sweet It Is for the recipe! Loved it!
Mimi — May 5th, 2012 @ 3:54 pm
Your comment is ridiculous. The people who look at this recipe obviously love sprinkles, so go on a sprinkle hating website.
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Stargazer — October 4th, 2012 @ 7:52 am
Sprinkles aren’t made from bugs. Some products, such as strawberry yogurt, contain carmine, a COLOR which is extracted from the cochineal insect and is perfectly harmless. This dye is used in varying amounts to obtain reds, oranges, and pinks in some food.
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I didn’t have any sprinkles, but I did find a box of Funfetti cake mix in the pantry, so I used that! I wanted to make these right away and not wait for a trip to the store to buy sprinkles.
They were OH so good! DH ate them with regular syrup, and I went with the glaze!
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My family and myself loved the cinfitti pancakes! One morning I woke up promising to make pancakes but soon realized I didn’t have pancake mix. All I had to do was Google and there u were! Thank u know I can’t wait to try ur red velvet thumbprint cookies
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These look so yummy! But I def want to take the shortcut way since Im not really the “cooking” type…. buuuut do you think this would work with a pancake mix? Maybe combine the cake mix in with the pancake mix? Just a thought… I really hope so, so that me and my hubby can have some for breakfast this weekend!
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Yet Another Laura H. — January 21st, 2013 @ 2:30 am
Angela, I came here after a busted oven made my “dump cake” cravings moot, and it was the second recipe I found after one on the Betty Crocker website that used Bisquick, which I was out of. I confess, I like the look of this recipe much better… but if you’re nervous about it, maybe that’s the cake for you?
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I saw your pic for the pancakes on Pinterest and looked up the recipe. I’m so excited about trying this out for my son and daughter’s double birthday party tomorrow! I’m planning to use the “funfetti” cake mix so the sprinkles will be already in there. I’m also going to make them ahead of time tonight and just warm them up tomorrow for the party…reduce the pre-party stress :-). Thanks for the fun recipe!
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We just made these and my kids LOVE them! Thanks!
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can you make the batter and glaze the night before?
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Just made this with lemon mix in an adventurous moment. Holy cow. It’s a beautiful thing. Thank you!
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Do you think you could make this the night before (the “pancake part”) and add the glaze in the morning since it is mainly made from a cake mix? I am hosting a pancake and pajama birthday party for my twin girls and I would love to have their “birthday cake” look like a stack of pancakes but don’t want to hassel with making it the morning of their party.
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Jessica — February 24th, 2012 @ 4:41 pm
I really don’t think so – the thing is, it isn’t mainly made from a cake mix. There is only a some cake mix added to the flour. If you make them the night before, they will just taste like day-old, reheated pancakes in the morning. Not horrible, but not as good as fresh pancakes, you know? If you don’t mind them just being reheated, then yes you can definitely do that and make the glaze in the morning!
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We love all things cake batter too… but wanted to share with you our favorite pancake (of this week anyway…) marshmallow pancakes! Check them out here: http://thedealgirls.com/2012/02/national-pancake-day-ooey-gooey-pancakes/
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i just tried these with brownie mix…didn’t work! :( the recipe calls for two eggs, but in the instructions you say “egg” so I was a little confused, but I did two.
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Kayla — March 9th, 2012 @ 5:35 pm
also, it seems weird that this recipe would work at all seeing as there is no butter or oil. The brownie mix ones had no flavor so i whisked in a bunch of peanut butter and more sugar and that helped a little.
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I made them love them w/ white cake mix ,crushed up a little captain crunch berries just a little twist thought i would share.worked well.
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Thank you for this awesome idea. My lil girl’s bday is next week and we are low on food and I was almost at a loss as to what I should so in replacement for a bday cake. THIS I LOVE!!!! She will go crazy for it.
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I really love these pancakes – and cake batter! Thank you for sharing :)
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Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I have been trying to think of something fun to make my daughter on her 5th birthday this sunday and figured I’d do pancakes for dinner since it’s one of her favorite things to eat and well, pancakes for dinner are just plain fun. I can only imagine how excited she’ll be to have birthday cake pancakes!!! Such a great idea!
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I made these today for my daughter’s 5th birthday they were SO GOOD!!! I didn’t have everything for the glaze, but I did have left over homemade chocolate cream cheese/butter cream frosting… OMG!!!! The pancakes are delicious plain though. Note to self… wait until the pancakes are cooled down before you put candles in.. my candles melted inside the pancakes .. ooops!
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I wish I would have found this sooner for my daughters first birthday breakfast! Next year for sure! Cant wait to share them on http://www.domesticobsession.blogspot.com !
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Extra white or yellow cakemix can be sprinkled on sliced can peaches (including juice) placed in baking dish with butter drizzled over for a great dessert. Learned this one at a small town cafe I worked at. Have to experiment with size of can and how much mix though–because I was making the industial size cans of peaches into this. If I find the recipe (If I ever wrote it down) I will get back on here and let you all know!!! Best with dollop of canilla ice cream on while warm!!!!
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I tried making these today for practice and they turned out great. I made a little modification to the recipe and used a cake batter that came without sugar so I had to add sugar. I added about a 1/2 cup and that worked great for my recipe. My glaze didn’t come out so great though… I’ll keep trying. Thank you so much for this recipe, can’t wait to make it for my boyfriend. And to ADD SPRINKLES!! YAYA!!!
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Thank you for this recipe. I have a special little girl’s birthday this Sat and just told my husband that it was going to have to start with a bang, this fits. As to the broccoli and sprinkles, I’ve done it. I couldn’t get my little one to try it, so I added some sprinkles shaped like butterflies and flowers. It worked so well that now she asks for it almost nightly and it doesn’t matter if the sprinkles are there anymore. Gotta love the sprinkles!
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what brand of cake mix do you use? I made the cake mix rice crispies but they didn’t turn out very well.
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Used this idea this morning for my 20 year old daughter’s birthday-was a hit! She really loved having “cake” for breakfast. I used funetti cake mix instead of the yellow mix called for, and added extra vanilla to the mix and the glaze. Served everyone individually with candles in hers-wish now that I would have made 2 stacks of 8 pancakes each to make it more like a birthday cake for presentation. Sprinkles rule, no matter what age!
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I tried this with cookie mix and they were a complete fail. :( I thought that since I didn’t have any cake mix I could use cookie mix. . . . I should have known better, but worth a shot right?
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I am making this for my mom today…hope it comes out great! Ill let you know!
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made these this morning, subbed white cake mix for yellow because I didn’t have it on hand. Mine tasted great, but didn’t rise. What can I do differently next time? The kids loved. We also skipped the glaze and topped with whipped cream and a cherry!
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Fantastic recipe idea! Our daughter turns 9 next week and she loves her some pancakes! I’ll have to make these for her before school (UK has a loooong school year!) I’ll have to see what good cake mixes I can find and get some more sprinkles….I’m nearly out! She will be thrilled, I think!
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Love this recipe! I linked to you on my blog with my tweaks. :)
http://seeleyfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/birthday-cake-pancakes.html
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Have you tried making red velvet pancakes using Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix? I am going to try your recipe with red vevet instead of yellow & maybe a cream cheese glaze?
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I would like to make these this weekend for my husbands bday- I want to make them as waffles though- do you know what I should do to alter the recipe to do that?
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When I was little my mom would give me sprinkles to put on my chocolate cake for my birthday. I would always put on way to much and she would get mad. It was fun though. The sprinkles tasted really good too.
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Love it! You’re a creative smarty pants.
I blogged about you here: http://momcaster.com/2012/09/13/what-can-i-make-with-cake-mix-9-kinds-of-amazingness-thats-what/
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Being a cake fanatic, I was Telly excited about making these this morning! But mine came out really dense, not at all as fluffy as the ones in your pictures. Any tips?
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I made these in my baby cakes cake pop machine & they turned out amazing! Thanks
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SO GOOD. Thank you!
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This is such a fun recipe! I just made some, but I had to add some more cake mix because the cake batter flavor was kind of faint.
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Do you think I could use coconut flour instead of all-purpose flour?
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Well I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look out for a lot more of your respective interesting content. Ensure that you update this again soon..
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Hey. These look amazing. A random question but could you eat then cold. As at college we take it in turn to take breakfast to German class and so want yo take these. So would you be able to eat cold? ?
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