How to Make Smiley Face Pancakes

Smiley face pancakes are very simple to make, but to kids you'll seem like a wizard in the kitchen. The toughest part of this activity is maintaining a steady hand when you first spoon the smiley face onto the griddle. Once you get the hang of the basic smiley face, you can make different expressions or add other parts of the face like a nose or eyebrows.

Things You'll Need

• Pancake mix
• Frying pan
• Whisk
• Spoon
• Non-stick cooking spray

Instructions

1. Heat your pan on a medium setting and spray it with a light coating of cooking spray.

2. Mix a batch of pancake mix with a whisk to get all the lumps out.

3. Using a spoon, carefully drop a little bit of batter in the pan in two places to make eyes. Right below that dribble a swath of batter to form a mouth. You should have a simple smiley face looking up at you from the griddle.

4. Let the "face" sit for about one minute and then spoon batter around and on top of the smiley face until it is completely covered.

5. Let the pancake sit until small bubbles appear in the batter, then flip the pancake. You should see a smiley face in the side that's facing up — it'll appear darker than the surrounding pancake. Let the pancake cook on the other side until it is done.

Tips & Warnings

• If it doesn't work, try it again but let the smiley face batter sit for a little longer before spooning in the rest of the batter.