Gluten FreeMardi Gras King Cake Fruit & Honey Pancakes

These American-style festive Mardi Gras King Cake pancakes are a perfect start to Shrove Tuesday! 

Yield 8 to 12 pancakes

Mardi Gras King Cake Fruit & Honey Pancakes

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday, or as it is affectionately known to gourmands the world over, Pancake Day! These Mardi Gras Fruit & Honey Pancakes were inspired by the indulgent and ornately decorated King Cake, which is often eaten during Mardi Gras.

When I was approached by the Sainsbury's Live Well for Less team and asked to create pancakes in honor of tomorrow's festivities, there was no way I could refuse! Growing up in the American South, pancakes were important and usually appeared on the kitchen table most weekends as a stack of perfectly fluffy and still slightly doughy in the center pancakes slathered in melted butter and blanketed in syrup squeezed from the rotund tummy of a Mrs Butterworth's container. These pancakes are completely different.

They are the thick American-style ones. To me that means they are billowy clouds of breakfast bliss. To my husband that means they are stodgy and too thick. But we did agree that they were fun, festive and delicious! That's the most important bit!

A very big thank you to my fab friends at Sainsbury's who partnered with me on this post!

The colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and yellow, hence the coloring of these pancakes. I used paste colors because that's what I have the most of in my kitchen, but you could use traditional liquid food dye, too. Because the coloring is so chock full of E numbers and sugary, I thought using syrup could send us all into a diabetic coma. And we 're not even diabetic.

I lightened them up with just a drizzle of honey and finished them off with fresh, sweet blackberries. Since honey is so sweet, you won't need as much of it as if you were using syrup. Use less and add more blackberries if you're looking for enough sugar to form a cavity.

It's the most important meal of the day, find more great breakfast recipes here:

Ingredients:

For the Mardi Gras King Cake Fruit & Honey Pancakes
1 egg
1 cup gluten free self-raising flour
1 cup full fat milk
2 tbsp sunflower oil
butter
food grade paste colors in purple, green and yellow

**Notes**

• Use other fruits instead of or in addition to blackberries for a real burst of fruit flavor
• Be generous with the butter; it's what will keep the pancakes moist
• Swap honey for syrup or a basic milk and icing sugar glaze

Instructions:

 
Mardi Gras King Cake Fruit & Honey Pancakes

1. Pour the flour into a large spouted jug
2. Whisk egg, milk and oil in a separate bowl
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a wooden spoon to combine
4. Divide the batter evenly into three bowls
5. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl, making one yellow, one purple and one green
6. Stir each bowl well to incorporate the color and so that there are no streaks of uncolored batter
7. Heat a pancake pan on the stove with just a light coating of butter
8. Pour about 1/4 cup of one of the batters into the hot pan and cook until air bubbles begin to pop (Adjust the heat as necessary so that the pancake doesn't burn. I usually cook the first on on medium high and the remaining ones on medium low to medium.)
9. Gently flip the pancake over and cook the underneath for about 30 to 40 seconds until it moves freely when jiggled in the pan
10. Place the cooked pancake onto a plate and spread a thin layers of butter over the top. The pancake should be hot enough that the butter starts to melt into the pancake straightawa
11. Continue scooping out batter, cooking the pancakes and buttering each one, stacking them all up until all the batter has been used
12. Divide the pancakes evenly and drizzle with a bit of honey before topping with fresh fruit

Start your day off right with these great breakfast recipes:

 ActiFry Scrambled Eggs & Breakfast Skillet Potatoes

Individual Baked Brioche French Toast with Pecan Praline

Red Velvet Pancakes with Nutella Cream Cheese Sauce