Carrot Cake Pancakes.

Yep. That’s right. Carrot. Cake. Pancakes. So good I made them twice in one week. 

Weeeeell you could say that I suppose, ooor you could say that while they are very lovely, it was actually me being a bit of a dimwit, making my first major camera based booboo in the form of taking  a whole set of photies of them sans memory card and not noticing until they were all tucked up tight in the freezer, that caused the excessive devotion to these spiced flatties. *Slow clap for me*. 

But I’m going to see it as a blessing in disguise because your experience of these pancakes will be greatly improved by my assessments of the first batch and the subsequent alterations I made to the recipe. Yippeeee for silver linings.

You therefore have a lighter, tastier and all round more interesting breakfast at the tip of your fingers. AND they have fruit and vegetables and wholemeal flour and you could even add nuts if you wanted to go all the way to Health Food Heaven. Cake...unhealthy? Not here. With Love and Cake.

Carrot Cake Pancakes.

Inspired by Joy the Baker

A few notes:

• These need spice, so don't skimp on that part of the recipe.
• You don't have to use wholemeal flour if you don't fancy it or simply don't have any; just replace the quantity with extra self-raising.
• Feel free to omit the sultanas or go crazy and accompany them with a handful of chopped nuts.
• These are a bit more high maintenance to cook because of the added extras that stick a bit to the pan so just be patient, don't stress, use a good heavy based pan if that's poss, otherwise greasegreasegrease with butter or oil. 

Makes 10-15

You will need

good heavy based frying pan or flat griddle, greased

For the pancakes

150g self-raising flour

75g wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

50g sultanas

300ml milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 medium carrots, grated finely...and it MUST be finely

For the topping

3 tbsp mascarpone

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

• Combine the two types of flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and sultanas in a large bowl.
• In another bowl or measuring jug whisk the egg and vanilla into the milk.
• Whisk the liquid into the dry mixture so everything is well combined and you have a thick batter.
• Stir in the carrots until evenly distributed throughout the mix.
• Heat your pan over a medium heat and cook tablespoonfuls of batter in it until you can can see that the bottom half is cooked. You get fewer bubbles than you would with normal fluffy pancakes that you would rely on to tell you when to flip, so you have to pay attention to the edges to see how much the pancake had cooked.
• Loosen and flip each pancake; it helps to clean your fish slice between each batch.
• Cook until the second side is cooked and then flip a couple more times if you think they could do with a bit more heat.
• Keep warm in a low oven if you're not eating immediately.
• To make the topping, which you'll probably be able to do while the pancakes are on the go, simple whisk the mascarpone, icing sugar, vanilla and milk to a smooth paste.
• Serve the warm pancakes with a good dollop of the sweet cream cheese and an extra sprinkling of cinnamon.