Pancake Day: Meal Kits & Cookbooks For The Best Day Of The Year image

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Pancake Day: Meal Kits & Cookbooks For The Best Day Of The Year

Staff Writer, Heidi Lauth Beasley’s personal guide to doing your lockdown Pancake Day right.

Pancake Day is the best day of the year. I will repeat that in case you didn’t fully digest it: Pancake Day is the best day of the year. It has the celebratory feel of birthdays without the pressure, the romance of Valentine’s without all the cringe-fest cards, the sweet, jolly nature of Christmas without having to panic buy eighteen people novelty socks. You can be single, loved up, broke, flying through a bonus, have the cooking aptitude of a blindfolded toddler and still get involved. And importantly, it encourages you to eat stacks upon stacks of tasty things, covered in yet more tasty things. Fat Tuesday, I adore you.

Now, if you don’t completely stan Pancake Day, it’s because you’re doing it wrong. Sorry, but it’s better to know now. That’s where this guide comes in, because to truly reap the rewards of this most sacred of holidays, you need to abandon those microwavable scotch pancakes and extend your variety of toppings far beyond sliced banana. Open your mind, open your heart, open your mouth and eat a rotation of bacon, maple syrup, peking duck, and green tea mascarpone dorayaki for 24 blissful hours. Onwards, for the lockdown Pancake Day you deserve.

A Meal Kit by Where the Pancakes Are

This little pancake fanatic will be kicking off - screams internally - Pancake Day 2021 with a meal kit from my favourite pancake place, Where The Pancakes Are. Now, I grew up in what I would lovingly term a Wholemeal House. Breakfast was all about watered-down oatmeal and the majority of the sugar in my diet came from sneaking those little Vitamin Friend ‘health gummies’ until my tongue was permanently stained a fantastic orange. That is why the words 100% Pure Canadian Maple syrup gives me actual goosebumps. Not only do you get their top syrup with their Pancake Day meal kit, you get bacon, blueberries, their signature buttermilk batter, and everything else you need to start the day right.

Soul Ride's Pancake Day Box

Sorrel and hibiscus prosecco punch at 9am you say? Go for it, it’s Pancake Day, all bets are off. Plus, it is a special occasion. This cocktail comes as part of the brunch box by Soul Ride, a new Caribbean-inspired delivery operation from the Riding House Café. If you happen to live near Fitzrovia, they’re doing a marshmallow, white chocolate, and coconut clotted cream pancake box that’s available for collection on the big day itself. But if you live further afield - Ealing, Manchester, your parent’s place in a town that definitely sounds like a made-up surname from Bridgerton - they’ve also got you covered with their nationwide classic brunch box. Think buttermilk pancake batter, triple-smoked streaky bacon, banana maple, and even a smoked Cajun pepper stew with avocado in case you’re trying to avoid the old Pancake Day mid-morning sugar crash. We’ve all been there, right... right?

Pancake Day: Meal Kits & Cookbooks For The Best Day Of The Year image

A Confit Duck Pancake DIY Kit

“Duck pancakes… on Pancake Day? Hang on, but like with hoisin? That’s…” I think the word you’re looking for is ‘genius’. My Neighbours The Dumplings are doing a confit duck pancake kit that comes with everything from charred scallion oil to pickled daikon to plum sauce. They’re a super easy way to get your Fat Tuesday dinnertime savoury fix. Simply heat everything up, shred the duck, and get building your pancakes. Also, if you’re into fun envy-inducing social media exploits, post a picture of your duck pancakes and watch as the barrage of ‘WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THIS’ messages come rolling in.

Pancake Day: Meal Kits & Cookbooks For The Best Day Of The Year image

Dorayaki From Ichiba Japan Centre

I will never, ever, judge you for your choice of pancake toppings. Homemade baked bean, mature cheddar, and hot Doritos pancake? Been there, done that, got a huge tomato sauce stain on my t-shirt. But let’s be honest, there’s only so many lemon and sugar pancakes you can eat in one day without becoming bored. Enter Ichiba Japan Centre’shuge selection of dorayaki - a small but thick honey pancake with a layer of sweet filling hiding inside. With prices starting at just under £1.50, they have flavours like lemon custard, red bean and walnut, green tea mascarpone, and of course, chocolate. All of which are available for delivery across London and nationwide.

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Or, if You Want to Do the Homemade Thing in Style...

Breakfast at the Wolseley by A.A. Gill

The Wolseley makes some of the best pancakes in London. That’s why we helpfully put them in our Definitive Guide To London’s Best Pancakes. Go figure. But when you’re looking to recreate their particularly iconic brand of breakfast sophistication at home, a little help might be needed. In this book, beloved writer and food critic, the late A.A. Gill, celebrates everything about a morning spent at The Wolseley. It’s also very pretty and includes all of their signature breakfasts. Yes, including the berry pancakes.

The Farm Girl Recipe E-Book

Farm Girl in Notting Hill is renowned for its brunch time queues, its bright pink lattes, and it’s ability to make you feel like you could maybe actually be really, really good at yoga after one bite of their acai bowls. They’re also renowned for their cherry pancakes with coconut shavings and maple syrup. At the moment you can download their E-Books that are packed full of signature recipes for a fiver each, which is a small price to pay to find out how they make that sour cherry compote taste so good.

A Granger & Co. Cookbook

Granger is one of those chilled out all-day spots that serves great coffee and consistently lovely things. Case in point, their ricotta ‘hotcakes’ that come with banana and a honeycomb butter that is so gloriously sweet it would send a shiver down the spine of dentists everywhere. Owner Bill Granger has written several cookbooks, including Australian Food that includes his hotcake recipe and is available on their website. You can also get a personalised message from Bill, might we suggest ‘Dear [insert name here], You are as loved as hotcakes and as sweet as my signature honeycomb butter. Merry Pancake Day 2021’.

Suggested Reading

A Definitive Guide To London’s Best Pancakes image

A Definitive Guide To London’s Best Pancakes

Sweet, savoury, or packed full of peking duck, these are London’s best pancakes.

Where The Pancakes Are image
7.8

Breakfast

Southwark

A casual all day restaurant in Southwark dedicated entirely to pancakes, this place should be one of your go-to brunch spots.

A corner of Bouchon Racine with three two-person tables, a chalkboard menu on the walk, and gold-framed pictures hanging on the wall.

The best London restaurants for when love is in the air.

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Company

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