You all know that I am a year round fan of skulls…. but I must admit that bats come a close second. So, naturally, when I wake up on a Saturday morning and decide to make breakfast… what better choice than Black Bat Pancakes with a Bloody Raspberry Sauce.
Truth is…. I found this set of Williams Sonoma Halloween Pancake Molds in one of my local thrift shops a couple of months ago…. brand new with tags still attached! Considering what time of the year it was, this was quite an exciting find!
While I am not sure what year WS released this particular set of molds, it does appear that they carry at least one set of Halloween themed pancake molds every year. Stores are already in full swing with their Halloween merchandise, so keep your eyes peeled for something similar this Halloween. And if you don’t want to wait, there are a ton of these molds available on eBay… just type Bat Pancake Mold.
If you’ve read any of my cooking adventures in the past, you know that I have a thing for kitchen gadgets. I have A LOT of skull ones. While you haven’t seen them all yet, you may have caught the Shortbread made with a Skull Rolling Pin, Sugar Cookies made with a Skull Cookie Cutter and Stamp, Spinach Feta Skull Pockets made with a Skull Cakelet Pan, even Raspberry Filled Chocolate Skulls made with a Skull Ice Cube Tray. I LOVE GADGETS. You can imagine how excited I was to switch it up a bit and own a Bat gadget!!
I have a terrible habit of buying little gadgets like these, stashing them away, and completely forgetting I own them. So, last week, amidst a much needed break from DIY projects (I think I’m still beat up from that Edgar Allan Poe Jenga!!) I woke up one morning & decided it was time to release the bats… and enjoy a spooky breakfast with my new kitchen tool.
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I wanted my pancakes to be black… Shock! I know!… but these are bats. Bats should be black. If I was using the Jack O Lantern mold I would’ve made the pancakes orange. Duh. 🙂 Before diving into a full batch of pancakes, I did some testing to ensure I got the color right… using a variation of cocoa, activated charcoal, and gel food coloring. Here are my findings….
Cocoa – Adding ANY amount of cocoa, even in combination with the charcoal and food coloring, will give the pancakes a dark brown tint. Granted, you’ll have a chocolate flavor to your cakes, which is nice, but they will not be pure black. They just look like chocolate bats. I guess you could go nuts with black food coloring to kill the brown color, but I wouldn’t recommend that.
Activated Charcoal
Gel Food Coloring – Gel is always my go to when it comes to food coloring. I just find that the color is so much more concentrated, and I can use much less than the liquid. I will warn you… this stuff can dye everything in sight…. including your fingers and mouth, so taste test with caution! I found that this was the clear winner for the blackest of pancakes, but specifically when I used the gel without the other ingredients. You don’t need much, just a few squirts. A little goes a long way.
I just chose to use the good ole bisquick pancake mix. I’m still partial because it’s the pancakes I grew up with, but if you have a favorite pancake mix… just add the black gel to it. Here’s what I used for mine:
- 2 cups Bisquick
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- Black gel food coloring
1. Spray your mold with baking spray, and set down onto a hot pan or griddle.
2. I HIGHLY recommend using a Pancake Batter Pourer
3. Allow the pancake to cook in the mold for several minutes. Once the batter has set, you can remove the mold, and pour another.
It only makes sense to top the bats with a bloody Raspberry Sauce.
While you cook the bats, combine 1 cup of fresh or frozen raspberries, 1/4 cup of water, and 1/2 cup of sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat for about 5 minutes, continue stirring, and then remove from heat and allow to thicken a bit.
Pour the sauce over a stack of bats and breakfast is served.
Side note: Talk about a proud goth mom moment….. my little baby bat enjoyed her little black bat cakes while watching Hotel Transylvania. She was thrilled! And has asked for more bat cakes every morning since. She seems to have developed her mom’s affinity for bats!
On another side note…. I have to give a shout out to my crafty sister blogger across the pond in the UK…. The Witch at One and Seventy. I don’t know how we do it, but we CONSTANTLY find ourselves working on similar projects at the exact same time despite never sharing our upcoming ideas. It’s become quite the phenomena! And you guessed it, this week we both took a break from the craft projects, and had a little fun in the kitchen with bat molds. Check out her Pumpkin Toast with Bat Shaped butter for another fun way to add bats to your menu! And be sure to check out the rest of her site…. She’s amazingly talented and creative! The Halloween Tab is of course my favorite!!
Ah, my love. Thank you for the fab shout out. I have no idea how we keep doing this sort of thing… it’s witchcraft I tell ya! Have to say I am LOVING the black bat pancakes and bloody raspberry sauce. I’ve never worked with activated charcoal or gel food colouring, but I did buy some of the regular food colouring to try. Do you think that would work? Sx
Hi Sue – the regular food coloring will work, but I find it takes a lot more of it to get to pure black, where as the gel is much more concentrated in fewer drops! BTW… I’ve used the activated charcoal successfully with butter…. I may have to try that with your bat butter idea!!