Santa Pancakes are an easy way to bring holiday cheer to your breakfast. Using fresh fruit and whipped cream, transform ordinary pancakes into a festive Santa Claus with just a few simple steps.
Whether serving on Christmas morning or just as a festive way to kick off the day, you will be sure to delight both the big and small kids by making these Santa Pancakes.
One of my all-time favorite things to do as a mom is to make holidays a bit more special by creating themed foods.
And when it comes to Christmas, I have endless simple ideas to dress up food to make it festive. From Candy Cane Pizzas to Reindeer Cookies to these Santa Pancakes, these easy ideas make meals a bit more fun--yet couldn't be easier to make. Because just like you, I am busy and the holidays are crazy enough!
Santa Pancakes are one of my kids' favorite holiday breakfasts. And I love that these Santa's are created using mostly fresh fruit--which helps balance out the copious amounts of Christmas Cookies we eat during the month of December.
Ingredients Needed
- Pancakes: You can use any pancake batter you like to create Santa Pancakes. Today I am sharing with you my simple Whole Wheat Pancake recipe, but you can use my recipe for Vegan Pancakes or Gluten-Free Oat Pancakes if desired. Of course, you can also use pancake mix to keep this recipe super fast and simple.
- Strawberries: Use strawberries to create Santa's hat and nose.
- Bananas: Banana Slices are used to form Santa's beard.
- Whipped Cream: Use whipped cream to add details to Santa's hat and for his mustache. For simplicity, I use aerosol whipped cream, but of course, you can take the time to use my recipe for stabilized homemade whipped cream.
- Chocolate Chips: For Santa's eyes, chocolate chips are a perfect choice.
How to Turn Pancakes into Santa Claus
- Prepare the pancake batter by whisking together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, and canola oil or melted butter. Combine the wet and dry ingredients together until just combined.
- Heat a large nonstick griddle or frying pan over medium heat. Grease with butter or nonstick spray.
- Place a pancake in the center of the plate. Add strawberry halves to form a triangle above the pancake, for Santa's hat.
- Ladle pancake batter onto the heated pan and cook until bubbles form on the surface of the batter. Flip and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes or until set and then remove from the pan.
- Add a strawberry slice in the center of the pancake for Santa's nose.
- Add chocolate chips above the strawberry slice to create Santa's eyes.
- Add sliced bananas in an upside-down triangle shape below the pancake to form Santa's beard.
- Use whipped cream to add embellishments to Santa's hat and to give Santa a mustache.
- Serve up Santa and deliver some smiles!
More Christmas-Themed Recipes
If you enjoyed this adorable, yet simple, recipe for Santa Pancakes, I would love for you to share a comment and review below.
Santa Pancakes
Ingredients
For Homemade Pancakes
- 2 cups flour whole wheat or all-purpose
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons melted butter or canola oil
- butter for greasing the pan
To Create Santa
- 1 pint strawberries
- 3-4 bananas
- 32 chocolate chips
- whipped cream
Instructions
For the Pancakes
- In a large bowl, sift together the baking powder, flour, and salt. Lightly whisk together until everything is evenly incorporated.
- In a separate small bowl, mix together eggs, melted butter, and buttermilk together until well combined.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together until just incorporated.
- Preheat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium heat and grease well. Once heated, ladle ¼ cup pancake batter onto the skillet. Cook until bubbles form and the edges are dry. Flip pancakes and cook 1-2 minutes before removing them from the skillet.
For Santa Pancakes
- Place one or two pancakes in the center of a plate to form Santa's head.
- Slice strawberries, reserving 2-3 whole strawberries, in half, and then arrange them in a triangle shape at the top of the pancakes for Santa's hat.
- Slice the remaining strawberries in slices and add one strawberry slice in the center of the pancake for Santa's nose. Add 2 chocolate chips above the nose to give Santa eyes.
- Slice up the bananas and arrange the slices at the bottom of the pancake in an upsidedown triangle to represent Santa's beard.
- Outline the strawberry hat with whipped cream to replicate the white tassel and white trim on Santa's hat.
- Serve immediately.
Melissa
My family just loved these, thanks for a great recipe!
Kristen Chidsey
You are very welcome Melissa! Thanks for taking the time to leave a review.
Kara
My kids loved this, especially adding the whipped cream to the hat and mustache! On some of the plates he definitely looked like he needed a trim. haha 🙂
Kristen Chidsey
LOL! Love it! So happy to hear you all enjoyed Kara!
Betsy
Love this! Definitely a perfect Christmas morning breakfast! My kids LOVE this! So awesome!