I Tried the Mini Pancake Cereal That's Taking Over the Internet—Here's My Advice Before You Do, Too

The pandemic has unquestionably caused some very peculiar cooking trends. There has been plenty of good—pour-over coffee, homemade sourdough, banana bread, finding ways to waste less food, a resurgence of ramen noodles—alongside some more controversial culinary crazes, like Dalgona Coffee. (Don't knock it until you've tried it.)

The latest cooking trend brought to us by The Youths on TikTok is equally beguiling. Meet mini pancake cereal. It's exactly what it sounds like: a bowl of baby flapjacks covered in syrup and/or milk that you eat with a spoon. They're likely occupying a significant amount of real estate on your Instagram feed right now. So! Teeny! Tiny!!! Those precious lil' pancake pics might even have you wondering whether you should try making them yourself. It happened to me; I was personally victimized by cute carbs I saw on social media. Here's what followed.

How to Make Mini Pancake Cereal

As promised, the method is incredibly easy. Simply mix your favorite pancake batter—from-scratch tastes best but using a boxed mix works equally well—as you would if you were making a standard-sized stack. Next, rather than scooping in right onto a preheated pan, transfer your pancake batter to a squeeze bottle. (If you don't have one on hand, you can use an emptied-and-cleaned condiment bottle, like one for ketchup or mustard. And if you don't have any of these, you can carefully spoon the batter into a piping bag or improvise one by using a plastic freezer bag and cutting a small corner off.)

Preheat a nonstick or cast iron pan over medium heat, then squeeze in super small-sized bits of batter one at a time, around a coin's width. Repeat until you've used all your batter, and cook as you would regular pancakes. Flip when they've turned golden brown using chopsticks—this tool works best to maneuver the delicate little drops of batter.

Once they've finished browning, transfer your pancakes to a bowl and choose the toppings that suit you. I went the traditionalist route: pad of butter, a drizzle of syrup, and some milk for good measure.

The Takeaway

The pancakes themselves were delicious. They tasted like…pancakes…only…smaller. The mistake was adding milk. Don't do it. Abort mission, seriously.

My cereal-style pancakes were soggy almost instantly. If you're partial to letting your cereal sit and get its mush on (we're a judge-free forum, folks), you'll love this. But I would instead recommend serving your mini silver dollars with some blueberries or banana slices, chocolate chips, syrup, sprinkles, and/or a generous warm Nutella-slash-nut-butter drizzle. And for the love of god, eat it with a fork instead of a spoon so you don't feel tempted to spoil them with soggy liquids.