How To Make Breakfast Cake From Pancake Mix

Want to know a motherhood and lifestyle hack that has totally changed our mornings? It’s learning how to make breakfast cake from pancake mix. 

We love hearty hot breakfasts in our house because a good, hearty, breakfast sustains my family and kids for a good day and energy between meals. 

Pancakes are at the top of the list. I make a bulk supply of pancake and waffle mix because it is cheap and easy. I actually don’t make pancakes super often, but rather, when I do, I make a bunch and stick a bunch in the freezer so they next time we have a pancake craving, we have pancakes. 

But there are plenty of times that we want pancakes, there are none in the freezer and I am short on time. Pancakes are labor intensive, especially for a family of 8. 

However, about 10 years ago, so way before we started this blog, I learned a trick from a fellow mom to many. We actually stayed in their home for a few days when we were visiting them. Since she had our family, plus her own, she made some wonderful breakfasts, one of them being Breakfast Cake. 

It sounds like the two should not be in the same phrase together, but let me explain how super simple this will make your life. 

In a nutshell, instead of flipping flap jacks and standing in the kitchen for a long time, you can literally pour the pancake mix in a cake pan, pop it in the oven and walk away. 

30-40 minutes later, you are left with a moist, delicious breakfast cake that does not have anything more than what the flat cakes have. In fact, it tastes exactly like a combination of pancakes with the consistency of cake – a little heavier than cake, so a very dense, moist, delicious cake, that really has not much sugar. But that is where either mix-ins or toppings come in.

We just add whatever mix-ins we want, or we add nothing and just go with the classic pancake flavor and add the butter and syrup on top.

YUMMO!!

There is the quick explanation of what breakfast cake is. It is such a simple concept that it seems like a head smack kind of pancake solution.

Let me give you the exact recipe for

How to Make Breakfast Cake from Pancake Mix 

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

• Pancake mix of choice – any will work. Even our bulk homemade pancake mix makes for great breakfast cake. For the pictures of the cake in this recipe, we used high protein Kodiak Cakes. 

• Prepare the mix according to the package directions, exactly as you would for pancakes. If it is just add water, just add water. If it says to add milk or eggs, add milk or eggs, etc. 

• Add in any mix-ins (the photos in this post is just the mix, we didn’t do add-ins for this one).

• Prepare your pan by spraying the proper pan for the amount of mix. The pan size depends on how much you are making. The examples are based on the dry mix amount, not the amount after adding the liquids. 8×8 = 2 cups or less of dry mix, 11×7 = 3 cups dry mix, 9×13 = 4 cups dry mix. 
• Pour it into the cake pan of choice. 

• Bake for 30-40 mins, or until top is crusty and knife is not wet, but it will likely have wetter batter as it is super moist and dense, denser than brownies. So it will be done when there is no liquid, but the knife has clumpy bits on it (I hope that makes sense). 

• Serve warm with toppings of choice like the favored butter and syrup! 

Again, it will take as long as pancakes to cook, but your hands-on part is significantly less. That means that you can spend the 3-5 minutes preparing the dish and pop it in the oven for the next 30-40 while you help the kids get ready for the day and even get ready yourself. Then, before you know it, everyone is chowing down on that baked pancake goodness! 

In this end this is so simple, yet it was a life-changing tip for our mornings! 

Here is a printable version to make your mornings even easier and to enjoy your breakfast cake from pancake mix sooner! 

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