Extremely Fun & Fluffy M&M Funfetti Pancakes

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A Very Berry Happy Birthday!

Extremely Fun & Fluffy M&M Funfetti Pancakes. Wow, now that’s a mouthful! But there’s a reason why I gave this stack its name, and if you try this recipe, you’ll see why!

What’s more festive to celebrate that special day than with a funfetti pancake stack to start you off right? These colorful pancakes are so festive and are full of amazing ingredients that you may already have on hand! If you want to make these for a loved one’s birthday, I’m sure this will be greatly appreciated! If you really want to be festive, you could even add some candles for your loved one’s (or your own!) birthday! Now get your sprinkles out and let’s have some fun with these fun and fluffy funfetti pancakes!

Tools Needed

• Large bowl
• Mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Nonstick pan
• Spatula
• Baking sheet
• Measuring cups
• Plate

Ingredients for Extremely Fun & Fluffy M&M Funfetti Pancakes

For these funfetti pancakes, you’ll need:

• Rolled oats or quick oats. Alternatively, you can use 1 Cup of all purpose flour instead.
• Milk
• Baking powder
• Egg
• Honey
• Vanilla extract
• Butter
• M&M’s
• Sprinkles

Optional toppings include a homemade cream cheese glaze, additional sprinkles and your favorite berries. For this recipe, I used blackberries, cherries, and blueberries on top, but you could use others if you’d like!

More About These Funfetti Pancakes!

I just wanted to pop in and say that my inspiration for these pancakes was a blast of funfetti! It was nobody’s birthday when I made these pancakes, but I was just in a really good mood and wanted to put a smile on my face. The pancakes themselves started out as basic M&M pancakes, but the cream cheese glaze and berries on top with sprinkles really complete these pancakes, making them a unique breakfast option. With that being said, let’s get onto the method to making this exciting stack!

How to Make These Fun & Fluffy M&M Pancakes

1. In a large mixing bowl, add the flour/oat flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients - water/milk, egg, honey and the vanilla extract.
2. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and begin whisking using either a whisk or a stand mixer, until you get a thick but runny pancake batter. Be sure not to over-whisk or else your pancakes will be dense and will lose the fluffiness.
3. Heat a pan to medium heat. Add a small dollop of butter and scoop out about 1/4 cup of pancake batter onto the pan. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, until the pancakes start forming bubbles at the surface.
4. Then, flip the pancake and cook the other side. Once both sides are cooked, transfer the pancake onto a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven. Repeat these steps for the remaining batter.

Making the Cream Cheese Glaze

The full recipe can be found here but I will give you a quick cole’s notes:

1. Making the cream cheese glaze is really easy! It’s honestly just three ingredients - powdered sugar, cream cheese and milk.
2. Have your cream cheese and powdered sugar in a small bowl, then gradually add the milk.
3. Keep adding milk until you’ve reached the desired consistency, but I find 3/4 cup is a good amount for a thick and creamy glaze. Voila!

Your cream cheese glaze is ready, and you can use it in your favorite desserts! An optional step is to let the cream cheese glaze chill for about 30 minutes before eating your pancakes. You don’t have to do this, but if you want to enjoy your glaze cold complementing the hot pancakes, then go ahead! But the glaze tastes just as delicious at room temperature!

Tips for Cooking the Pancakes

1. As per my usual tip, preheat the oven to 200 F. After each pancake has finished cooking, transfer it to the oven so the pancakes stay warm.
2. Use butter on your pan to cook the pancakes. This adds lots of flavor to the pancakes! You can substitute with a non-dairy alternative if you must, but I can’t guarantee you will achieve the same results.
3. Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to achieve the perfect pancake size
4. Cook until you see bubbles forming in the pancake, and flip.

Achieving That Fluffiness!

“Fluffy” is part of the name of this stack, so it’s kind of important that we make sure our pancakes are fluffy! Flat pancakes could be fun too because at that point it is more like a crepe, but in my opinion the fluffier the “funner”! The key to make fluffy pancakes is using baking powder and an egg. I’ve tried pancakes by removing one of these two ingredients, and each time the pancakes were a bit flat. In my experience, you really need the egg and baking powder in combination with oat flour.

If you can’t have eggs for whatever reason, it seems that chia seeds and mashed bananas are good substitutions. I have never tried these swaps myself, however, so I can’t guarantee if you will achieve the same result as this recipe. But feel free to try some substitutions for eggs and let me know in the comments what works!

How to Serve the Pancakes

After all your pancakes have cooked, you’re going to layer the cream cheese glaze in between each pancake. Place one pancake on your plate and spoon a bit of glaze. Repeat until you’ve reached the top pancake. Finish your glaze and top with berries of your choice and more sprinkles.

Then, slice that birthday cake and enjoy! These colorful, fun and fluffy pancakes can be served for any occasion, or just any old Sunday morning when you want some joy to your day!

From Scratch, Not Cake Mix: What Is Actually in the Batter

Most funfetti pancakes recipes you will find online are a box of vanilla cake mix with an egg and some milk stirred through it. This one is made from scratch, and the ingredient list is short enough to prove it: 1 cup of all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 1/4 cups of milk, one large egg, a tablespoon of honey and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Everything there is pantry standard. The difference you taste is that a cake mix batter is sweet all the way through and slightly gummy, while this one is a proper pancake that happens to be full of candy.

Two absences are worth explaining because people ask. There is no baking soda, only baking powder, and that is correct rather than an oversight — soda is a leavener that needs an acid to react with, and there is no buttermilk, yogurt or vinegar in this batter to give it one. Baking powder brings its own acid and works on plain milk. If you do swap in buttermilk for a tangier pancake, that is when you would add about half a teaspoon of soda and cut the baking powder back, because now you have the acid. Leaveners are the one thing in a pancake you should not improvise with.

There is also no salt in the ingredient list. Most pancake recipes include a pinch, and if you like a slightly more rounded flavor a scant quarter teaspoon of kosher salt whisked into the flour mixture will not hurt anything — the honey and the candy are carrying the sweetness either way. And note the butter is for the pan, not the batter: many recipes fold melted butter into the liquid, whereas here the 2 teaspoons of butter are what you cook in, and the richness comes from the honey and the egg instead. Unsalted butter is the sensible default so you control the seasoning. Cooking spray is a listed swap if you would rather.

Flour is flexible. Oat flour is the substitution already listed and gives a softer, slightly nuttier pancake. Whole wheat flour works at about half the total for a sturdier result, and a good gluten-free flour blend swaps in cup for cup, though you will want to let that batter sit for five minutes before cooking. If you want the flavor that actually reads as birthday cake rather than just vanilla, a quarter teaspoon of almond extract alongside the vanilla is the trick bakeries use.

Choosing Sprinkles That Do Not Bleed

This is the one thing that decides whether funfetti pancakes look like the picture. The recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of sprinkles in the batter, and the type matters far more than the amount. Jimmies — the small rod-shaped ones — are made with a wax coating that holds together through heat, so they stay as distinct coloured flecks. Nonpareils, the tiny hard balls, dissolve almost instantly and will turn your batter a uniform greyish purple within a minute of mixing. Rainbow sprinkles sold as jimmies are what you want; sanding sugar and coloured sugar crystals bleed the same way nonpareils do.

Stir them in at the very last moment, right before the batter hits the pan, and do not beat the batter afterwards. The same goes for the 3 tablespoons of M&M's — press them into the surface of each pancake once it is on the pan rather than stirring them into the bowl, or they sink and the candy shells crack. Reese's Pieces are the listed swap for a peanut butter version, and plain chocolate chips work if you want the chocolate without the shell. Save some extra sprinkles for the top, where nothing can bleed and the colour is guaranteed.

A note on lumps, since this is where over-mixing does its damage. Whisk the dry ingredients together, whisk the liquid separately, then combine just until no dry flour remains. A few lumps are the sign of a correctly mixed batter, not a failed one; keep whisking to smooth them out and you develop gluten, which is what gives you flat, chewy pancakes instead of tender ones.

Cooking in Batches, and What to Do With Leftovers

Six pancakes from one batch means you are cooking in batches unless you have a very big pan, which is exactly why the recipe has you preheat the oven to 200°F. Cooked pancakes go onto a baking sheet in that oven and stay warm and soft while the rest cook, so everyone eats at the same time. It is a small step that makes a birthday breakfast feel organised instead of frantic.

Get the skillet to a steady medium heat and no hotter. A hot pan browns the outside before the middle sets, and with sprinkles in the batter you will also scorch the sugar. Use a quarter cup of batter per pancake, wait the full 2 to 3 minutes until bubbles form across the surface, then flip once. An electric griddle is genuinely better than a pan for this because the surface holds one temperature across the whole batch, and a griddle lets you cook four at a time. If your first pancake comes out too dark, drop to low heat for the next one rather than rushing it.

Leftover pancakes keep well. Cool them completely, stack them with squares of wax paper or parchment between each one so they do not fuse, and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days. Reheat in the microwave for about twenty seconds a pancake, or in a dry pan for a minute a side if you want the edges crisp again. Do not glaze what you are storing — keep the cream cheese glaze separate and add it when you serve, or the tops go soggy overnight.

And on serving: the cream cheese glaze is what makes these feel like a birthday celebration rather than breakfast, but a simple vanilla glaze of icing sugar and a splash of milk does the same job in two minutes, and plain maple syrup is never wrong. Berries cut the sweetness, which matters more than you would think with candy in the batter. These are a huge hit with kids, and they are worth remembering for any special morning — a first day of school, Valentine's Day, Father's Day, or a birthday that deserves more than cereal.

Frequently Asked Questions