Pancakes

Always a Sunday morning treat, the batter I prepared on the KitchenAid while Nick was bathing Cajun, before I was to Cajun for a walk in the park to dry off. I also used a pack of halved strawberries, some water, 2 tablespoons caster sugar, and a teaspoon arrowroot to get the syrup, as pictured below. Serve topped with your favourite ice cream.

2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar
100 g ( 3 1/2 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
250 ml (9 fl oz or 1 cup) milk
butter, for frying

To serve:
freshly whipped cream
caster (superfine) sugar
lemon wedges
maple syrup
ground cinnamon

Whip together the eggs, vanilla and sugar. Add the flour and baking powder alternately with the milk, whisking well until it's smooth. Cover and leave to stand at room temperature for at least half an hour.

Melt a little butter in a non-stick frying pan - just enough to coat the bottom. When it's sizzling, add a small ladleful of batter/ Tilt the pan so that the batter swirls out and around to thinly cover the bottom, mingling with some of the butter. Fry over medium heat until the underside is nicely golden, using a spatula to lift up the edge to check. Loosen the side with the spatula and flip the pancake over. Fry until the new underside is lightly golden, then slide out of the pan onto a plate and keep warm while you cook the rest of the batter; adding more butter when you need it. The first pancake is often not so great, but once you've got the hang of it and have got the pan temperature perfect, they'll work well.

Put out bowls of whipped cream, caster sugar, lemon wedges, maple syrup and enough cinnamon for everyone to help themselves to their favourite topping. Make cinnamon sugar by mixing 3 teaspoons of sugar with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and that's lovely with a squeeze of lemon juice over the top.