Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Frosting Syrup

I feel like I have a lot on my plate. I have three kids (ages 7, 5 and 3), I'm co-VP of the school PTSA, I teach the 14-15 year olds at church every Sunday, plus all the little stuff that comes up throughout the day. So what does a girl do who doesn't really have a spare moment in the day? She gets hooked on Pinterest! You all know what I'm talking about (and if you don't you should! Although I'll warn you, it's addicting!). I have added so many things to my boards on Pinterest that I'm feeling overwhelmed! But one of the things I saw that I knew I had to make was Red Velvet Pancakes.

Now, a couple of years ago, I had never tried red velvet before. I had heard mixed reviews about it, mostly because people feel it's supposed to be a chocolate cake but it's not, or the oil in it makes it weird. My first encounter with red velvet was Celeste's cupcakes and they are divine. In fact, she's posting the recipe later today or tomorrow, so stay tuned!

So for the pancakes, which I got off Pinterest but were from a website called Kojo Designs. It calls for red velvet cake mix, which I've never used since the recipe Celeste has is from scratch, but it does exist! It made these pancakes super easy to make. It only calls for 2/3 cup of the mix, so you can double the recipe and still have some left over to make these pancakes another time. As for the frosting, I made the recipe on the site but it was super watery so I ended up changing it a little until it was thicker, like syrup.

My kids loved these and ate them up. Perfect for Valentine's Day or any other day!

Red Velvet Pancakes with Cream Cheese Frosting Syrup
submitted by Girls in Aprons, slightly adapted from kojo-designs.com

1 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup red velvet cake mix
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk

Mix the dry ingredients, add in the wet ingredients.  Mix with a blender until there are no lumps- it should look like pancake batter. Pour into a medium-hot skillet, about 1/4 a cup per pancake. Cook for about a minute on each side (maybe more). Serve warm, with cream cheese syrup and sprinkles!

Cream Cheese Frosting Syrup

8oz cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 TBL vanilla frosting
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together until smooth. It won't be gooey like regular syrup, but will be slightly thick. Pour on pancakes and top with sprinkles, if desired.