We’re interrupting our usual schedule of kids’ activities, parenting inspiration, and family-friendly food to bring you 31 days of Kids Kitchen Recipes and Activities.

Today, Erin from Putting Socks on Chickens is making coloured pancakes in the kids kitchen so I thought I’d share our recipe for kid-made double chocolate pancakes.

These pictures were taken almost a year ago when Ella was just newly 3 years old. Isn’t it crazy what a difference a year makes? I’m looking at these pictures now and thinking how young she looks!

I’ve been involving Ella in cooking breakfast since she was a year and a half, and I honestly can say that I couldn’t imagine living a different way. It’s wonderful being able to give her that kitchen independence so that if she doesn’t like what I’m preparing for everyone else, or if she wants to eat before I’m ready to start cooking, she has the skills and confidence to help take care of herself – whether that’s toasting a bagel (and using toast tongs to safely remove it from the toaster), or even just cutting up some fruit and spooning out some yogurt.

We do have a rule that she cannot operate the stove without me, and at first it was very time-intensive teaching her how to be safe and helping her learn the coordination skills necessary for cooking, but now it’s almost like having a second set of hands in the kitchen. I still stay close and keep a close eye, but she requires less help and I’m more confident in her abilities and awareness of stovetop safety.

This chocolate pancakes recipe is super easy to whisk together, and then portion out in a preheated skillet or frying pan. When we made these we used a nonstick crepe pan, but we’ve since switched to cooking almost everything in either our cast-iron skillet or ceramic frying pan.

I love the ceramic frying pan for Ella (it even made it’s way onto our top 40 kids kitchen tools) because it’s really light-weight and requires no oil or butter for nonstick cooking, so I don’t have to worry about splatter.

To extend the independence, we either use the cut’n roll slicer or a crinkle cutter (two more of our top 40 kids’s kitchen tools) to allow Ella to cut up the pancakes – and she either uses the crinkle cutter or a butter knife to cut up some fruit to top off the pancakes.

If chocolate pancakes (or coloured pancakes) are a bit too much of an indulgence at breakfast time for you, we also have an awesome blueberry protein pancake recipe.
Check out the rest of our 31 Days of Kids Kitchen Series here.

Check out our other Breakfast Recipes here: