Pancakes are the plain white wall of the culinary world.

Plain pancakes are delicious and serve their purpose well. However, like white walls, plain pancakes are just that – plain. They are everyday and expected.

To overcome the monotony of this breakfast staple, you should try experimenting with the ingredients in the pancakes. You will be amazed with the delicious outcomes that your creativity can yield.

Before we can delve into to the topic of making fun pancakes, we must first explore the basics. This simple pancake batter will serve as the base to all of our pancake options.

Begin by mixing 1 cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of sugar, ½ teaspoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of baking powered in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix an egg, 1 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet.

If you are a pancake purist, stop reading now. Just heat your frying pan or griddle to medium heat, melt some butter and pour your batter. You will know that your pancakes are ready to flip when small bubbles begin to form and pop.

However, even if you love the sweetly simple basic pancake, you should try at least one of these pancake embellishments to liven up your morning.

The first method of pancake tailoring that I want to look into is the sprinkles method. Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting that you put sprinkles into your pancakes, though that could make for an interesting – or, if nothing else, festive – pancake.

The sprinkles method is simple. Pick a food item that you think will go well in pancakes. Personally, I’m a fan of blueberries, chocolate chips, nuts or peanut butter M&Ms. I call this method the sprinkles method because you need to pour the basic pancake batter onto your pan and then sprinkle the addition into the batter. While you could just dump your additions directly into the batter bowl, I don’t recommend this because you cannot control the distribution of the goodies into your pancakes.

There is really no limit to the possibilities of sprinkling choices. There are, however, some choices that are better than others. I made pancakes with my brother once and we decided to put anything we could think of into our pancakes. Let’s just say that marshmallows and gummy bears are not delicious choices.

The second method of attaining pancake bliss is mix-ins. Mix-ins are ingredients that you mix directly into the batter. There are two further ways to divide this category: solid and spices/extracts mix-ins.

For the best results I recommend a combination of each. My favorite solids to add are bananas, pumpkin or apples. As for the spices/extras, I recommend vanilla or almond extract to give plain pancakes a little something extra. Spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice are also scrumptious.

I recommend whipping up a batch of banana pancakes. These are my favorite type of pancakes for several reasons. They are easy to make, they taste like banana bread and there is a Jack Johnson song named after them.

The only alteration that you need to make to the basic recipe is to mash up 2-3 ripe bananas and add them to the wet ingredients. After the addition of the bananas, follow the recipe for basic pancakes.

When trying to make a truly unique pancake, it’s a good idea to try using multiple techniques. For example, use the mix-in technique to make banana pancakes with cinnamon and nutmeg. Pour the batter onto the frying pan and then use the sprinkle method to incorporate the crunch of chopped walnuts.