Pancake Day Party

Growing up, Pancake Day for me was quite a big thing. I remember one year, my very first Girl Guides meeting was on Pancake Day and I was gutted that I didn't get to spend the whole evening around the table in the kitchen.

Most people just have pancakes as desert. We had pancakes for both dessert and dinner. The table would be full of bowls of salad and jacket potatoes and my mum would cook us up some galettes (savory pancakes using buckwheat flower) filled with a combination of ham, chesse and tomato, or chicken in a white sauce. We'd have maybe 2 or 3 of these each before making the sweet pancakes and the salad bowls on the table would be swapped for an array of sweet treats.

The classic lemon and sugar, chocolate spread, jam, toffee sauce, honey, golden syrup, raspberry or strawberry sauce and ice-cream. Everyone would go for the chocolate spread first and we each had a different way of preparing the pancake before tucking in. And by the end of the night, someone (usually my brother) would fill a pancake to the brim with absolutely everything on the table.

We'd sit and eat for maybe 3 hours. The entire evening full of fun food and laughter at the shape of the last tiny pancake to be made from the batch.

Unfortunately, for the past 3 years I haven't been at my parent's house for Pancake Day. For the first two years it was just me and a friend, cooking them up in my little student kitchen, eating them there and then because it didn't make sense to keep going back to the living room to eat one pancake - plus they looked too good to wait until we made the whole batch before tucking in.

This year was different. I decided to invite a lot of people round to re-create the busy atmosphere. I got all my ingredients prepped so I could whip them out very quickly and efficiently!

But it was a huge fail. My three girlfriends bailed on me last minute so it was just Matt's friends who came round, and only one of them actually turned up on time. The ones who arrived late had already eaten (despite me telling them I was making dinner) and they only wanted one each.

I was incredibly disappointed. Not because of my efforts, but because of the sheer unreliability of other people. Next year will be different. Just me and the fella, and I will cook up a storm. But at least this year gave me practice.

If you have friends that are reliable, then I strongly urge you to have a pancake party. I urge you even more to have one if you have a family as they definitely won't let you down. The ingredients are so cheap, and most of it should already be in your store cupboard.

Go on, treat yourself.