Among the things I learned in college: You cannot dye pancakes orange and blue.
Sure, you can use orange and blue food coloring, but here’s what will happen: Rather than that cheerful Day-Glo Gator orange, you’ll get the pale, pathetic hue of SEC rival Tennessee.
That’s not the worst of it, though. The blue will mix with the natural beige tones of the flour and egg to produce a color that’s a lot more green than blue. Orange and green is a color combination that dare not speak its name in here Gainesville, home of the University of Florida. Orange and green are the colors of our cross-state rival, the University of Miami Hurricanes. Serving orange and green pancakes on a Gator gameday is bad juju.
Football-shaped pancakes, on the other hand, provide a fun way to geek out with a festive football breakfast free from color snafus. Bonus: It involves no funky chemical food coloring at all.
For best results, snip the tip off of a clean condiment bottle, the red or yellow type you’d use at a picnic. (They’re typically available at the dollar store.) Make your pancake mix a little on the runny side, and draw the laces of the football in the pan.
Draw the laces first, then pour batter over them to create the football shape.
Let the laces cook, then fill in a football shape around them. The laces, being in the pan first, will darken more than the rest of the pancake, making a cute football when flipped.
When I’m feeling lazy, which, at breakfast time, is often, I don’t even bother with the condiment bottle: I just use a spoon to create the laces and pour from a measuring cup to fill in the football shape. That’s the method I used in these photos. The condiment bottle gives much more precise results.
Try adding mashed sweet potato or canned pumpkin for a more vibrant football color.
