By Steven McKinnon, Mindful Mum, February 17th 2012

• What is Pancake Day?
• How to celebrate Shrove tuesday
• Shrove Tuesday around the world
• Pancake recipe
• Watch a video of a pancake race

What is Pancake day?

Pancake day or Shrove Tuesday is the last day before Lent, which is a time of abstinence and giving things up. Therefore, Shrove Tuesday is the last day that people can indulge in some of the foods they enjoy.

How to celebrate Shrove Tuesday

The most common and well-known way to mark Shrove Tuesday is to eat lots of pancakes! This is because the ingredients of pancakes (fat, sugar, eggs and flour) are traditionally forbidden during Lent, so people eat them while they can to save them from going to waste.

Another common activity is to take part in pancake racing, a tradition which originated in Olney, Buckinghamshire, in 1445. A pancake race is much like a normal race around a pre-determined course, except that each participant must hold a frying pan with a cooked pancake in it, flipping it as they go!

Pancake races are common all over the UK and other countries, many are done for charity in fancy dress.

It is said that the tradition of pancake racing started when a woman, who was so focused on her cooking that she lost track of time, suddenly heard the church bells ring for confession. Fearing she would be late, the woman ran to the church, complete with her apron and frying pan. In the frying pan was a pancake, and thus, the tradition was born!

Shrove Tuesday around the world

• In Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian speaking countries, Shrove Tuesday is known as ‘Carne Levar’, which means, ‘to remove meat’. These countries often mark the occasion with parades, especially Rio de Janeiro.
• In Greece, it is known as ‘Apocreas’, which means ‘from the meat’.
• In Iceland, the day is known as ‘Bursting Day’, and is celebrated with eating salted meat.
• In Poland, the celebration falls on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday and is known as Fat Thursday.

Pancake recipe

Would you like to make some pancakes with your little one? Then follow our easy steps:

Ingredients:

• 140 grams of plain flour, sifted
• 2 eggs
• 200 millilitres of milk
• 100 millilitres of water
• 25 grams of butter
• Pinch of salt
• Caster sugar and lemon halves for garnish, juice and wedges (optional)

How to prepare:

1. Sift the flour with the salt into a medium-sized bowl and make a well in the middle.
2. Mix the milk and 100ml of water together, and break the eggs into the well.
3. Whisk the eggs and flour, slowly adding the milk and water in as you do so.
4. When the batter is smooth and free of lumps, leave it to rest for half an hour, then whisk the melted butter into the mix.
5. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, greasing it lightly with the butter.
6. Coat the pan with 2 tablespoons of the batter, spreading it evenly. Cook this for 40-50 seconds, or until it’s golden, then flip onto the other side for 3o seconds.
7. Slide the pancake out of the pan, and repeat step 6 until you’ve used up all of your batter. You can serve the pancakes immediately, or garnish them with caster sugar and lemon juice. Feel free to add any filling you like, such as jam or Nutella!

Watch a video of a pancake race

Photography: Charles Knowles @Flickr