When I was making breakfasts for a Silicon Valley tech company, I was always trying to lure the engineers into the office earlier on Fridays, the hardest day to get those guys to work on time. One day I thought, Everyone goes crazy over red velvet cake—what if I made red velvet pancakes? So on the next Friday, that’s what I gave them: big, soft, fluffy red velvet pancakes, dolloped with a cream cheese frosting and drizzled with maple syrup. I became an instant legend, and those pancakes became the regular Friday breakfast. Word got out quickly—no one wanted to miss breakfast that day—and attendance improved dramatically. In fact, sometimes people who didn’t even work there would show up to eat.
Makes 5 or 6 servings
1 To make the cream cheese frosting: In a medium bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, vanilla, and sugar until smooth.
2 Add the cream and whisk for about 2 minutes, until the frosting thickens. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
3 To make the red velvet pancakes: Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda into a large bowl.
4 In a measuring cup, mix together the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and food coloring.
5 Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until mostly combined. Gently fold in the melted butter, being careful not to overmix. The batter will be very thick, but that’s okay. Refrigerate the batter for 15 minutes.
6 Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Brush the pan with a little butter to keep the pancakes from sticking.
7 Spoon a big spoonful (roughly ⅓ cup/71 milliliters) of the batter into the pan for each pancake. Cook for about 4 minutes on the first side, until the pancakes puff up, the tops are full of bubbles, and the edges begin to look dry. Flip the pancakes and cook for about 2 minutes, until lightly golden on the second side. Transfer the pancakes to a plate and repeat with the remaining batter, adding butter to the skillet as needed between batches.
8 Serve the finished pancakes hot, topped with a big dollop of the frosting and drizzled with maple syrup. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge, covered, for up to 2 days. To reheat, cover with aluminum foil and warm in a preheated 300ºF (150ºC) oven for 10 minutes.