Cake Flour Pancakes

Yesterday I was lucky enough to chaperone my daughters first grade field trip to the Dallas Aquarium. I didn’t really think this through at the time, but it was my last first grade field trip ever, unless I’m so lucky to go as a grandparent. I am not a wildly nostalgic person, but something about this being my last chance to do this field trip really rocked me. It’s hard to fathom how fast your kids grow up.

When you are stuck smack dab in the newborn stage, invariably some well-meaning older mom will tell you to “savor every minute” because they grow so fast. But at that point, you’re exhausted, scared, unsure of yourself, and more than likely, lacking a shower. So you think to yourself “yeah, you well-rested jerk with kids that spend all day at school, savor THIS….”

And you completely ignore what they are saying.

But it’s so very true, isn’t it? Now that I am one of those well-rested jerks with kids who sleep through the entire night and spend eight solid hours away from me each day, I get it. While I wouldn’t trade the exhaustion part, I would go back to cuddles and sweetness and the ever-growing wonder of watching a baby grow into a toddler who then grows into a little child with an emerging personally and thoughts and emotions all of their own.

I have regrets about not being as present in those days, always striving for the next stage, the next development, in the hopes it would make life easier and smoother. I wished sleepless nights away and feel like I was in a fog for about 5 straight years.

Granted, I was pregnant or with a newborn for all five of those years, but still…..I wish I had been able to consciously enjoy it more. 

So yesterday, feeling a bit nostalgic anyway, it was quite funny when I felt my worlds intersect, watching ghosts of my early mommy days come back in the flesh form of new young mommies, walking the aisles of the aquarium with their strollers and their babies alongside our wild and crazy field trip children. It was pretty funny too, when those ghosts of my early mommy days were 100% absolutely judging the heck out of our children and our parenting and just about everything that was going on with the elementary school aged children at that aquarium. 

Yes, those mommas with their babies, all dressed in awesome hipster baby clothes, were just out for a day of fun with their families when it was completely interrupted by 8 bus loads of elementary school children wound up on excitement and determined to live every single second of field trip time to the most. I am positive that when they saw those buses they almost turned their little family right around and figured that it wasn’t worth it. I am sure that our kids were annoying, not always looking where they were going and running right in front of the wheels of their double-wide stroller which barely fit through the narrow aisle anyway.

But, still….the obvious dirty looks were a bit much. Friends, we all know I’m pretty honest about my childrens behavior, both good and bad, and our kids were not misbehaving on this trip. They were just being kids…..crazy, excited and full of life kids. 

Isn’t that what we want for them?

So to those moms with babies that can’t believe that we, moms of older children, let our kids behave that way; to those moms that say “my child will never do that,” I say this.

JUST WAIT.

Your time will come. It may not look exactly like a maniac child high on field trip excitement tearing through an aquarium or a bunch of kids playing with pumpkins just a bit too rough at a pumpkin patch. It might not take the same form, but your time will come. Do you want to know why?

Because you’re not raising a robot. Little people, as you raise them, will act out and test the limits and push and live life louder and fuller and crazier than you want them to at times. It’s just going to happen. 

And you’ll (hopefully) look back on this time and feel just a little bit sorry for judging us. You’ll (hopefully) eat a little bit of humble pie because you’ll realize that, like all parents, we were trying really really hard yesterday and didn’t deserve the dirty looks. It wasn’t bad parenting or bad chaperoning you were witnessing, it was us trying our best and getting 22 kids back to the bus in one piece without a crocodile bite among them, counting it was a win. You’ll realize that you love your crazy elementary school aged moppet just as much as you love your helpless non-mobile baby, even when they’re naughty and you can’t get them to stop running through a public place. You’ll realize that we are all just trying our best, and sometimes that goes better than others.

Moms, never say never….because that never will come back and slap you right in the face.

And, if I’m being totally honest here, I’ll say that I was that judgmental baby mom a few times in my early days. I will admit that I would think (silently and without the over dirty looks) “Oh, I’ll never let my kid eat that.” I will admit that I would stare in abject fear if a field trip bus would pull up to a place where I was on a quiet baby outing. I’ll say with honesty that I would judge moms in my heart of heart for doing the exact things that I do today, as my kids eat hot dogs and mac and cheese for dinner often and are the most insane of insane field trippers out there. 

And I feel sorry for judging. And I have eaten humble pie, parenting has a weird way of doing that to you. And I have realized that there’s room for us all, at all stages, at the aquarium and in this life…

So when dirty looks were given, I answered them with a smile. Not a mean one, no, just a smile of kindness and understanding.

I feel you, baby mom, but your time will come too.

So, in homage to those early days, I’m sharing a recipe for a childhood staple–PANCAKES. But these beauties, they’re not just any pancake. Nope. Kind of by accident, I made the fluffiest of fluffy pancakes that even my pickiest eater devoured and begged for more. The secret? Cake flour. Honestly, not something I normally have on hand. But I had made a red velvet cake for this past Sunday’s Bible Study (yes, of infamous cursing chair fame: read it here) and I had it on hand from that recipe. Just on a whim, I decided to sub it out and the result was unlike any pancake texture I’ve yet to experience. They’re light and fluffy and wonderfully dense all at the same time, which I know is weird but also true. Sure, you can sub in all-purpose if that’s all you have, they’ll still be delicious. But if you really want to wow your littles, throw in the unexpected and watch their faces light up, no matter how old or young they are. 

Peace, love and understanding,

Meg

Fluffy Cake Flour Pancakes

March 4, 2020

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By: Meaghan Dawson

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons Cake Flour
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

• Step 1 In a measuring cup, combine the milk and the vinegar and set aside while you combine the rest of the ingredients.
• Step 2 In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk well to combine.
• Step 3 In a separate bowl, beat together the egg, milk and vinegar mixture, oil and vanilla.
• Step 4 Making a well in the center of the dry ingredient mixture, pour the wet in and whisk well to combine. There may still be lumps, that’s ok.
• Step 5 Pour or ladel the mixture onto a preheated griddle. Flip when bubbles form on the surface.
• Step 6 Cook until brown on both sides.
• Step 7 Serve with maple syrup and powdered sugar, if desired.
• Step 8 ENJOY!

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