Pancake Maths

It's Shrove Tuesday tomorrow, also known as Pancake Day in the UK. You know how much we love baking here at Maths Week Scotland, and pancakes are no different, so here's a wee reminder of how much maths is involved in baking pancakes:

Our pancakes are made with just five ingredients: eggs, milk, self-raising flour, baking powder, and a little sugar. If you'd rather have something savoury with your pancakes, just omit the sugar.

The recipe can also be adapted for a number of dietary requirements, as it works with gluten free flour & baking powder too, and you can use any milk of your choice e.g. lactose free milk, oat milk, almond milk or soy milk. Download a copy of our recipe below, to try at home.

Our pancake recipe makes ten small pancakes, which serves 3-4 people for breakfast. For a bigger meal, or to serve more people, just double the quantities of the ingredients for a little extra maths!

Largest, tallest, highest

Here are a few fun pancake facts from Guinness World Records, to bring a little more maths in to your Pancake Day celebrations in the classroom or at home.

• The world's largest pancake measured 15.01m in diameter and was 2.5cm thick. It was so big, it had to be flipped with a crane! To help children visualise the size of this pancake, lay out a piece of 15.01m piece of string in the playground, or in your local park if you're doing this as a family. You might need to tie a few pieces of string together.
• The tallest stack of pancakes ever recorded was made with 213 pancakes, and was 101.8cm high. That's about the average height of a 4 year old child. Measure everyone in your class or family, to see how you compare!
• The highest pancake toss measured was 9.47m - higher than an average two storey house! Measure the height of your kitchen or classroom, and calculate how far up the pancake would have reached compared to your home or school.

(source: www.guinnessworldrecords.com)