As people up and down the country prepare Shrove Tuesday, the thought of putting in time and effort for homemade pancakes is overwhelming.
In hopes of avoiding the process, Birmingham Live did us all a favour and tested five different ready-made supermarket pancakes. Some may think it's cheating, others may feel they won't be as good as homemade, but two stores came out on top.
According to them, they take just a couple of minutes to heat up and there's less mess to clean up afterwards. We compared store-bought pancakes from Aldi, Asda, M&S, Tesco and Morrisons to see which one tasted the best.
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They said: "Laying my five packets of pancakes out on the kitchen table, my first thought was that they all looked pretty similar, apart from the packaging. A pancake's a pancake, I thought. But it turns out some are a heck of a lot nicer than others.
"We followed the cooking instructions on each pack - some suggested pan-frying while others heated up in the oven. Some could also be microwaved, but that seemed a step too far. As for the taste test, here's how we got on."
Tesco
Weirdly, less than a week before Pancake Day, the local Tesco didn't have any of its own-range pancakes in stock, but they did have some from a brand called Abra Ca Debora. They were £2.30 for a pack of six.
On closer inspection, these ones looked a little smaller than the others. We shallow-fried ours for 60 seconds on each side and they turned a lovely, golden brown.
These ones, like Morrisons' and M&S's, can be found in the fridge section, so we thought they might taste fresher. But without any lemon or sugar, we found the branded ones a little bland. The texture, too, was a bit wet.
Aldi
Surprisingly, Aldi's pancakes weren't the cheapest of the bunch, but still a modest £1.85 for a pack of eight. The cooking instructions advised frying each pancake in a nob of butter, which you'd assume would make them taste even better.
But even before we'd tucked in, it was clear to see the pancake was greasy - and only the tiniest amount of butter was used. The texture was a bit slimy and dense and we agreed we couldn't have eaten a second one.
Morrisons
Morrisons' pancakes seemed to be a little thicker than the first two. We shallow-fried ours in a little oil for two minutes, flipping halfway. They smelled incredible.
They tasted better than any pancakes we ever made - the perfect balance of stodgy and fluffy. A little pricier at £1.99 for a pack of six, but worth every penny.
Asda
Asda's pancakes were the cheapest of the lot at £1.50 for eight. It felt weird putting pancakes in the oven, but we did as the packet told us, covering them in foil and leaving them in for six minutes.
When they came out, they looked thin and dark in colour. Eating these straight after the Morrisons ones, they didn't taste as fresh, but rather dry and a bit chewy. They weren't awful, but we wouldn't buy them again in a hurry.
M&S
M&S's were the most expensive at £2.50 for a pack of six. After Asda's, we were reluctant to heat them in the oven but thankfully, the result was very different.
They didn't dry out like Asda's and actually tasted the same, if not better, than homemade. They were slightly sweeter and the texture was moist but still light. A strong contender from M&S.
So which pancakes were best?
Overall, we were really impressed by the taste of pre-packaged pancakes. None of them were bad, but it's not a coincidence that our two favourites - M&S and Morrisons - were both from the fridge. They just tasted fresher than the rest.
Our favourite overall had to be Morrisons'. The flavour and the texture were spot on and being able to heat them up in the pan meant that we still had all the fun of flipping pancakes - without the fuss or the mess.
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