Here’s One Way To Impress Your Kids On Father’s Day

Breakfast in bed? Feh. How about BREAKFAST FOODS THAT LOOK LIKE OTHER STUFF?

This weekend at the Bay Area Maker Faire, Miguel Valenzuela debuted the newest version of his “PancakeBot.” The first iteration of the 3D-pancake-printer was built with Lego Mindstorms in 2010, at the behest of his three year old daughter.

After several years of tinkering, Valenzuela has improved the pancake maker without the use of trademarked building blocks. This latest version of the PancakeBot is streamlined with an acrylic body. It’s also more precise, going from Mickey Mouse pancakes that every parent tries to make out of two pancakes that have run together, to the Eiffel Tower shown in the demo. The family even made an animated pancake movie.

What’s unclear from the video is how he keeps the batter from running all over. According to the opensource instructions, he uses a Martha Stewart Basic Pancakes recipe for the batter. Is the griddle not turned on to start? The Eiffel Tower pancake in particular is awfully thin, how did it not burn at one end while the machine was busy “printing”?

How good can a really thin, what appears to be overcooked pancake really taste? Lastly, how do I hack one and program it to print out only penis pancakes?

…asking for a friend.

The instructions for how to build your own Lego pancake printer are available for free at Valenzuela’s website.