Years ago Amanda Daniels was looking for a Happy Birthday pancake mold so she could start her son's birthday off on a bright note.
“I searched and searched and I couldn’t find it anywhere,” she says. “So I just decided to make it.”
That set her on a sweet journey of making pancake molds bearing messages that make your loved ones feel special. But like most entrepreneurs, Amanda quickly found, the idea is the easy part.
“It was super ambitious, but my husband was super supportive,” she says. “I just wanted to follow my passion, my passion for pancakes.”
She used her graphic design background to create the designs, which ultimately have to be backwards in the mold so they read right when cooked. She and her husband had to become experts in silicone and computer generated molds.
“We were in our kitchen mixing silicone and pouring it into 3-D printer molds,” she says. “I went to a fair in Chicago that has manufacturers and designers of silicone products and stuff like that, and I found a really good manufacturer.
With all the right ingredients, a year ago Amanda was ready to share her “pancake presents.” She sells four molds… I love you so much, Have a Great Day, Happy Birthday and Happy Mother’s Day… with Merry Christmas coming soon.
The silicone is heat safe up to 450 degrees. It’s FDA approved and meets the tougher European silicone standards. She has a patent pending on the molds.
How they work
After filling the molds with pancake batter, you cook the pancakes for 10 minutes, flip, and cook for two more. Then you slowly peel back the silicone to reveal a beautiful message baked right in the pancake.
“We’ve been doing a lot of the craft and vendor shows in the area, and the response has been just awesome.”
After she gets some more sales under her belt, Amanda and her husband would love to take their idea to ABC’s Shark Tank. They ultimately envision some of sort of licensing deal, where kids could find Disney characters smiling back at them on their pancakes in the morning.
Amanda sells each of the molds for $11.95. But she’s offering 10% off for WXYZ viewers. And she’ll donate another 5% from every sale to a charity that she describes as nourishing both the souls of bodies of some of the poorest people in the world. Use code Channel7 at checkout.
You can learn more about Pancake Presents and the Pro Pancake Molds here
