Fancy Pancakes aka "Pancake Art"

This past weekend I tried my hand at making fancy pancakes, aka "pancake art." 

I had some technical issues, but it was still fun to do.  Take a peek:

Here's what I learned:

• I used 2 tsps of cocoa powder to turn half of my pancake batter a darker color.  This way I had two colors to work with.  The flavor wasn't noticeable.  I was surprised.
• I used a funnel to pour my pancake batter into squeeze bottles.  Someone more talented than I can certainly skip the funnel, but I couldn't make it from bowl to bottle without it.
• My pancake batter had some small lumps.  This meant that the nozzles of the squeeze bottles kept getting clogged.  It was kind of a nightmare.  I confess that I cursed my whisk and my lack of upper body strength and ordered an electric hand mixer right after this experience.
• To coat the pan between pancakes, I used melted butter (applied with a pastry brush to the bottom of the pan).  I think that I would get more even color on the pancakes with cooking spray (but I also think they wouldn't taste as good - yum, butter).
• I cut the openings on my squeeze bottles to make them larger.
• The consistency of my batter was a little runny (making it more difficult to control).  I read that the optimal consistency is "ketchup-like."
• Loose elements -- such as the dots in the heart pancake -- float around the pan and move!  I learned that it's important to anchor elements if you want them to stay put.

I would definitely like to try this experiment again -- with smoother batter.  I might even experiment with adding food coloring!  It was lots of fun.

Have you made pancake art?  Any tips or tricks to share?

Thanks for stopping by!