Copycat IHOP Winter Wonderland Pancakes

You can make your own Copycat IHOP® Winter Wonderland Pancakes or fun snowflake topped Disney's Frozen Pancakes at home.

Your kids will love waking up to a stack of fluffy pancakes topped with a swirl of blue and white cream cheese icing, marshmallows, and candy snowflake sprinkles. They make a great Christmas breakfast.

Have you been to IHOP for some Winter Wonderland pancakes yet? Their festive Christmas pancakes are topped with blue and white icing and mini marshmallows.

They look like so much fun! Unfortunately for me, the IHOP restaurant that was in our area closed, so my only option to enjoy this sweet treat was to drive farther than I would want to or make them myself. I chose the latter.

A few years ago, before the restaurant closed, I did get to enjoy a stack of green Grinch Pancakes at Christmastime. I loved them so much that I made a copycat version of them to share with you, so I already had a great recipe to start with.

If you have an IHOP near you, definitely go order a stack of their fun pancakes, but if you don't you can make this recipe to enjoy on Christmas morning instead.

Let's make copycat IHOP Winter Wonderland Pancakes

Start by making the cream cheese icing.

I looked at the ingredients listed on IHOP's nutrition page and realized the blue and white icing they use on their Winter Wonderland pancakes is the same cream cheese icing that they used to make their Grinch Pancakes.

It's a wonderful, albeit sweet, topping for pancakes. You definitely will not need syrup!

step 1 - make cream cheese icing

1. Cream 4 tablespoons of softened cream cheese until smooth.
2. Sift ½ cup of powdered sugar over the cream cheese and beat until creamy.
3. Stir in ½ teaspoon of vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of milk.
4. Divide the icing in half and add an additional teaspoon (or two ) of milk to the white icing to thin it out slightly.
5. Then, stir in a few drops of blue gel coloring into the other bowl.
   • If you plan to use liquid coloring, you may need to reduce the amount of milk added in the first step to 1 tablespoon because you will need to add about 10 drops of coloring which may thin out the icing too much.
6. If needed, you can thin out the icing with more milk, but be aware the icing will run when put onto warm pancakes.

step 2 - make pancake batter

1. Whisk together 1 ¼ cups of flour, ⅛ teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.
2. Then, whisk together an egg with 1 ¼ cups of buttermilk and pour it into the flour.
3. Stir just until combined. The batter will be very lumpy at this point. Do not keep mixing.
4. Add ¼ cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of melted butter, and stir just until combined.
5. You want some small lumps in your batter.

Why do I want lumps in my pancake batter?

• It's important for your batter to have some lumps in it. If you over-mix pancake batter you will overwork the gluten in the flour and you will end up with chewy or rubbery pancakes instead of fluffy pancakes.
  • If you look at the picture above of the green pancake batter, you'll notice the lumps in the tines of the whisk.

step 3 - cook your fluffy pancakes

1. Pour a small amount of vegetable oil into a skillet or griddle and set over medium heat.
2. Let the pan heat until the oil begins to separate into small droplets. To test if your pan is hot enough you can add one drop of water into the pan it should form little beads and dance around the pan.
3. Use a paper towel to rub the oil into the pan leaving just a thin layer of oil.
   • Having a thin layer of oil in the hot pan will ensure that your first pancake will have a nice even golden brown color.
   • If you leave the drops of oil in the pan, the batter that sits directly over top of those drops will brown more quickly forming dark spots on your pancakes.
4. Pour about ¼ cup of the pancake batter into the pan.
5. Bubbles will begin to form in the batter.
6. Let those bubbles form and pop.
7. Once you start seeing bubbles that pop and stay open, and the edges begin to look set, your pancake is ready to flip.
8. Let the pancake cook through on the other side then remove from the heat.

How can I keep my pancakes hot until I'm ready to serve?

• Place a cooling rack in a warm oven (250 degrees F).
• Set the cooked pancakes on the cooling rack allowing them to stay warm.
• Using a cooling rack allows even heating from above and below the pancakes.
• If you just set them on a baking sheet the bottoms may become soggy.
• If you don't have a cooling rack then flip the pancakes over to allow the underside to heat up and dry slightly.

step 4 - assemble the pancakes

1. Stack two to four pancakes on a plate.
2. Spread some blue cream cheese icing on top.
   • If your pancakes are warm, the icing will melt and drip over the edges.
   • My pancakes had cooled down before I put the icing on them to take my pictures. That's why the icing looks a bit thick and held its shape.
3. Drizzle some white icing over the blue icing, then swirl them together.
   1. You will have enough icing to add some to all 8 pancakes. You may have some leftover if you just spread it over the top pancake on a stack.
4. Sprinkle some mini marshmallows on top of the pancakes.
5. Sift a tiny bit of powdered sugar over the top.
6. Optionally, add some candy snowflake sprinkles.

I love the addition of the snowflake sprinkles to these pancakes. As I was decorating them, I realize they could be transformed into Disney's Frozen Pancakes. How much would your kids love these???

Disney's Frozen Pancakes

You can dress up your pancakes for a Frozen-themed party or breakfast.

To make these Frozen pancakes, you'll want to add the blue and white icing on top of the stack of pancakes, then pipe a swirl of whipped cream in the middle before adding your marshmallows and snowflake sprinkles.

To top it all off, add a sparkly snowflake cupcake topper or an Anna, Elsa, Sven, or Olaf cupcake topper.

You can find supplies needed to make these winter wonderland pancakes from Amazon. I earn a small commission when you use the product links in this post at NO extra cost to you.

Grinch Pancake Video Tutorial

I did not create a video for this recipe, but you can watch this video tutorial for my Grinch Pancakes to get an idea of how to make these pancakes.

Printable Recipe

5 from 1 vote

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Copycat IHOP Winter Wonderland Pancakes

Prep Time

25 mins

Cook Time

10 mins

 

A homemade version of IHOP's Winter Wonderland Pancakes. These fluffy Christmas pancakes are topped with swirled blue and white cream cheese icing, mini marshmallows, and candy snowflakes.

Course: Breakfast

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cream cheese, Disney's Frozen Pancakes, icing, marshmallows, pancakes

Servings: 12 pancakes

Calories: 152 kcal

Author: Beth

Ingredients

cream cheese icing glaze

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2-4 tablespoons milk
• blue gel coloring

pancakes

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter melted
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

decoration

• ¼ - ½ cup mini marshmallows
• 2-4 tablespoons snowflake sprinkles, optional
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, optional
• ¼ - ½ cup whipped cream, optional

Instructions

cream cheese icing glaze

1. Beat the cream cheese until smooth.

2. Sift the powdered sugar over the cream cheese and beat until creamy.

3. Stir in the vanilla and 2 tablespoons of milk.

4. Remove about ⅓rd of the icing and add an additional 1-3 teaspoons of milk to that icing. This will be the white icing.

5. Add a few drops of blue gel coloring to the icing in the other bowl and add more milk if needed to thin it out.

6. Set aside until needed.

pancakes

1. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

2. Whisk together the egg and buttermilk.

3. Pour into the flour mixture and stir just to combine.

4. Add sugar, melted butter, and vanilla, then mix until blended but with lumps remaining.

5. Drop a small amount of vegetable oil into a skillet or on a griddle and place over medium heat.

6. Once the oil begins to separate and move around the pan, use a paper towel to rub it into the pan, leaving just a light coating on the pan.

7. Ladle about ¼ cup of the pancake batter onto the pan.

8. Cook until bubbles begin to form on the surface and the edges begin to set.

9. Gently flip your pancakes over and cook until lightly browned on both sides.

10. Repeat with remaining batter making about 12 pancakes.

decorate the pancakes

1. Stack two to four warm pancakes on a plate then spread a spoonful of blue cream cheese icing over the top pancake.

2. Drizzle some white icing over the blue icing and swirl it together using a toothpick or skewer.

3. Then, sprinkle on some mini marshmallows and snowflake sprinkles, if using.
4. Optionally, you can sift some powdered sugar over the top of the pancakes.

Recipe Notes

calories

The calories listed are for 1/12th of the recipe (1 pancake and 1/12 of the icing). They do not include the marshmallows or snowflake sprinkles.

Disney's Frozen Pancakes

To make Disney's Frozen Pancakes, top the pancakes with a swirl of whipped cream before adding the marshmallows and snowflake sprinkles.

warming pancakes

To keep your pancakes warm, set them on a wire rack in a warm 225-degree oven until you are ready to serve. 

Grinch Pancakes

Be sure to check out the recipe and tutorial to make these Grinch Pancakes.

More Winter Wonderland and Frozen Recipe Ideas

This "Frozen" White Chocolate Popcorn (a.k.a. Winter Wonderland Popcorn) makes a great wintertime snack or Christmas gift.

These white chocolate Snowflake Pretzel Pops are so easy to make for Christmas or a snow day snack.

What Disney or Frozen fan wouldn't love this Olaf Mickey Cake?
Check out the tutorial to see how you can use a piping gel transfer to easily decorate this cake.

• Author
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Beth

Hi, I'm Beth Jackson Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com

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