Jam and cream on your pikelet

I had two sweet little girls over with their mother to play the other day.  They are aged two and three and their mother and I bonded because we both like to talk.  Literally.  The day we met, we were told off for talking too much long after the meet and great had finished at church.  

As our house is lacking in toys, I thought we'd do some baking and eat it on a picnic blanket down at the playground on our apartment complex.  These girls are highly American in their tastes, I've never been able to successfully interest them in anything much other than Jbird's chocolate chip cookies as a snack.  In the past, this has presented itself as a dilemma but long gone are those days of my American-potluck-phobia.  I've got it all under control.  

They were visiting at morning tea time which I believe is traditionally just a light snack for most Americans, or a cup of coffee.  Not the bikkie and tea we have at home.  I decided that pikelets would be the perfect answer.  For you Americans reading, these are basically pancakes.  Except we add a little bit more sugar to the batter, they're only about the size of your palm, we have them for morning tea or afternoon - never breakfast or breakfast-for-dinner, and we like to eat them with butter, jam, and cream.  Or just jam and cream.  Or just jam.  Or sometimes golden syrup and butter.  Or just butter. You get the idea.*  And a cup of hot tea.  I surpassed the hot tea for the sake of wandering attention spans from the girls.  

It worked out really well.  I briefly considered adding banana to the mixture but decided that might be refused by the fussiest of the two.  I set up two chairs so the bench** was a good height.  They each had turns to add ingredients, mix, measure, pour, and flip.  Both mother and the youngest enjoyed them with jam and cream while Miss Three Year Old tried cream but decided plain suited her best.  The play ground was a hit, if only for the swings, and balancing on the low retaining wall around the edge.  The two hours zoomed by but I was pretty exhausted that afternoon.  It's nice to hand 'em back.

If anyone disagrees on either American or New Zealand cultural comments I have made today, please comment.  I won't be offended.

*Actually, I may have even enjoyed them with peanut butter.  But not really ever 'pancake syrup'.  It would be too runny and...well...wrong. 

**bench - counter top