What is "pancake"

Pancake \Pan"cake`\ (p[a^]n"k[=a]k`), n. A thin cake of batter fried in a pan or on a griddle; a griddlecake; a flapjack. ``A pancake for Shrove Tuesday.''
--Shak.

early 15c. (late 13c. as a surname), from pan (n.) + cake (n.); as symbol of flatness c.1600.

"to squeeze flat," 1879, from pancake (n.). Later, of aircraft, "to fall flat" (1911), with figurative extension. Related: Pancaked; pancaking.

n. 1 A thin batter cake fry in a pan or on a griddle in oil or butter. 2 (context theater English) A kind of makeup, consisting of a thick layer of a compressed powder. 3 (context juggling English) A type of throw, usually with a ring where the prop is thrown in such a way that it rotates round an axis of the diameter of the prop. vb. 1 To make a pancake landing 2 (context construction demolition English) To collapse one floor after another. 3 To flatten violently.

n. a flat cake of thin batter fried on both sides on a griddle [syn: battercake, flannel cake, flannel-cake, flapcake, flapjack, griddlecake, hotcake, hot cake]

A pancake is a flat cake, often thin, and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may also contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often with oil or butter. In Britain, pancakes are often unleavened, and resemble a crêpe. In North America, a raising agent is used (typically baking powder). The American pancake is similar to a Scotch pancake or drop scone. Commercially prepared pancake mixes are produced in some countries.

They may be served at any time with a variety of toppings or fillings including jam, fruit, syrup, chocolate chips, or meat. In America, they are typically considered to be a breakfast food. In Britain and the Commonwealth, they are associated with Shrove Tuesday, commonly known as Pancake Day, when perishable ingredients had to be used up before the fasting period of Lent began.

Archaeological evidence suggests that pancakes are probably the earliest and most widespread cereal food eaten in prehistoric societies. The pancake's shape and structure varies worldwide. A crêpe is a thin Breton pancake cooked on one or both sides in a special pan or crepe maker to achieve a lacelike network of fine bubbles. A well-known variation originating in Southeast Europe is Palačinke, a thin moist pancake fried on both sides and filled with jam, cheese cream, chocolate, or ground walnuts, but many other fillings, both sweet or savoury, can also be used.

Pancake is a batter cake fried in a pan or on another hot surface .

Pancake or Pancakes may also refer to:

Pancake is a surname, and may refer to many people:

• Ann Pancake, writer and essayist from the U.S. state of West Virginia
• Breece D'J Pancake, author of short fiction from the U.S. state of West Virginia
• Brooke Pancake, professional golfer
• Catherine Pancake, filmmaker and musician from the U.S. state of West Virginia
• Sam Pancake, actor from the U.S. state of West Virginia

The pancake motor, as used in slot cars, is a type of electric motor, which has a flat commutator and vertical shaft. It was a feature of the highly successful Aurora HO slot cars of the 1960s and 1970s. The motor was not a separate unit; instead, its individual elements - magnets, armature, commutator and brushes - fit into recesses in the blocky chassis. The power was carried by a chain of spur gears along the top of the chassis, to a pinion which drove a crown gear at the axle. Like most slot car motors, the Aurora pancakes ran on low voltage direct current. The term 'pancake' is also loosely used to refer to a car or chassis which has such a motor.

The Pancake motor (far right) is seen end-on, with the shaft pointing toward the reader. The last spur gear has a small pinion gear on its underside, engaging the axle's crown gear.

History In 1963, Aurora introduced the now-legendary Thunderjet 500 motor, an innovative design by British-American engineer Derek Brand. The Thunderjet was intended as a high-performance, high-reliability replacement for Aurora's successful but finicky vibrator motor. Its two-inch (50 mm) unitized chassis, containing a wide, flat motor-armature, was strikingly different from the conventional inline motors of its HO competitors. It was nicknamed the pancake motor because of the armature's shape.

The Thunderjet could outperform contemporary inlines primarily because the vertical-shaft layout allowed the bulky motor magnets to be mounted to the front and rear, which left the full width of the chassis for the armature and windings. Inline motors require side-mounted magnets, limiting the size of both armature and magnets. The extra torque of the pancake motor's oversized armature more than made up for the friction losses in its complex power train.

The Aurora Thunderjet (or T-jet as it is informally called) was probably the best-selling slot car in history. Faller (Germany) produced it for sale in Europe, and competing companies could not match the speed and reliability of Brand's pancake design. The Thunderjets and their improved versions, the AFX (originally A/FX), sold in the tens of millions, completely dominating the HO market for over a decade, By the early-1970s Tyco's inline motors had become sophisticated enough to challenge Aurora's pancake cars for the HO market. In 1975, Aurora introduced a high-performance inline model, the G-Plus. By 1983, Aurora ceased operation ending the pancake motor era.

Perhaps because armature space was never at a premium in the larger bodies, the pancake-style motor has seldom been seen in 1:32 or 1:24 scale cars, though Aurora did use the design in its short-lived line of 1:48 scale slot cars. Since 2002, the pancake motor is found primarily in the reproductions of the 1960s and '70s Aurora HO chassis marketed by Johnny Lightning, then Auto World.