The one with the pancakes in a can — no, really!

Attention marketers and PR types: even if you have a product that might not otherwise catch my attention, if you can contextualize your product as a fun blog post in my head, you’ve got my attention. A good product is fundamental, but you also have to catch my attention — and inspiring my sense of whimsy definitely helps.

That’s what happened today when I had my first — and, I can only imagine, my only — experience of drive-by pancaking. Pancakes from a can, no less. No, seriously!

The Batter Blaster people were in town this morning doing a media tour, and they canvassed a few local bloggers to see if anyone might be interested in having chef Anthony Elman drop by and make a pancake breakfast for the family. That’s not a pitch you get every day! They were pitching a new product called Batter Blaster, which is basically pancake batter in a can. Unfortunately for me, I was already at work by the time I got the e-mail. I ended up exchanging a few e-mails with the PR team, and they offered to drop off a free sample to me downtown and, intrigued, I said yes.

I have to admit, at first I rolled my eyes. Pancake batter in a can that looks suspiciously like a whipped cream canister? But I read the ingredient list, and was surprisingly wholesome. Organic, no less. Since Monday is one of the days that I am on my own for dinner, this seemed like an easy and fun dinner idea. When I was a kid I used to absolutely love the frozen pancake batter you could get in a milk carton. In fact, not that long ago I wondered to Beloved why you can’t get that anymore.

So that’s how I came to meet Julie and Anthony, my Batter Blaster peeps, for an illicit mid-afternoon drive-by pancaking in the Market.

They’re super-nice by the way, and they’re surprisingly passionate about their pancakes. Not only did I get dinner, and pictures, and a great blog post, but they had more ideas and recipes, and even threw in (snicker, I swear I am not making this up!) a set of Batter Blaster t-shirts for the family.

The boys were fascinated by the idea of pancakes from a can, and were keen to “help” make dinner.

When you squeeze the trigger, the batter is surprisingly light and fluffy, and kind of melts into a traditional pancake batter as it settles. (Please admire the artistry of taking a photograph one-handed with a right-shutter camera while using my right hand to dispense the batter!)

I taught the boys the fine art of waiting for the bubbles to surface, and they took turns squirting the batter and flipping the pancakes.

And the true test? Damn, they were really, really tasty pancakes. I mean, really good! Light and fluffy, and better than I usually make from the just-add-water mix.

We all agreed.

In fact, I had to step up production when my helpers started absconding to eat the pancakes and I couldn’t make them fast enough.

In fact, we ate the whole can! I think the boys had about five pancakes each. I’d made myself an omelette, because I’m trying to watch my carbs again, but I couldn’t resist one or two myself — they were just that good.

So that’s the story of how I got drive-by pancaked by Batter Blaster, the pancakes in a can. I wanted to mock this product, but I have nothing left to mock. It was a tasty, easy meal; the clean-up was minimal; the boys played along; I made one meal for all four of us; AND every single piece of the empty can is recyclable. The PR pitch was fun, and so was dinner. Plus, I laughed a lot when I explained it all to Beloved when he got home, from the drive-by pancaking to the free t-shirts.

I’m telling you, sometimes life is stranger than fiction. Pancakes in a can. Who knew?

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