'I tried to eat 12 pancakes in 12 minutes - it was disaster and didn't end well'

21 February 2023 , 14:15

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'I tried to eat 12 pancakes in 12 minutes - it was disaster and didn't end well'

Who doesn't love Pancake Day? A glorious 24 hours when it's acceptable to eat delicious crepe after delicious crepe, with nobody allowed to judge the high pile of sugary toppings.

So when my editor asked me to spend the morning taking on a pancake eating challenge, I thought I'd lucked out. The Breakfast Club is challenging people to eat 12 pancakes in 12 minutes - easy.

I naively thought the mammoth pancake sprint wouldn't be so bad - surely a pancake wouldn't be that hard? Never have I ever been so swiftly humbled, my determination to be crowned champion crumbled away mouthful by mouthful.

This year, the much-loved chain has given the challenge a Willy Wonka theme, so I sat down and ordered the Everlasting Pancake Challenge - named after the much-loved book's Everlasting Gobstopper.

Challengers pay £20, which goes to charity, to take on the stack and win or lose will receive a Wonka Bar, which could contain one of five Golden Tickets - giving you free breakfast for a year.

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The Breakfast Club give anyone who competes a free Wonka Bar with the chance of winning free breakfast for a year (Mirrorpix)

The pancake stack threatened to topple over as Danni eyed up her strategy (Mirrorpix)

I immediately regretted my decision when the ominous stack arrived, looking more intimidating in real life. In fact, it was so big that you had to hold the stick otherwise the whole thing would topple over.

And if the 12 pancakes didn't look intimidating enough, the massive stack was topped with cream and fruit. A tiny amount of syrup sat encouragingly in a dish on the table, looking like it could help despite the mammoth number of pancakes it had to cover.

I estimated four pancakes would be my limit, not expecting to reach even half way through the stack.

The waiter told us the record for the fastest was just over three minutes set by a man in 2018, someone had also done it in under seven minutes that very day. This gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, this challenge wouldn't be so bad.

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Danni and colleague Harry began to struggle (L to R: Harry, Danni) (Mirrorpix)

My tactic was simple, cut down into the stack and shovel as much pancake as I could manage in each mouthful. This seemed to work as the first few pancakes went down a treat and disappeared quickly.

Unfortunately, this didn't last long.

When I hit about halfway through the fourth pancake I stopped tasting and all was left was mushy pancake texture, fighting not to be eaten.

Water became my best friend, as the cream and syrup failed to make a dent in the mush. I struggled through the fourth one and onto the fifth - beating my self set goal.

This is where the battle became a losing one, with seven pancakes to go and around half the time gone I began to slow down as the minutes flew by. I started praying the timer would go off so I could stop eating this endless pile of pancakes.

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The pancakes defeated Danni without question (Mirrorpix)

The pancake stack survived but with a sizeable dent (Mirrorpix)

My body was fighting me at this point as queasiness turned to serious threats of an unwanted pancake return.

My final six minutes were spent battling just two and a half pancakes, compared to the four consumed in the first half. Each mouthful felt like an attack, with the water supplies dwindling.

In the end, the timer went off and I had managed to take down six and a half pancakes in the 12 minutes, two more than I predicted.

While I may have completed my goal, I definitely feel like I lost as I walked away from the restaurant feeling sicker than I thought possible. Even looking at the pancakes left on the table made me feel a bit unwell, no chance of another bite.

As I left, a cheer erupted upstairs - someone had succeeded where I had failed. Good for them I thought, maybe next year I'll give it another go but I truly don't think I'll be able to stomach pancakes again for a long time.

Danni Scott