Pancake

A pancake is a flat cake, often thin, flat, and round, prepared from a starch-based batter and cooked on a hot surface such as griddle or frying pan. In Britain, pancakes are often unleavened, and resemble a crêpe. In America, a raising agent is used (typically baking powder). The American pancake is similar to a Scotch pancake or drop scone.

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 savory can also be used.

History
The Ancient Greeks made pancakes called τηγανίτης (tēganitēs), ταγηνίτης (tagēnitēs) or ταγηνίας (tagēnias), all words deriving from τάγηνον (tagēnon), "frying pan". The earliest attested references on tagenias are in the works of the 5th century BC poets Cratinus and Magnes. Tagenites were made with wheat flour, olive oil, honey and curdled milk, and were served for breakfast. Another kind of pancake was σταιτίτης (staititēs), from σταίτινος (staitinos), "of flour or dough of spelt", derived from σταῖς (stais), "flour of spelt". Athenaeus is his Deipnosophistae mention staititas topped with honey, sesame and cheese. The Middle English word Pancake appears in English in the 1400s.

Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania
In Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, pancakes are called palatschinke, palačinka and palacinka, respectively (plurals palatschinken, palačinky, palacinky). In Romania they are called clătită (plural clătite). In countries of former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia) and Bulgaria they are called palačinka (plural palačinke). In these languages, the word derives from Latin placenta, meaning cake. These pancakes are thin and filled with apricot, plum, lingonberry, strawberry or apple jam, chocolate sauce or hazelnut spread. Eurokrem, Nutella and Lino-Lada fillings are favorite amongst younger population. A traditional version includes filling pancakes with cheese, pouring yoghurt over them and then baking in an oven. Kaiserschmarrn is an Austrian pancake including raisins, almonds, apple jam or small pieces of apple, split into pieces and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

Belarus, Russia, Ukraine
Eastern-Slavic cuisines have a long tradition of pancake cooking and include a large variety of pancake types. In Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, pancakes may be breakfast food, appetizer, main course, or even dessert.

Blini (блины, Nalesniki ) are thin pancakes, however somewhat thicker than crêpes, made from wheat or buckwheat flour, butter, eggs, and milk, with yeast added to the batter. Blini cooking dates back to pagan traditions and feasts, which are reflected in today's "pancake week" celebrated in the winter before the Great Lent. In pre-Christian times, blini were symbolically considered by early Slavic peoples as a symbol of the sun, due to their round form.

Blintzes (блинчики blinchiki) are thin crêpes made without yeast. Filled blintzes are also referred to as nalysnyky, nalistniki (налистники) or nalesniki (налесники). A filling such as jam, fruits, quark or cottage cheese, potato, cooked ground meat or chicken, and even chopped mushrooms, bean sprouts, cabbage, and onions, is rolled or enveloped into a pre-fried blintz and then the blintz is lightly re-fried, sautéed, or baked.

Small thick pancakes made from yogurt-, kefir- or soured milk-based batter (without yeast) are called oladyi (оладьи) (diminutive: oladushki оладушки, further abbreviated as ladushki ладушки). The batter may contain various additions, such as apple and raisins.

Denmark
Æbleskiver (Danish meaning apple slices (singular: æbleskive)) are traditional Danish pancakes in a distinctive shape of a sphere. Æbleskiver are cooked on the stove top by baking in a special cast iron pan with several hemispherical indentations. Batter is poured into the oiled indentations and as the æbleskiver begin to cook, they are turned with a knitting needle, skewer or fork to give the cakes their characteristic spherical shape. Æbleskiver are not sweet themselves but are traditionally served dipped in raspberry, strawberry, lingonberry or blackberry jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

England
English pancakes have three key ingredients: plain flour, eggs, and milk. The batter is runny and forms a thin layer on the bottom of the frying pan when the pan is tilted. It may form some bubbles during cooking, which results in a pale pancake with dark spots where the bubbles were, but the pancake does not rise. English pancakes are similar to French crêpes, and Italian crespelle. They may be eaten as a sweet dessert with the traditional topping of lemon juice and sugar, drizzled with golden syrup, or wrapped around savory stuffings and eaten as a main course. On Shrove Tuesday, it is custom to eat pancakes, when lemon juice and sugar may be added to top the pancake. Yorkshire pudding is made from a similar recipe, but baked instead of fried. This batter rises because the air beaten into the batter expands, without the need for baking powder; the result is eaten as part of the traditional roast beef dinner. Oatcakes are a savory variety of pancake particularly associated with Staffordshire.

Finland
Finnish pancakes greatly resemble "Plättar" and are called "lettu", "lätty", "räiskäle" or "ohukainen". In Finland pancakes are usually eaten as dessert with whipped cream and/or pancake-jam, sugar or vanilla ice-cream. In Finnish, "lettu" and "pannukakku" (literally "Pancake") have different meanings, the latter having structurally closer resemblance to hotcake, and baked in an oven instead of using a frying pan. Ålandspannkaka, literally "pancake of Åland", is an extra thick variety of oven-pancake that includes cardamom and either rice- or semonia porridge to the dough.

France, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Latin America
Crêpes, popular in France, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal, are made from flour, milk, and eggs. They are thin pancakes and are served with a sweet (fruit or ice cream) or savory filling ( seafood, spinach). In Francophone Europe, crêpes are often sold in special stands. In Brittany, a galette (or galette bretonne) is a large thin pancake made of buckwheat flour, often cooked on one side only.

Crêpes are popular in many South American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. They are consumed with sweet fillings (marmalade, dulce de leche) or with salty fillings (ground meat(Brazil), vegetables, tomato sauce, cheese).

They have also become popular East Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, The Philippines, Thailand and China, where they are sold in crêpe stands and kiosks. They are often served with whipped cream and fruits, or non-sweet spreads such as vegetables.

Germany
German pancakes are called Pfannkuchen (Pfanne and Kuchen meaning "pan" and "cake"). They are thicker than French Crêpes and usually served with sweet or occasionally savory fillings. Fried apple rings covered by pancake dough and served with sugar and cinnamon are called Apfelküchle. In Swabia sliced pancake strips (Flädle) are often served in soup. In some regions (Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxonia) pancakes are called Eierkuchen, as the term Pfannkuchen refers to Berliners there. Kaiserschmarrn is a thick but light, caramelized pancake that is split into pieces, filled with fruits and/or nuts, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with a fruit sauce. It is believed that it was first prepared for Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria. It is popular in the former Austria-Hungary and Bavaria.

Greece
Greek pancakes are called tiganites (τηγανίτες, from ancient Greek τηγανίτης) and are popular all over Greece and Cyprus. They are slightly thicker than crêpes and can be sweet or savory. Their main ingredients are flour, olive oil or butter, milk and eggs. They are usually drizzled with honey and cinnamon, and sometimes topped with cheese, nuts, fruits or vegetables. Various small shops in Cyprus sell crepes, called creperies either savory or sweet varieties. Tiganites can be served for breakfast or dessert, and in some places like Corfu, Patras are customarily served in the feast days of Saint Spyridon and Saint Andrew. In Cyprus the pancake recipe is used for a similar dish such as Genoese canelloni – ground meat with tomato sauce, cheese, and sometimes bechamel sauce – instead of the traditional canelloni dried pasta sold at supermarkets.

Hungary
In Hungary, pancakes called palacsinta (also derived from Latin placenta) are made from flour, milk or soda water, sugar and eggs. Sweet wine is added to the batter. The filling is usually jam, sugared and ground walnuts or poppy seeds, sugared cottage cheese, sugared cocoa or cinnamon powder, but – especially in hortobágyi palacsinta – meat and mushroom fillings are also used. Gundel palacsinta is a Hungarian pancake, stuffed with walnuts, zest, raisins and rum, served in chocolate sauce. The dish is often flambéed. Hungarian pancakes are served as a main dish or as a dessert. Lángos is a deep fried pancake made of flour, yeast, salt and water. t is eaten topped with sour cream and grated cheese, or Liptauer, ham, or sausages, rubbed with garlic or garlic butter, mushroom, quark cheese, eggplant, cabbage, kefir, confectioners' sugar, or jam.

Iceland
Icelandic crepe-like pancakes are called "pönnukaka", and smaller, thicker pancakes resembling North American pancakes are "lumma". The pancakes are usually a bit browner than the traditional Swedish ones. Pönnukaka are usually cooked on a special Icelandic pancake pan, which is made to get the pancake as thin as possible, and it is important to never wash the pan, not even with water. Pönnukaka are eaten with sugar, but if eaten at a café they might have ice cream instead. In Iceland, North American-style pancakes are cut in half and used as sandwich bread, similar to Icelandic flatbread.

Netherlands
In the Netherlands pancakes are called pannenkoeken and are mostly eaten at lunch and dinner time. Pancake restaurants are popular with families and serve many sweet, savory, and stuffed varieties. Pannenkoeken are slightly thicker than crêpes and usually quite large, 12" or so in diameter. The batter is egg-based and fillings include such items as sliced apples, cheese, ham, bacon, and candied ginger, alone or in combination. Stroop, a thick molasses-like fruit-based syrup is also popular, particularly in a classic filling of bacon and stroop. Poffertjes are another Dutch quick bread, similar to American pancakes but sweeter and much smaller. Made in a specially dimpled copper pan, they are flipped repeatedly to attain a soft interior. A spekdik is a pancake like-food which traditionally eaten in the provinces Groningen and Drenthe in the Netherlands around Sylvester. The main ingredients of a spekdik are syrup, eggs and rye-flour, and some varieties include bacon.

Poland
In Poland, thin crêpe-style pancakes are called naleśniki (pronounced naleshniki). Like any crêpe or blintz, they can be served with a variety of savory or sweet fillings as a main dish or a dessert. Sweet fillings include fresh fruits (e.g. bilberries), jams, and soft white cheese with sugar. Savory fillings include fried vegetables, fried chicken, minced meat, and a variety of added ingredients such as potatoes, mushrooms, cabbage, or ham.

Scotland
Pancakes (also called Scotch pancakes or Scottish pancakes) are more like the American type. In parts of Scotland they are also referred to as drop scones or dropped scones. They are made from flour, eggs, sugar, buttermilk or milk, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar. Smaller than American or English pancakes at about 3.5 in / 9 cm in diameter, they are made by the traditional method of dropping batter onto a griddle (a girdle in Northumberland or in Scots). They can be served with jam and cream or just with butter. In Scotland pancakes are generally served at teatime.

Spain
Spanish pancakes are called Frixuelos or Filloas and are very popular in the north-west of Spain. They are made from flour, milk, and eggs (sometimes they also use blood). They are thin pancakes and are usually served with a large amount of sugar or honey. They are a typical Carnival sweet dessert in Galicia, Asturias and León. Those with blood are typical of the pig slaughter feast.

Sweden
Nordic pancakes are similar to the French crêpes. In some of the Nordic countries they are served with jam or fruit, especially lingonberries (or the butter from that fruit) as a dessert with a variety of savory fillings. Traditional Swedish variations can be exotic. Beside the usual thin pancakes, called pannkakor, which resembles the French crêpes and, often served with whipped cream and jam, are traditionally eaten for lunch on Thursdays with pea soup, the Swedish cuisine has plättar which resemble tiny English pancakes, and are fried several at a time in a special pan. Others resemble German pancakes but include fried pork in the batter (fläskpannkaka); these are baked in the oven. Potato pancakes called raggmunk contain shredded raw potato, and may contain other vegetables (sometimes the pancake batter is omitted, producing rårakor). Raggmunk and rårakor are traditionally eaten with pork rinds and lingonberry jam. A special Swedish pancake is saffron pancake from Gotland, made with saffron and rice, baked in the oven. It is common to add lemon juice to the sugar for extra taste. The pancakes are often served after a soup. Another special "Swedish pancake" is the äggakaka (eggcake), also called skånsk äggakaka (Scanian eggcake), it is almost like an ordinary Swedish pancake but it is a lot thicker and also a lot more difficult to make due to the risk of burning it. It is made in a frying pan and is about 1½ to 2 inches thick and is served with lingonberries and bacon. The Norwegian variety is commonly eaten for dinner, traditionally with bacon, jam (typically bilberry) or sugar.

Wales
Welsh pancakes, known as crempog, ffroes and other names, vary considerably. Some are very much like American pancakes, others may be made with yeast (called crempog furum) or oatmeal (although this is also true of American pancakes) and some are like scotch pancakes. Crumpets and pikelets are sometimes considered a variety of pancake.

United States and Canada
American, Canadian and Mexican pancakes (sometimes called hotcakes, griddlecakes, or flapjacks) are usually served at breakfast. The thick batter contains eggs, flour, milk and a raising agent such as baking powder. The batter can have ingredients such as buttermilk, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, apples, chocolate chips, cheese or sugar added. Spices such as cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg can also be used. Yogurt may be used to give the pancakes a relatively moist consistency. The pancake is ⅓ inch (1 cm) thick. They are topped with maple syrup, butter, jam, peanut butter, nuts, fruit, honey, powdered sugar, whipped cream, cane syrup and/or molasses.

The common Pancake/hotcake/flapjack is a thick small pancake, generally around 10 cm in diameter. Pancakes are often served in a stack with syrup and butter, which is often served with sides such as bacon, eggs, and/or sausage. The terms pancake, hotcake and flapjack are often used interchangeably.

Varieties
Bannock is common to virtually all North America’s first peoples. The European version (Scotland) was traditionally made of oatmeal. The bannock of Aboriginal people was made of corn, nut meal and plant bulb meal. Each region had its own variation of flour and fruit. Today, bannock is most often deep-fried, pan-fried and oven-baked.

Johnnycake (also jonnycake, johnny cake journey cake or Johnny Bread) is a cornmeal flatbread that was an early American staple food, and is still eaten in the West Indies and Bermuda. The modern johnnycake is stereotypically identified with today's "Rhode Island" foods, though jonnycakes are a cultural staple in all of the northern US. A modern jonnycake is fried cornmeal gruel, which is made from yellow or white cornmeal mixed with salt and hot water or milk, and frequently lightly sweetened.

Yaniqueques or yanikeke are a Dominican Republic version of the jonnycake. They are a fried bread rather than a pancake and are a popular beach food.

Sourdough was used by prospectors and pioneers to make sourdough pancakes without having to buy yeast. Prospectors would carry a pot of sourdough to make pancakes and bread as it could last indefinitely, needing only flour and water to replenish it. Sourdough pancakes are now a particular speciality in Alaska.

A silver dollar pancake refers to a pancake about two to three inches (5 to 7 cm) in diameter, or just a bit bigger than the pre-1979 silver dollar coins in the United States, for which they are named. It is usually made by frying a small spoonful of the same batter as any other pancake. One serving is usually five to ten silver dollar pancakes.

German pancakes or Dutch baby pancakes served in American pancake houses are bowl-shaped. They are eaten with lemons and powdered sugar, jam, or caramelized apples, as well as fritters. A David Eyre's pancake is a variation on the German pancake named for the American writer and editor David W. Eyre (1912–2008).

Mexico
Mexican hotcakes are similar to US pancakes. Hotcakes are often made with cornmeal – as well as, or instead of wheat flour. Hotcakes are popular breakfast items at restaurants throughout the country, and are often sold by street vendors in cities and during the local celebrations of towns through the day. They are also sold during fairs; the vendors sell a single hotcake topped with different sauces such as condensed milk, fruit jam or a sweet goat milk spread called "cajeta".

Guatemala
Guatemalan pancakes are called Panqueques. They are made with the same ingredients as US pancakes. The toppings are usually fruits and honey. They are a very popular breakfast meal in Guatemala. Depending on the region, the "Panqueque" can be thin as a "Crêpe" or as fluffy as a North American pancake.

Venezuela and Colombia
Cachapas are corn pancakes, popular in Venezuelan and Colombian cuisine.

Costa Rica
Costa Rican chorreadas are similar to cachapas.

Asia
Banana pancakes are a menu item in Western-oriented backpackers' cafes in Asian countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, and China. This has elicited the term Banana Pancake Trail.

China
Chinese pancakes may be either savory or sweet, and are generally made with dough rather than batter.

India
India has many styles of Pancakes. Variations range from taste to main ingredient used. All Indian pancakes are made without using any raising agent.

Pancakes prepared using north Indian cooking style are named "Cheela". Sweet Cheelas are made using Wheat flour based batter sweetened by Sugar or Jaggery. North Indian salty pancakes are made using batter prepared from Gram flour or green gram paste (moong daal). Salty pancakes are sometimes garnished with Indian cottage cheese - Paneer. Pancakes in north Indian cooking style resemble more with Crepe than American flapjacks due lack of any rising agent.

Dosa, Appam, Neer dosa and Uttapam are pancakes prepared using south Indian cooking style. They are prepared by fermenting rice batter and split skinned urad bean (black lentil) blended with water. Meetha pooda are a common breakfast food item in the Punjab. It is a sweet pancake which can be eaten with pickles and chutney. Most of the pithas in Assam are types of pancakes served on occasions such as Bihu. In Bengal is found a semi-sweet pancake called pati-shapta which is sometimes stuffed with grated coconut and thickened milk and dunked in sugar syrup. In Goa, a traditional Goan pancake called "AleBele" or "Alle Belle" is eaten at tea time, the pancake is closer to a crepe in texture and filled with jaggery & coconut mixture.

In most parts of India there is a sweet pancake called malpua served. However Malpua is not prepared on a Griddle but deep fired in a shallow pan.

Indonesia
The Indonesian pancake serabi is made from rice flour and coconut milk.

Japan
In Japan, okonomiyaki are made from flour, egg, cabbage and a choice of ingredients.

Korea
In Korea, pancakes include jeon, pajeon, bindaetteok, kimchijeon, and hotteok.

Malaysia and Singapore
In Malaysia and Singapore, There is also another version, eaten by Malays, called Lempeng which replaces the filling with sweet corn and condensed milk.

Nepal
In Nepal, the Newar have a savory rice pancake called chataamari cooked with meat or eggs on top.

Pakistan
In Pakistani cuisine, rishiki is a pancake, slightly thicker than a crepe which is made from whole wheat flour, water and eggs and usually served with honey. It is widely consumed in the far north and is a staple of chitrali cuisine.

Philippines
In the Philippines, pancakes or "hotcakes" are also served with syrup (maple or imitation corn syrup), margarine, and sugar, or condensed milk. They are served for breakfast, but there are street kiosks that sell small hotcakes topped with margarine and sugar as an afternoon snack.

Vietnam
In Vietnamese cuisine there is a variety of traditional pancakes; these include bánh xèo and bánh khọt in southern Vietnam, and bánh căn and bánh khoái in central Vietnam.

Australia and New Zealand
In Australia and New Zealand, small pancakes (about 75 mm in diameter) known as pikelets are also eaten. They are traditionally served with jam and/or whipped cream, or solely with butter, at afternoon tea, but can also be served at morning tea. They are made with milk, self-raising flour, eggs, and a small amount of icing sugar.

In some circles in New Zealand, very thin, crêpe-like or English pancake-like pancakes (around 20 cm in diameter) are known as "flapjacks". The name may derive from their thinness, making them more likely to "flap". They are traditionally served with butter, or butter and lemon, possibly something sweet, and then rolled up and eaten.

American-style pancakes are also popular. They are eaten for breakfast or as a dessert, with lemon juice and sugar, butter and maple syrup, stewed fruits such as strawberries and cream, ice cream or mascarpone.

Horn of Africa
Pancakes in the Horn of Africa region (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia) are known as injera (sometimes transliterated enjera; Oromo: budenaa; Somali: canjeero). Injera is a yeast-risen flatbread with a unique, slightly spongy texture. Traditionally made out of teff flour, it is a national dish in Ethiopia and Eritrea. A similar variant is eaten in Somalia (where it is called canjeero or lahooh) and Yemen (where it is known as lahoh). In Eritrea and Ethiopia, a variety of stews, known as wat, sometimes salads (during Ethiopian Orthodox fasting, for which believers abstain from most animal products) or simply more injera (called injera firfir), are placed upon the injera for serving. Using one's right hand, small pieces of injera are torn and used to grasp the stews and salads for eating. The injera under these stews soaks up the juices and flavours of the foods and, after the stews and salads are gone, this bread is also consumed. Injera is thus simultaneously food, eating utensil, and plate. When the entire "tablecloth" of injera is gone, the meal is over. Lahoh, is a pancake-like bread originating in Somalia, Djibouti and Yemen. It is often eaten along with honey and ghee, and washed down with a cup of tea. During lunch, lahoh is sometimes consumed with curry, soup or stew.

South Africa
Pancakes in South Africa refer to crepes. They are traditionally prepared by the Afrikaans community on gas stoves, and called a pannekoek in Afrikaans, eaten on wet and cold days. Pannekoeke are served with cinnamon-flavored sugar (and sometimes lemon juice); the sugar may be left to dissolve onto the pancake; if eaten immediately the pancake is crispy. It is a staple at Dutch Reformed Church fetes. American-style "silver dollar" pancakes are eaten in South Africa, as "plaatkoekies" or "flapjacks".

In South Africa, there is a variation of the pancake called a crumpet. It is made from self-raising flour, eggs, milk and a pinch of salt. The smooth batter is fried in butter resulting in a slightly raised flat cake. Crumpets are always served hot, usually for breakfast, with butter and golden syrup.

Kenya
In Kenya, pancakes are eaten for breakfast as an alternative to bread. They are served plain with the sugar already added to the batter to sweeten them. Kenyan pancakes are similar to English pancakes and French crepes.

Uganda
In Uganda, pancakes are locally made with bananas (one of the staple foods of the country) and usually served as a breakfast or as a snack option.

Pancake restaurant chains
In the US, Mexico and Canada, a franchised restaurant chain named International House of Pancakes (IHOP) has restaurants serving pancakes at all hours of the day. The Original Pancake House is another chain of pancake restaurants across the US, and Walker Brothers is a series of pancake houses in the Chicago area that developed as a franchised spin-off of The Original Pancake House.

The popularity of pancakes in Australia has spawned the Pancake Parlour and Pancakes on the Rocks franchised restaurants. In British Columbia and Alberta, the restaurant chain De Dutch serves Dutch and Flemish-style pannenkoeken.

Pancake Day
Pancakes are traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday, which is known as "Pancake Day" in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, and "Pancake Tuesday" in Ireland and Scotland. (Shrove Tuesday is better known in the United States, France and other countries as Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday.) Historically, pancakes were made on Shrove Tuesday so that the last of the fatty and rich foods could be used up before Lent.

Charity and school events are organized on Pancake Day: in a "pancake race" each participant carries a pancake in a frying pan. All runners must toss their pancakes as they run and catch them in the frying pan. This event is said to have originated in Olney, England in 1444 when a housewife was still busy frying pancakes to eat before the Lenten fast when she heard the bells of St Peter and St Paul's Church calling her to the Shriving Service. Eager to get to church, she ran out of her house still holding the frying pan complete with pancake, and still wearing her apron and headscarf. Pancake Day is also widely celebrated in Australia.

Every Shrove Tuesday since 1950, the towns of Olney and Liberal, Kansas have competed in the International Pancake Race. Only local women may compete; they race, and their times are compared to determine the international winner. In Olney the main women's race is augmented by races for local schoolchildren and for men.

The Rehab UK Parliamentary Pancake Race takes place every Shrove Tuesday, with teams from the British lower house (the House of Commons), the upper house (the House of Lords), and the Fourth Estate, contending for the title of Parliamentary Pancake Race Champions. The fun relay race is to raise awareness of the work of the national brain injury charity, Rehab UK, and the needs of people with acquired brain injury. In 2009 the Upper House won. The race was then won by the Lower House in 2010 with the Upper House reclaiming their winning title in 2011. Last year (2012) the Lower House were crowned the pancake flipping champions. The hotly contested 2013 Rehab Parliamentary Pancake Race took place on Tuesday 12 February.