It’s Shrove Tuesday, which means one thing… trying to cook a pancake and then trying to throw it about it the air (in one piece). So to help you along with this crazy task/tradition we’ve come up with a few tips.

Follow the recipe

Just in case you don’t already know or have the student/pancake ingredient essentials, we’ve come up with the easiest recipe to use. That’s if you weren’t seduced by those pre-made pancake batters they’ve got lined up in the spar for a £1 (if so skip this tip).

• 2 eggs
• 110g / 4oz plain flour
• 200ml / 7oz milk
• 75ml / 3oz water

Then all you have to do is follow the instructions…

1. Break the eggs into a mixing bowl with the plain flour
2. Pour in the water and milk
3. Keep whisking until there’s no lumpy flour pockets in your batter

Then get frying.

Get crazy with the toppings

Okay, we all know that golden syrup, lemon juice and sugar is pretty pretty good, but so are creme eggs and bacon and blueberries and Nutella (RIPV), so we reckon you should branch out, splurge on the £1 chocolate section.

But just in case you aren’t feeling too creative, here’s a few of the topping’s we tried:

• The Classic

I’m not even going to explain this one, except that you should really try it with orange juice instead.

• The Creme Egg Overload

Add a broken creme egg while cooking the pancake and flip so It’ll melt into the batter while cooking. If you’re splashing out you can add chocolate sauce and chocolate chips.

• Banana Choc-Chip

Add the chocolate chips while cooking the pancake batter then add banana slices and chocolate sauce before rolling it up.

• The American

This is the mother of all pancakes. Add cooked bacon in or after baking the pancake as well as maple syrup and blueberries.

• The Tootie-Frootie

We used blueberries and blackberries but anything goes really. If you chop them up and add them to the batter before cooking they’ll burst and make their own jam for your pancake.

• Nuts please

Fancy adding some alcohol? Add schnapps to a fruity pancake batter, or add gin for a twist on the boring classic lemon and sugar filling.

We chose Disaronno and went down the nutty amaretto route! Swap the 3 fluid ounces of water for Disaronno (if you’re feeling brave,) or just add a couple of shots as well as some ground almonds to the batter before baking. If that’s not nutty enough then smother your pancake with Nutella too.

Prepare for flipping failure

It requires a lot of concentration, as well as some cheeky flexing (just incase his flip fails)

And you are going to drop a pancake. Accept it. I didn’t.

It gets better I promise.

If you’re one of those science-y people

Just a little bit too picky or too scared to leave it to chance while tossing your pancake in front of your friends. Professors at University College London have come up with a winning formula to toss the perfect pancake!

L = 4×H /π– D / 2

(L = hand distance from inner edge of the pancake / H = height of flip / D = diameter of pancake)

It works. Look…

Apparently they feel sorry for those wasted first pancake disasters and the pancakes that land on the floor instead of your plate, but we think they’re closet Pancake Day fangirls.