Got hit with a flying pancake at the county fair last month, now I'm building a breakfast catapult

I was at the Polk County Fair last month, standing near the pancake breakfast booth when some kid's flipper sent a flapjack straight into my face. It got me thinking, why can't we launch breakfast items across a field for fun? I'm working on a small catapult that uses a spring-loaded spatula to flip pancakes 20 feet into a target bucket. The big problem is the batter keeps sticking to the paddle, so I'm testing with frozen pancakes for now. Has anyone messed around with food-based projectile gadgets or found a nonstick coating that works for this kind of thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

claire37817d ago

Wait, are you sure the kid was using a flipper? Pancake flippers are usually those thin metal spatulas, not the big rubber ones you use for flipping burgers. Anyway, I've seen people use a light spray of cooking oil on their catapult paddle, or even a thin layer of butter before they launch. The frozen pancakes are a smart workaround for now though, they hold together way better.

the_michael17d ago

Actually my wife just wipes the catapult with a dry paper towel between shots to keep the pancakes from sticking.