7 best pancake pans for a flipping good crepe on Pancake Day and beyond

Ok, so it’s not cheap, but when you feel the weight behind this well-made pan, you’ll understand why. Crafted from cast iron, the heat is evenly dispersed, resulting in perfectly cooked pancakes every time. It has an elegant dark wooden handle and comes with a handy wooden spatula and “spreader” to move the pancake mixture around (essential for thin crepes!). We were impressed when we put it to the test, although some might feel the weightiness makes flipping the pancake a little hard. 

It’s not technically a pan, but for professional pancakes every time, we think this might be one better. This electric gadget heats quickly and comes with two non-stick plates. The first makes a big 38cm crepe and the other creates seven mini (9.5cm) pancakes. It comes with a plastic ladle, wooden spatula and spreader, and there’s a recipe book to get you started. The non-slip feet ensure it’s nice and sturdy on the kitchen counter, the only downside is, it’s a little bulky to store.

Made from lightweight forged aluminium, we found this one nice and easy to manoeuvre when flipping our creations. The non-stick pan felt reliably effective and the 25cm size is ideal for making crepes the size of most dinner plates. The cool-touch handle was also reassuring, and it can also go straight in the oven, ideal if you’re keeping your stack warm. There’s currently money off this pan, making it a particularly worthwhile investment.

It’s a bit niche but we couldn’t resist including this elegant blini pan. It measures just 12cm across, making it ideal for cute starters or a stack of fluffy scotch pancakes for decadent brunch dishes. You could also use it for perfectly round fried eggs! It uses an innovative beeswax non-stick coating, but still requires a decent amount of butter or oil to work properly and keep your batter well lubricated. We really like the professional kitchen appearance, but do note this one is not suitable for the dishwasher.

Made from durable non-stick aluminium, this premium pan has a thick bottom which heats up faster than a regular pan, while using less energy – pretty impressive. It has space for five small pancakes, which is perfect for making a whole stack at once. We were impressed by how seamless the process was, with none getting stuck, and no waiting around for the next round of pancakes. This is a tough bit of kitchen kit which we envision using for years to come.

If you don’t envision yourself making pancakes very often, this inexpensive pan is ideal. It’s fairly lightweight and easy to store, and required just a small amount of oil thanks to the light-blue non-stick coating. We also tried an omelette in this which worked just as well! Simple but effective.

Who wouldn’t want a plateful of emojis for breakfast? Amazon is selling this smiley-themed pan so you can up your pancake game ahead of Shrove Tuesday. We found it easier to use than the stencil version (above) as you simply dollop a ladle of batter into the face-shaped hole. They were a little tricky to flip (we’d recommend using a small rubber spatula), but we soon got the hang of it and the kids loved them. The only downside to this pan is that it isn’t suitable for induction hobs.