I can't make pancakes. If I had a euro for every person who's told me that making pancakes is easy, I'd be a cynical, rage-filled, doubting millionaire.

I can make pancake batter but as soon as it touches the frying pan, all hell breaks loose. My Mum, the aforementioned Good Cook, once stood at my side and monitored everything I did. Unsurprisingly, these pancakes came out great. Filled with confidence, I bounded home, whipped up an enormous vat of batter, waited the requisite time for the baking powder to rise, and poured it into the frying pan.

Raw, burnt, inedible mess. Wildly varying degrees of thickness, wildly varying degrees of cookedness. No varying degrees of awful taste.

Waffles are easier because the waffle iron does it for you and there isn't a whole lot you can do wrong. That's why I own 2 waffle irons that I never use. I gave one to my Mum who has never once used it, because she is able to make actual pancakes.

Related: I once tried to make potato waffles in the waffle iron. I can't recommend enough if you ever have a tub of perfectly good mashed potato that you really want to ruin.