When PWHL Toronto's Kali Flanagan pulled pancakes out of her Prada purse, few expected the response she received. Since then her "Flancakes" have become a walk in staple and social media favorite.
When PWHL Toronto's Kali Flanagan pulled pancakes out of her Prada purse, few expected the response she received. Since then her "Flancakes" have become a walk in staple and social media favorite.
Oats, cashew milk, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, and a banana — Kali Flanagan's pregame pancakes are simple, and PWHL Toronto's defender describes the recipe best.
"It's pretty much oatmeal in pancake form," she said.
Flanagan's pancakes, known as either the "purse pancakes" or the "Flancakes," have become a phenomenon taking PWHL social media by storm. Often seen taking a plastic bag filled with a trio or quartet of the circular snacks out of her Prada purse in pregame photos, the Flancakes evolved from a funny pregame routine to must-see posts on Toronto's team accounts.
"I use them as part of my pregame meal," Flanagan said. "I'll eat four of them before I leave, and then I usually bring three or four to the game. But I usually only eat one or two more when I'm there."
As for the name, the pancakes go by many different terms, with the team's social media account coining the most famous iterations — Flancake and Purse Pancake. For Flanagan, it doesn't matter to her how you refer to them.
The now iconic pancakes were created months ago when the 28-year-old changed her diet. Flanagan used to have the stereotypical pregame hockey player meal — often either pasta, or whatever easily accessible carb was available. But after gradually switching to a dairy-free diet around June of last year, then cutting out gluten, she was looking for something different to make for breakfast.
Bagels became the norm for a while, then eggs and toast daily — the same breakfast every morning for the self-described "creature of habit." She continued to seek out her carb of choice, and as summer turned to fall, Flanagan started experimenting with pancake recipes.
She'd buy premade mixes with oat flour, but the boxes contained preservatives and other ingredients Flanagan looked to avoid, so she started crafting her own recipe from scratch.
"[I was] just trying to play around with them and make it the best, healthiest and taste the best that I could," Flanagan said.
Pancakes with bananas, without bananas, with blueberries, without blueberries — different versions of the Flancakes emerged before Flanagan settled on a single recipe.
"When I got to Toronto, within a few weeks, I figured out the recipe I've been making since I got here," Flanagan said.
With the recipe locked down, Flanagan began making the pancakes almost every day. This includes game days, for breakfast on off days and practice. And practice is where her team noticed her unusual carb.
"I always like to have pancakes at practice,” Flanagan said. “The girls are always like, 'There are the pancakes again' while laughing. Since it's taken flight on social media a little bit, everyone laughs — our trainer even calls me pancakes."
"Everyone just laughs and thinks it's funny, but they definitely tease me for it."
Flanagan's teammates, like any athlete, are strict in their routines and choose not to venture into the pancake realm for their pregame meal, but a few have tried the Flancakes, just to see if she's lying about the taste.
"I've given them bites of them to try because they don't believe me when I say they taste good," Flanagan said laughing. "They're pretty good. They're pretty boring because there's nothing in them — there's a banana in them. Other than that, they're just oatmeal in pancake form."
As for the first appearance of the Flancakes? When New Year's Day came, and the PWHL was set to kick off their inaugural season — Toronto versus New York at the Mattamy Athletic Centre (MAC).
Flanagan walked past the sliding glass doors and down the corridor adjacent to bright blue screens displaying the PWHL logo at the MAC. As she neared the escalators, Flanagan saw the team's photographer.
At that moment, Flanagan had the brilliant idea to show off her pancakes.
"I was just walking in, and [saw] Heather our photographer, and I was like, 'Heather, I have pancakes in my purse,'" Flanagan recalled. "She just loved it and thought it was so funny. So now, whenever I walk in, she and Alex are like, 'Do you have the pancakes?'"
"So that's kind of how it started."
The small plastic baggy filled with pancakes from her Prada purse went up on Toronto's Twitter and Instagram, and the legend of the Flancakes took off from there.
Flanagan didn't expect her purse pancakes to take social media by storm. All she wanted was to make people laugh, and given the strong response whenever the Flancakes are seen on social media, it seems people have responded in the way she hoped.
"It's just something silly, and hopefully it makes people laugh," Flanagan said. "It's a thing people have just jumped onto, and they think it's funny because it's not the norm — pulling pancakes out of my purse when I'm walking to the rink."
"So hopefully, it's just giving people a laugh."