100 Favorite Dishes: "Flappers" at Colossal Cafe

As a countdown to the Best of the Twin Cities 2010, coming this spring, Hot Dish is serving up a hundred of our favorite local dishes. Send your own nominations to hotdish@citypages.com.

It's hard to screw up a pancake, but it's also hard to make one stand out. Is there a positive version of the saying "sticks out like a sore thumb?" Because in the world of pancakes, Colossal Cafe's stick out in best of ways. The cafe calls their yeast-based cakes "flappers," and fortunately, they merit being distinguished from their pancake peers with a silly name. Rich and sweet, with a little tang added by the yeast, and topped with a dusting of powdered sugar, flappers can most definitely stand on their own without syrup -- a key sign of a good cake. The real maple syrup makes them practically a meal. You can also get them with fruit or the homerun combo of apples, walnuts, and brie with brown sugar and honey. Bow down before the flapper.

Hungry for more? The dishes in our countdown thus far are linked below:

No. 100: Volcano Salad at Tiger Sushi
No. 99 Eclair at Butter
No. 98 Moussaka at Gardens of Salonica