Pancake artist Ben Daniel gave residents of Heisinger Bluffs Lutheran Senior Services a special treat Thursday - portraits of their faces on a pancake.
Daniel is one of four artists at Dancakes, a St. Louis-based pancake art business.
Heisinger Bluffs Senior Living invited residents in its independent and assisted living facilities, as well as those at St. Joseph's Bluffs, to watch Daniel create pancake art Thursday.
Daniel has worked with Dancakes for two years, helping spread the love of pancake art.
"The coolest thing about my job is that it makes people happy," Daniel said. "It can be daunting sometimes to have a huge line of people and have to crank out a bunch of pancakes, but when you flip it and everybody freaks out - that's pretty awesome."
Other than having some artistic talent, there is no secret to pancake art.
Daniel said is all you really need is batter, icing gel, squeeze bottles and a griddle, anyone can learn to do it.
"I do a lot of portraits, but I enjoy doing the weird requests like a fat Pikachu or the puke emoji or anything that lets me stretch my artistic range," he said.
As the Heisinger Bluffs audience watched Daniel create his first portrait, their eyes lit up at how closely the pancake resembled the first volunteer.
After that, almost everyone wanted one. Daniel created single portraits, dual portraits and even a quadruple portrait of the Heisinger Bluffs staff.
"This is amazing," Heisinger Bluffs resident Lita Plate said. "He is really talented."
Showcasing his talent with what he called a "glamour shot," Daniel added hair to a portrait of a resident who was nearly bald, noting they can add or take away anything when drawing the portrait on the griddle.
"This has been great. It's real talent," Heisinger Bluffs resident Jim Schaffner said. "My favorite part has been watching him doing this. It's amazing that he can do that as an artist on the hot plate just from taking our picture."
Credit for the opportunity to experience pancake art was given to Joe Schepers, manager of dining services at Heisinger Bluffs.
After finding out about Dancakes from Executive Director David Knocke, Schepers sat down with his team to figure out a time to bring them to Heisinger.
"The value of programs like this is giving seniors and employees the option to experience something they may never experience," Schepers said.
Knocke added: "The neatest thing about today is that we have residents from all of the different levels of living. Somebody from all over the community is represented, and pancakes are the common denominator."
Rita Rivera, director of lifestyle, said Heisinger Bluffs is the first Lutheran Senior Services community to host a Dancakes artist.
"The greatest thing about Heisinger is that we have a great team that comes up with fun things for residents and LSS staff to engage in," Rivera said.
Dancakes artists have been featured on multiple media outlets across the country and internationally.