On the night of Saturday, Jan. 26, “Dancakes” came to Ashland University, and set up camp in Redwood Hall, taking part in a CAB event. 

Dancakes is the first name in Professional Pancake Art. The talented artists create different characters, portraits, and other designs out of pancake batter.  

The group has traveled around the world with this craft, creating a large attraction on social media.  

At the event, AU students were able to request nearly anything that came to mind, and it soon came to life through colorful batter. 

Artist Lee Goldberg was present, and shared conversation with students while creating different designs.  

Goldberg’s upbringing began in Pheonix, AZ where he was a cook at a residential drug and alcohol treatment facility. 

When the traffic came to a slow in the kitchen, Golderberg started to get creative. “Anytime someone would order eggs, especially sunny side up, those just looked like eyeballs to me,” he explained. “So, I would take sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, and I would make faces out of them for fun.” 

“People in recovery deserve something a little special to know that we’re not ‘less than,’ even though we feel like it sometimes.” 

Later, a resident introduced Goldberg to pancake art. After a little research, he decided to give it a try.  

“I had like a vat of pancake batter left over, so I took a two-gallon coffee filter, threw batter in it and poked a hole, and just started drawing on my flattop,” said Goldberg.  

At first he said, “It was terrible, really bad, but it was so fun.” 

After practicing the craft for a while, and watching videos, he reached out to the company on Instagram and soon began traveling. 

“Just because I wanted to get better at my art, and it was a thing that was really helping me feel good, and okay within my sobriety, really,” he said.