This year, why not kick the Mother’s Day classics up a notch? Instead of chocolates or any old breakfast in bed, start Mum’s day of right with fluffy chocolate pancakes, then really knock her socks off with homemade ice cream sandwiches.

Fluffy Chocolate Pancakes

Serves 4 | Prep 5 mins | Cook 20 mins

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bi-carb soda
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Butter, to grease pan
• 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1/3 cup choc chips
• Cream or whipped cream, for serving

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and vanilla extract. Create a well in the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and mix well.

Pour 2 tablespoons batter into a pan greased with butter and cook on both sides until lightly golden.

Hot tip: For blueberry pancakes, add 1/2 cup blueberries to the batter.

Choc Ice-Cream Sandwiches

Serves 20 | Prep 30 mins | Cook 20 mins

• 225g unsalted butter, softened and cubed
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 400g plain flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
• 2L choc-mint ice-cream
• 2L berry ice-cream

Cream the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bi-carb soda. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture to form a dough. Wrap dough in cling film and refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat oven to 170°C. Line three oven trays with baking paper. Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the dough evenly to a thickness of approximately 5mm. Using a 6.5cm round cookie cutter, cut approximately 40 shapes from the dough, re-rolling the scraps.

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes on the middle shelf. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, remove ice-cream from the freezer and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 mins. Place in a large bowl and mix until soft but not melted. Add softened choc-mint ice-cream to a 22cmx32cm Swiss roll tray and spread to a 2cm thickness. Return to freezer for 2 hours. Repeat with berry ice-cream in a separate pan.

Remove ice-cream from freezer. Using the same 6.5cm cookie cutter and working quickly, cut out 4 rounds of ice-cream. Return ice-cream tray to freezer. Sandwich between two shortbread biscuits. Continue until all sandwiches are complete.

Tip: Place finished sandwiches into the freezer to avoid them melting.

Get the latest Canberra news, sport, entertainment, lifestyle, competitions and more delivered straight to your inbox with the Canberra Daily Newsletter. Sign up here.