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Dr. Dan the Pancake Man whips up mouthwatering pancake art

Daniel Drake, or Dr. Dan the Pancake Man, has been creating mouthwatering pancake art at the Courtesy Diner in St. Louis, Missouri, for almost five years.

"It's like a doodle but it's in pancakes so people think it's awesome," Dan, who works Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at the diner, tells KSDK.

Thanks to a recent Reddit post that linked to a photo of one of Dan's impressive "dancakes," Dan's sweet creations are now getting some international attention.

"I'll try [to make] anything," Dan, a musician who moonlights as a novelty pancake maker, tells the Riverfront Times from behind the counter at Courtesy Diner. "I can draw, so if I can draw it, I can probably make it in pancakes."

He says his first fun pancake was inspired by a slow shift.

"I told myself I would make these goofy pancakes for the next person who came in so I did I made this huge ridiculous smiley face and I put it in front of him and I wasn't sure how he would feel about it and he looked up and locked eyes with me for a second and then he just started laughing," Dan recalls.

The customer tipped him $15 — and Dan never looked back.

Dan's Facebook page boasts photos of some of his best flapjacks, from Aladdin to Nyan Cat to a giraffe to a "unicorn sh*tting on a rainbow."

Dan recently visited the TODAY show and created edible portraits of the morning show's hosts on-air — and took viewer requests, which included a Kanye West flapjack.

"My rule is I take requests, but I don't make promises because it is pancake batter, and if I mess up a line or something like I work for somebody, food costs you know," Dan tells KSDK, calling his batter mishaps "happy disasters."

And, yes, some customers do request plain ol' pancakes.

"On request I do make weird normal 'round' pancakes," he writes on Reddit. -- by Nadine Kalinauskas