14 flipping facts about Pancake Day

1. The idea of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is more than 1,000 years old. They were originally invented as a way of using up all the leftover fatty and rich foods before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.

2. In total, Brits use 52 million eggs on Pancake Day. That’s 22 million more than any other day.

3. The largest pancake ever made measured 15 metres and weighed in at three tonnes – you’ll need a lot of sugar and lemon for that one.

4. The most flips anyone has ever done with a pancake is 349 flips in two minutes.

5. Over a lifetime, an average person will eat 7,300 eggs.

6. In France, people make a wish before flipping their pancakes. They do this while holding a coin in the other hand.

7. On average we consume two pancakes per person on Pancake Day, which means that we get through 117 million pancakes in one day. This requires enough milk to fill more than 93 Olympic swimming pools and almost 13 million kilos of plain flour.

8. We all have our preferences for pancake toppings but the weirdest pancake toppings have to be sour cream and caviar, ketchup and mustard, peanut butter and ice cream, coco pops and cream, cream cheese and strawberries.

9. Andrei Smirnov from Russia ate a colossal 73 pancakes in one hour! That’s more than one a minute.

10. The Guiness World Record for the most pancakes served in eight hours is 34,818.

11. Before baking soda was invented, cooks often used fresh snow as it contained ammonia, which helped the pancakes come out fluffy and soft.

12. The highest pancake toss reached 329cm high. Good luck trying to beat that!

13. In France and the United States Pancake day is called Mardi Gras which means 'Fat' or 'Grease Tuesday'.

14. Have you tried making a Welsh pancake? Crempog are thicker and slightly risen and cooked on a griddle. Recipe here.

Will you be scoffing pancakes this evening?  What's your favourite topping? Tell us how you'll be celebrating Pancake Day below.