As one of humankind's oldest forms of bread, the versatile pancake has hundreds of variations and is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner and as appetizers, entrées and desserts. Pancakes begin as a batter that is poured into rounds, either on a griddle or in a skillet, and cooked over high heat. These round cakes vary in thickness from the wafer-thin French crêpe to the much thicker American breakfast pancake (also called hotcake, griddlecake and flapjack). Many countries have specialty pancakes such as Hungarian palacsinta and Russian blini.