If you clean out an old ketchup bottle and fill it with a thin (but not watery) pancake batter, you can squeeze out precise amounts or add artistic flair without making a mess.
At my house, I typically make a mess as I use a measuring cup to scoop the batter out of the bowl and drip globs of batter throughout the kitchen. (Which reduces the hubby points for making weekend breakfast to less that zero).
This works pretty good, it works best with thinner batter that is pretty well mixed. It may take some practice to see what recipe works the best with the bottle you have. I have also, on occasion opened up the hole in the lid.
It is pretty cool that some people have taken this technique to a whole higher level. I have seen videos of people making art out of squirted pancake batter. They let the pancakes cook to different levels of doneness, which causes shading on the portraits they made.
