1. Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, falls between February 2 and March 9, depending on the date for Easter. It marks the start of Lent, the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.
2. ‘Shrove’ stems from the old English word 'shrive', meaning 'confess all sins'.
3. Brits will eat a staggering 52 million eggs on Pancake Day – that’s 22 million more than on a regular day.
4. Over a lifetime, an average person will eat 7,300 eggs.
5. Research*  shows that Brits find pancake-making a real challenge – a third have experienced their pancakes ripping or falling apart in the pan and 30 per cent have suffered from them sticking.
6. Seventy-five per cent of people don’t know the ingredients needed for the basic pancake mix, according to a survey*. The site www.eggrecipes.co.uk features a step-by-step guide to help them along.
7. Research shows**  that one in ten over-55s have never made a pancake, either from scratch or with a mix, whereas only 5% of 16-18 year-olds have never cooked a pancake.
8. More than half of us prefer pancakes with just lemon and a little sugar, according to a recent poll**. More adventurous pancake aficionados will be opting for maple syrup, chocolate sauce or even cheese on Pancake Day.
9. Just about every country has its own version of the pancake. Some of the best known are: buckwheat flour galettes of Brittany; sweet Cretan tiganítes of Greece; Moroccan semolina baghrir and Russian buckwheat-flour blinis.
10. In the village of Olney, Buckinghamshire, Shrove Tuesday has been celebrated with a pancake race since 1445. It is said that the tradition began when one harassed wife heard the shriving bell and dashed off to church, still clutching her frying pan.
11. The world record for pancake flipping is 349 flips in two minutes.  
12. The largest pancake ever tossed measured 15 meters in diameter.

* GfK NOP research conducted on 1,000 consumers aged 16+, October 2010
** OnePoll survey of 3,000 consumers, February 2010