Speaking of pancakes I'm the one that get's the honer here, the Wife won't even attempt them but they're in reality real easy to make. It's a from scratch mix passed down through the family.
1 cup of flour (I've found virtually any flour will work)
2 tsp baking powder
little sugar
dash salt
Milk
Egg (optional)
bit of cooking oil
Mix in bowl with mixer adding milk until it is the right consistency. Observe batter for some bubbling in batter if it is flat add a bit more baking powder and mix it in. You are now ready to proceed to the griddle.
But the fun really starts before the mixing actually started. With this mix base you can really get creative. I've used pineapple and juice, chunky applesauce, blueberries, pecans, peaches, bacon, apple chunks, and stuff I'm not thinking of in pancake mix and honestly I've never had a failure. It's just that when adding moist components add them before the milk so you don't thin the mixture itself, in effect the moist components replace the milk.
As far as syrup goes 1 cup brown sugar per a cup of water. Bring to boil and then add maple flavoring to taste. As far as I'm concerned it tastes better than the corn syrup on the shelves, it's cheaper and probably not as fattening.