Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. (US) an attractive young woman, esp. with overtones of promiscuity.

1931		D. Runyon ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 42: This little red-headed pancake.
1944		D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 131: I am more than surprised that he is carrying the torch for such a looking pancake as this Barbecue.
1959		D. Niland Gold in the Streets (1966) 121: The dreamy waitress dawdled up. Danno thought: About time too, you flat-chested pancake.

3. (US black) a black person viewed as overly friendly towards, or imitative of whites [a pancake is cooked brown on the outside but is white within].

1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1009: Pancake: a humble type of Negro.
1957		R.S. Gold ‘Vernacular of the Jazz World’ in AS XXXII:4 277: pancake. A humble type of Negro.
1983		Maledicta VII 23: Pancake, and there are buckwheat pancakes, was among blacks an ingroup slur for an ‘Uncle Tom.’ This nexus might have been influenced, moreover, by the ‘Aunt Jemima’ brand of pancake mixes, which includes a buckwheat mix.

4. (US gay) a heterosexual woman [from a gay perspective, she is ‘flipped’ into the missionary position for sex].

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 81: a straight woman; any woman [...] pancake (dated, ’40s, fr the facial cosmetic).

5. (US gay) one who engages in homosexual intercourse and takes both the dominant and passive roles [he or she is ‘flipped’ from being sexually ‘on top’ or ‘underneath’].

1996		L. Pettiway Honey, Honey, Miss Thang 144: When it comes to homosexuality they done a whole lot on both sides. My mom calls it ‘pancakes,’ ‘making pancakes’. [Ibid.] 197: I consider him a straight man. But if he doing me and I’m doing him, he’s gay. If he’s pancake, if he’s flip-flopping, then he’s gay. If he is not flip-flopping, then he’s not gay, he bisexual or he straight.
1999		Gaymart.com Queer Sl. in the Gay 90s 🌐 Pancake – A 1950’s term among African-American lesbians to denote a butch who allowed herself to be flipped – from ‘top’ to ‘bottom’.