My father-in-law, who is a Southern cook, taught me how to make cornbread fast and without having to heat the oven. He mixed the cornbread batter as usual, but rather than pouring the batter into a pan (or in his case, an iron skillet) and baking it in the oven, he cooked the batter as 4-inch pancakes in a preheated non-stick skillet on top of the stove. We ate the “corncakes” as cornbread for dinner, and I ate the leftovers as pancakes with syrup for breakfast.