Yes, it was pancake batter!
I remember that commercial, too...it was around 1972 or 1973, and it showed a chandelier being dipped into pancake batter...
"A chandelier...dipped in PANCAKE BATTER? What a test for the first lemon-freshened dishwasher powder, NEW PALMOLIVE CRYSTAL CLEAR!"
It was Colgate's first attempt to extend the Palmolive brand name to automatic dishwasher detergent, and it was also known for the its first package--a box that looked something like an old-fashioned flat-top milk carton. I remember Consumer Reports criticizing the package because it looked like a carton of refrigerated lemonade, and warning users to keep the package away from children.
(Actually, Colgate had made another dishwasher detergent in the early 1960s--a powder called Vel-O-Matic...which lasted about as long as it took me to write this sentence!