The Ultimate Dog Cake Recipe - Featuring my pup Quarry and his canine friends!

​I wish you could meet my new pup, Quarry. That’s short for Quarantine - it won’t take much to decide when he was born! But he’s just the cutest thing, and well, if we’re going to bake for the ones we care about….

​Anyway, you’ll see him when you check out the video for this cake on my YouTube channel. He’s the fuzzy one in my arms with the little hat on! Cute, right?

Of course, we were careful to use only ingredients safe for dogs for this project, but they’re good for people, too, and I’m sure your furry friends won’t mind if you sample a bit yourself!
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Here goes:

​Recipe

Cake:
2 c. whole wheat flour
2 t. baking soda
⅓ c. vegetable oil
3 T honey
½  c. peanut butter
½ c. + 2 T applesauce
1-½ c. pumpkin puree
2 eggs

You don’t even need a mixer! I like to say that where there’s a whisk, there’s a way, and you can sure use one for the wet ingredients, but you’ll need a spatula for the second part. 
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​Whisk the wet ingredients first, then fold in the dry ones. All at once is fine. Scrape your rubber spatula up and over, folding in all the ingredients and in a minute or two, you have lovely smooth cake  batter. No beating needed!

Prepare your pan with shortening and flour or baking spray. I used a tall-sided 8” for mine, but you can make cupcakes or two 6” cakes or even a cute shape! Smooth it into a pan--it smells so good!--and bake for 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees until it springs back or a skewer comes out clean.

Now, how to decorate a doggy cake? With dog treats, of course! And made with the same good-for-your-furry-friend ingredients:
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Dog treats:
1 c. pumpkin
½ c. peanut butter
2 eggs
¼ c. vegetable oil
2-½ c. flour
1 tsp baking soda

The technique for these is the same, at least at this stage, but the proportions are a little different. Again, start with the wet ingredients, and finish with the dry. Now, this isn’t a batter. It’s more like a cookie dough - we’re going to roll it out later, so you won’t be able to turn it with a spatula until it’s done. Instead, mix it with the spatula part way, until it really starts to come together, then turn it onto a board and knead it by hand the rest of the way until all the flour is absorbed and you have a beautiful dough with no streaks in it. 
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Now, roll it out to about ⅛” thick (flour the board and the top of the dough-it’s sticky!)  and cut out whatever shape you want. I used a dog bone shape, of course (see the video) but you don’t have to. The fun part is making it your own, isn’t it? When you’ve cut out the first shapes, roll out your dough again enough times to use it all up. Then bake them on a parchment-lined baking sheet at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.
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Dog treat frosting:
¼ c. peanut butter
2 T coconut oil
1 - 2 T honey
 
Yes! Of course, the dog treats have frosting! Why not, when it’s so easy? Just mix up these three ingredients and set it aside until the dog cookies (how fun!) are cool, then drizzle it back and forth across the cookies with a fork. You’ll see how I do it on the video.  It feels kind of artistic! And don’t try to eat them (at least not yet…)  Put them out to dry for later.

​Okay, NOW is mixer time! We’re going to make Doggie frosting!

Frosting:
1 c. Greek yogurt
½ c. peanut butter
1-2 T honey
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Just mix the ingredients together, attach your whipping head, and whip at medium speed until it’s mixed and fluffy. This isn’t buttercream - it has no sugar (good for the dog, a little different for frosting…) 
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Now, we are READY TO GO! 
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First, you’ll see that in the video, I made three layers.

​Yes, three. This recipe is for only one, but most people don’t have dog parties! We were inviting some hungry canine friends!
I also filled the layers and crumb coated them like we always do, and if you want to review how that’s done, just check out that video and blog.

​Now, after the crumb coat is smooth, I just stick the dog treats all the way around the bottom to decorate it, using a bit of frosting on the back as “glue”. 

Then…. take
2 tubs sugar free whipped topping,
Load them into your piping bag with a good sized tip on the end, and give them a fun squirt all the way around the top like I do in the video. Woo hoo!
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​You can see in the video how much the pups LOVE it! 
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If cake baking is all about treating the ones you care about, well this absolutely goes the extra mile! If doggies could smile, these ones absolutely would!
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Yours will too! Have fun, y’all!