I’m basically the dorkiest dog mom on the planet, and one of my biggest struggles is resisting my pups’ adorable begging techniques when I’m eating something they want (which is everything, let’s be honest…I could be chewing on a clove of raw garlic and they would beg for a bite…not that I would do that 🤢). I don’t have (or want) human kids, so my puppies are the closest thing to offspring I’ll ever have, and they’re naturally a bit spoiled. Because they’re rescues, we know what month and year they were born in, but not the exact day. The first year we had Miles, I knew I had to make my first not-born son a birthday cake for his first birthday, so I immediately started looking up recipes for cakes that are safe for dogs but also delicious for humans. Boom! I found this recipe for a grain-free apple peanut butter dog cake!
I’m not fancy enough to have ramekins in my humble kitchen, but I do have loaf pans, so I simply doubled the recipe and baked it in a loaf pan. It’s such a simple recipe; the most time-consuming part is dicing up the apple. Other than that, it’s just peanut butter, egg and baking powder. Of course I iced it with more peanut butter, because my dogs love peanut butter almost as much as I do.
I was wildly impressed by this cake, and my husband and I both ate it happily. Since that first birthday, I’ve made it a few more times for birthdays or adoption day celebrations (because adopting these cuties is worth celebrating as often as possible).
Recently, when it was time to celebrate Crackers’ adoption day, I didn’t have any apples in the house but I did have canned pumpkin and had discovered that my fur kids LOVE pumpkin, so I looked up a new concept on a whim and found this recipe. In the spirit of honesty, I don’t buy fucking whole wheat flour so I used regular flour and my dogs are perfectly fine. I also skipped the icing since I can’t eat/don’t buy yogurt and just iced it with peanut butter. It was a perfectly fine substitute.
So next time you realize it’s nearing your fur baby’s birthday or adoption day, make them a cake! You are the center of their world, and they deserve to be shown how special they are to you too. Dogs are a gift; I’m not going to say a gift from god because, well, I’m an atheist, but they’re a gift nonetheless, and I cherish every day I’m privileged to spend with my fur kids.
Musings of a Dog Mom 