Just like most celebrating a birthday is a big deal. So, for us celebrating our dogs birthday is no different.
There are so many options when it come to choosing the type of cake or cupcake you can make or your four-legged family member!
First is choosing the size of cake you would like to make. You can make a big statement with a full-size birthday can and cut out a piece for your dog or you can make individual cupcake sized ones, so you don’t need to worry about the cutting or be too worried about the portion size.
As more than 50% of the United States dogs population was surveyed as overweight or obese in 2018 (Ward). Keeping in mind portion size and even the amount of daily food consumption on the day of the celebration is important. If you are not comfortable in cutting out your dogs meal or meals of the day of the celebration I would recommend cutting back their portion size as taking the cake as a portion of their daily food intake. You can also do as we do and feed your pups their normal portion of food for the morning and count the cake as their dinner.
Next thing to choose is the type of cake. When choosing the type of cake for your pup try to keep in mind things that they enjoy eating. Also keep in mind allergies your dog has or may potentially have. Dogs GI tract are not as long as humans so if something upsets there stomach it wouldn’t be long after their treat that you would see results that something doesn’t agree with them.
For this cake we wanted to go back to what is known as the dogs ancestral diet or species appropriate diet. Which consist of primarily high protein and fat with very little carbohydrates (Becker & Taylor).
We chose to go with a meatloaf type cupcake with the following ingredients. Keep in mind that most of these ingredients can be interchangeable to agree with your dogs dietary requirements and or likes. Something we also try to strive for is giving our pups as much organic as we can just like we do for ourselves!
Ingredients:
- 1-1¼ lb. ground meat
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ c rolled oats
- 4 medium stalks of celery
- 1 medium to large apple of your choice
- ¼ c 2% milk
- ¼ c chicken stalk
- 4 red potatoes boiled and mashed
- dash of salt to taste
- frozen or fresh peas for garnish
- muffin tin
- cupcake decorating materials *optional
Directions:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350°. Peal skin off your potatoes and place into boiling water. Boil until potatoes fall off when pierced.
Step 2: Chop up apple and celery into small pieces.
Step 3: Combine meat with all wet (meat, eggs, milk and stock) ingredients by hand or with a mixer.
Step 4: Combine all dry (oats, apples and celery) ingredients into the wet ingredients. I would recommend folding these ingredients in by hand or with a spoon as to not crush the apples and celery.
Step 5: Take the mixed meat loaf ingredients and put into the oiled muffin tin. Make a mound on the top of each muffin as these are not like normal cupcakes and they will not rise. Place in the oven at 350° for about 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean when poked into the center of cupcake.
Step 6: While the cupcakes are baking take your boiled potatoes and place them in your clean mixer. Mix the potatoes until they are smooth like frosting. You may need to add additional water or stalk to help smooth things out. At this point I added a pinch of salt for taste. The potatoes are something you can also make ahead of time and just reheat to make it smooth enough to work with.
Step 7: Once your muffins are fully cooked and your mashed potatoes a cool enough to manage, take a piping bag and fill it with your mashed potatoes. Add the mashed potatoes to the top of your muffin like frosting.
Step 8: Place the peas around the cupcake to garnish. You can also use an additional apple slice to add a little extra to the top of the cupcake.
Now grab the balloons, presents and doggie friends, its time for the party.
Make sure to have your camera close by as all the action will happen quickly once these delouse treats are laid out.
