06/04/2018

Pupcakes: Homemade Dog Friendly Cupcakes

Name: Pupcakes: Homemade Dog Friendly Cupcakes
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 125 g grated fruit & vegetables e.g. apple, carrot, courgette; 1 large egg (beaten); 30 ml any oil e.g. coconut (if using coconut oil, melt it first); 30 ml natural yogurt, milk or water; 125 g flour; 1 tsp baking powder; pinch ground cinnamon; 6 tsp cream cheese; 2 tsp desiccated coconut (finely ground if possible); 2 tsp peanut butter (salt/sugar free); 2 dog biscuits e.g. gravy bones; carrot, cut into julienne strips or grated; desiccated coconut; ground cinnamon; grated Cheddar cheese; dog biscuits/dried meat treats

Pupcakes are no added sugar, dog friendly cupcakes. With natural ingredients like carrot, courgette and apple they’re a tasty treat for your pooch. In this post I’ll also show you how to make sugar-free toppings based on cream cheese.

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I’m really not much of a cake decorator, but when I made these Pupcakes for my cocker spaniel’s fourth birthday he really didn’t mind.

Cockers are notoriously greedy, but our boy Larkin seems particularly food-obsessed. If he’s not snoozing, out for a walk or playing, then he’ll want to be eating. The only things we’ve found that he doesn’t like are parsnips (although he loves swede and turnip) and celery (but he munches down fennel quite happily).

I’m not a fan of regularly feeding dogs ultra processed foods (nor humans either, obviously). So Larkin has a mainly raw diet of meat, offal and bone supplemented with fish, vegetables, fruit and natural chews like dried rabbit ears.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t have occasional treats and homemade goodies like turkey biscuits at Christmas and yogurt ice lollies in the Summer.

For his birthday, I often make a batch of Pupcakes. Although I don’t recommend you feed them whole if your dog is liable to try and eat it all in one go like Larkin! Cutting each cake into pieces is probably a better idea.

PUPCAKES: NO EXPERT BAKING REQUIRED

The good thing about baking for dogs is that, even if you’re not much of a baker, your pooch isn’t going to mind if your cupcakes turn out a bit solid or a bit burnt.

If I was making cupcakes for humans, I’d use electric beaters to make sure they were light and fluffy. But for Pupcakes I just mix the ingredients together with a spoon. To be honest, with the amount of fruit and vegetables I’ve packed in (about the same weight as the flour), they’re never going to be featherlight anyway. So my advice is: don’t sweat it.

The recipe makes six cupcakes which is rather a lot for one dog. But as I rarely have a need for half an egg I just make the full batch. If you don’t have any doggy friends to share them with, then the un-frosted cupcakes can be frozen for another time. You could even break them up first to use as training treats or bedtime snacks.

I use silicone baking trays for the Pupcakes. There’s no need for paper cases and, as long as you leave the cakes to rest a couple of minutes before turning out, they’ll just pop out easily.

But if you do use regular trays and paper cases, just remember to remove the paper before serving to your dog.

Cakes made in mini muffin trays would be great for smaller dogs or if you’d like bite-sized cakes for larger dogs.

CUSTOMISE YOUR PUPCAKES

I’ve used courgette, carrot and apple but any veg and fruit will do, so long as they aren’t one of the foods known to be harmful to dogs. The fruit and veg doesn’t have to be in tip top condition either, so incorporating some that might be starting to soften is a good way of using it up. You could even use leftover cooked veg too.

A few suggestions for other fruit and veg you could use in these Pupcakes: broccoli, banana, pear, blueberries, sweet potato, pineapple, green beans and peas.

I’ve used a combination of coconut oil and natural yogurt to moisten the cupcake mix. If you don’t have these, then use any other oil plus milk or even water.

If dairy doesn’t agree with your dog then you can use all oil. To reduce the calories a bit, use all yogurt and no oil. At a pinch, you could even just use water or low salt stock instead of the oil and yogurt.

Your dog will still love them!

THREE FLAVOURS OF CREAM CHEESE TOPPING

Unless your dog regularly eats foods with artificial flavours, they should find these cupcakes delicious even without the cream cheese frosting, so feel free to leave it off.

But I think it’s worth the little extra effort as it adds another dimension and you can have a bit of fun with the decorating. I add toppings to half the cupcakes and leave the rest plain, although in the recipe I’ve given amounts for frosting all 6 of them.

You could just put plain cream cheese on top, but I like to mix in a few things. Apart from providing a little variety, these can also help to firm up the topping.

COCONUT

The easiest substitute for the icing sugar found in regular cake frosting is desiccated coconut.

If you’ve a standalone grinder or one attached to a food processor, then it’s worth whizzing it up a little first so that it blends with the cream cheese more easily.

For the coconut-cream cheese topping I like to decorate with grated carrot and sprinkle with a little cinnamon to echo carrot cake.

PEANUT BUTTER

My second topping mixes peanut butter with the cream cheese. We only use peanut butter that is 100% peanuts and so contains no sugar or salt

For decoration, I’ve sprinkled over a little Cheddar cheese with a dried meat treat sitting like a cherry on the top.

BISCUIT

The third topping is simply a shiny, dark dog biscuit or ‘gravy bone’ bashed up and stirred through the cream cheese. This gives a texture and appearance a bit like the chocolate in mint-choc-chip ice-cream.

Just remember not to lick your fingers when making this one!

Of course you could pipe on all these toppings, but I just mold it over the top of the cupcake using my hands.

WANT TO MAKE GRAIN FREE PUPCAKES?

I’ve used ordinary white wheat flour in this recipe as Larkin doesn’t have a problem with wheat. I don’t like him to have too much grain in his diet but for the occasional treat it’s fine by me.

As some dogs don’t tolerate wheat or other grains very well, the beauty of making your own dog treats is that you know exactly what’s in them and can design the cupcakes to suit your own dog. In this recipe you could substitute a grain-free flour such as gram (made from chickpeas) or coconut flour (which will smell wonderful).

If your dog if fine with grains other than wheat, then try oat or rice flour. Note that with flours other than wheat, you may find that the cupcakes don’t rise as much but I doubt you’ll get complaints.

Whatever fillings you include and however you flavour the cream cheese frosting, any discerning pooch is bound to love these veg and fruit Pupcakes.

Pupcakes: Homemade Dog Friendly Cupcakes

Pupcakes are no added sugar, dog friendly cupcakes. With natural ingredients like carrot, courgette and apple they're still a tasty treat for your pooch. Make extra special with a cream cheese topping.

Cuisine Dog treats

Keyword dog friendly

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 6 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

125 g grated fruit & vegetables e.g. apple, carrot, courgette
1 large egg beaten
30 ml any oil e.g. coconut if using coconut oil, melt it first
30 ml natural yogurt, milk or water
125 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch ground cinnamon

For the toppings (optional)

6 tsp cream cheese
2 tsp desiccated coconut finely ground if possible
2 tsp peanut butter (salt/sugar free)
2 dog biscuits e.g. gravy bones

To decorate (optional)

carrot, cut into julienne strips or grated
desiccated coconut
ground cinnamon
grated Cheddar cheese
dog biscuits/dried meat treats

Instructions

Preheat oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6
In a large bowl, mix together the grated fruit and vegetables, egg, oil and yogurt.
Add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and stir well to combine. Add a little water or more yogurt if the mixture seems too thick.
If not using a silicone cupcake tray, line the holes with 6 cake papers.
Divide the mixture between 6 cupcake holes and bake until risen and golden (15-20 min). When cooked, remove from oven and put to one side for a couple of minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Remove any paper cases before adding the toppings or feeding to your dog.
Frosting 1: Coconut-Cream Cheese
Mix 2 tsp of the cream cheese with 2 tsp of desiccated coconut and use to top 2 of the cupcakes. Decorate with dog biscuit, carrot, coconut and cinnamon.
Frosting 2: Peanut Butter-Cream Cheese
Mix 2 tsp of the cream cheese with 2 tsp of peanut butter and use to top 2 of the cupcakes. Decorate with a dried meat treat and grated cheddar cheese.
Frosting 3: Biscuit-Cream Cheese
Crush 2 dog biscuits and mix the crumbs with the remaining 2 tsp of cream cheese. Use to top the final 2 cupcakes. Stick half a biscuit in the middle to decorate and sprinkle with more crushed dog biscuit and some coconut.