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Making your dog a birthday cake is the best way to spoil them on their special day! This furry friend-approved cake is filled with healthy ingredients like yogurt, pumpkin, applesauce, and carrots! They’ll love every bite!
I love making treats for my dog at home because I know exactly what’s in them! No fillers, no preservatives, just healthy ingredients! You’ll have to try my homemade dog treats too for a tasty, anytime snack for your fur baby!
Reasons Your Dog Will LOVE This Cake!
- Dog-Friendly Ingredients: Our Portuguese Water Dog, Leia, is turning 3, so we decided to celebrate her birthday with a cake filled with all of her favorite ingredients! Pumpkin, applesauce, carrots, and of course – peanut butter!
- All natural: Fresh veggies, peanut butter, and yogurt are all great sources of fiber, protein, and calcium; Only the best for your furry friends!
Ingredients in a Dog Birthday Cake
The ingredients for this cake are super simple! They’re all human-grade and easily digestible by your pets. Garnish your cake with your dog’s favorite treats for the ultimate doggy dessert! Measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card below.
- Whole Wheat Flour: I like using whole wheat flour as my cake base for its added fiber. If your dog has a gluten intolerance, you can use gluten-free flour instead.
- Baking Soda: Helps your cake rise.
- Vegetable Oil: Adds moisture and helps ingredients stick together.
- Creamy Peanut Butter: Make sure it’s Xylitol-free! Xylitol is toxic to animals. See more below on why you need to avoid this ingredient.
- Plain Applesauce: Make sure your applesauce doesn’t have any added sugars. Apples are a great source of fiber for your pup!
- Pumpkin Puree: Pumpkin is loaded with fiber, and dogs love it! You can buy canned pumpkin puree or make it at home.
- Shredded Carrots: Carrots are a great snack for dogs! I like to shred mine or cut them into very small pieces to avoid any choking.
- Milk: Adds moisture to the cake mix.
- Egg: Used to bind everything together.
Peanut Butter Frosting
- Plain Greek Yogurt: Greek yogurt is a great source of protein and calcium for your pup, just make sure to feed them this in moderation.
- Natural Creamy Peanut Butter: Adds flavor to the frosting. Make sure this is Xylitol-free!
- Dog Treats: (Optional) For garnish on top. Use your pup’s favorite here!
How to Make a Birthday Cake for Your Dog
This doggy dessert is super easy to make and a fun activity for the kids. My girls are obsessed with our dog, so they loved making a special treat for her! Find my full list of kid-friendly recipes here!
- Preheat Oven, Prep Pans: To begin, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spray two 6-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- Whisk the Dry Ingredients: In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda.
- Combine: In a large bowl, combine the vegetable oil, peanut butter, applesauce, pumpkin puree, carrots, milk, and egg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Bake: Separate the batter into the two prepared pans and bake for 22-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cakes.
- Cool and Frost: Let the cakes cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting and serving to your pup.
Preparing the Frosting
- Mix Peanut Butter and Yogurt: In a medium bowl, combine the yogurt and peanut butter until smooth.
- Frost and Decorate: Frost the dog birthday cake immediately or store the frosting in the fridge until ready to use. Decorate with dog treats as desired.
Ingredients to Avoid in Dog Treats
Dogs have sensitive stomachs so it’s super important to use the right ingredients, especially when making this dog birthday cake. Here are a few tips on making your dog treats healthy, delicious, and nutritious! Once you know what ingredients to avoid, you’ll want to make homemade treats for your dogs all the time!
- Don’t use anything with Xylitol/Birch Sugar: Xylitol is a sweetener most commonly found in gum, peanut butter, baked goods, and ice cream. It can also be listed as birch sugar. Xylitol is highly toxic to dogs and may cause liver failure, so be sure to check ingredient lists before you give anything new to your pup.
- Avoid Nutmeg: If you want to add a little extra flavor to your dog’s birthday cake, cinnamon and ginger are both safe in small amounts. However, avoid nutmeg at all costs. It’s toxic to dogs.
- Avoid Added Sugars: Giving your dog too much sugar can lead to diabetes and digestive issues. When making your cake, look for plain Greek yogurt and applesauce.
How Long Does a Dog Birthday Cake Last?
If your dog is anything like mine, this dog birthday cake will be gone before you get a chance to store it! It’s filled with all the tasty flavors they love.
- In the Refrigerator: Wrap with plastic wrap or store in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
More Kid-Friendly Recipes
Getting my kids to take a break from TV or the iPad is a challenge. Thankfully, they like helping out in the kitchen and these are some of our favorite recipes to make together! Not only is it a fun activity, but you get tasty treats in the end! It’s a win-win!
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Dog Birthday Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
- ¼ Cup Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Must be Xylitol free!
- ½ Cup Plain Applesauce
- ½ Cup Pumpkin Puree
- ½ Cup Shredded Carrots
- 3 Tablespoons Milk
- 1 Egg
Frosting
- 1 Cup Plain Greek Yogurt
- ½ Cup Natural Creamy Peanut Butter Must be Xylitol Free
- Dog treats for garnish optional
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350° and spray two 6-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda.
- In a large bowl combine the vegetable oil, peanut butter, applesauce, pumpkin puree, carrots, milk, and egg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Separate the batter into the two prepared pans and bake for 22-25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cakes.
- Let the cakes cool completely on a cooling rack before frosting and serving to your pup.
Frosting
- In a medium bowl combine the yogurt and peanut butter until smooth. Frost the cake immediately or store the frosting in the fridge until ready to use.
- Decorate with dog treats as desired.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
We are celebrating our dog’s 16th birthday while traveling to visit my mom in her RV so I’m wondering if I could make the cake ahead of time and freeze it?
That should be fine!
Hi, how many grams in a cup, I have never used cup as a measurement x
There are 128 grams in a cup!
I’m sending this recipe to my friend to make the recipe for his dog. Thanks.
Thank you so much for this great recipe! I made it for my dogs 1st birthday and he loved it! 🙂
Can low fat sour cream be a substitute for yogurt?
Dogs can have different reactions to sour cream. I would stick to yogurt.
can you sub whole milk yogurt in place of the greek yogurt?
Greek yogurt is a healthier option for a dog’s gut. It is easier to digest because it has much less lactose than regular yogurt.
My Layla turns 4 today & I was hoping to make this in a Bundt cake pan, do you think that will be ok?
That should be fine! Happy birthday to Layla!
we have four dogs and i saw that the serving size was 8, would they be able to have two each at the same time or do you think it would be better to give them their two slices on different days or different times? if that makes sense? if not, i do apologize for the inconvenience
I’m not sure! That probably depends on the dogs! Let me know if it turns out and how they liked it! You can also try this pupcake recipe! Pupcakes
My ten year old made this recipe for @OurPuppyLayla and litter sister Missy’s 2nd birthday and couldn’t be happier with the results! The doggos ate every bite! Doubled cake recipe as we only had 8” pans but no need to double frosting recipe.
I made one of these last week for Kali my daughters boxer…she turned 2…she also has a male boxer so they have been sharing the cake…..today I am making another cake for my other daughters pit bull and her Americanbully will share with him…..it is very moist and appears to be quite rich with the pumpkin purée and applesauce….I am improvising a bit….I ground up some of the bacon treats and a couple biscuits in my processor and added to the mix……….I will be using my cake decorator for adding finishing touches to the frosting before adding treats….erector is very simple and easy to do….
I do have a question on your homemade treats….do they remain soft or do they get hard like a biscuit?
What would be a great alternative for pumpkin puree?
You could try some sweet potatoes that are pureed or mashed instead!
This recipe is awesome for my dog thank you
My question might be silly but can we eat the cake too?
All of the ingredients are edible, however, it’s not meant for human consumption so it might not be the best-tasting cake for you!
Do you think this could be done as cupcakes? I’m guessing the only big change would be baking time?
Try my Pupcakes recipe instead! Here is is: Pupcakes
I’m gonna make this for my Maltipoo’s first birthday. What size cake pan do I use?
I used (2) 6 inch cake pans for this recipe!
Can you dehydrate this cake for shipping purposes?
Unfortunately, that won’t work with this cake! Let me know what your dog thinks of it if you try it out! 🙂