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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.
I want to make a sheet cake for my Rita’s birthday to take to her Doggie Daycare. Would I double or triple recipe for a 9×12 pan? Thank You
Hi Maribeth, thank you for your question! No need to double it! This recipe should make plenty of batter for a 9×13 pan. It will probably need 25-30 minutes to fully bake at that size. Let me know how it turns out! And Happy Birthday Rita!
Am I doing something wrong that my batter is not very runny or is that normal.
That’s normal! It should be pretty thick.
Hi
I wanted to make this cake but just wanted to check if it could be frozen and then defrosted. I will be out of town just before my pups birthday, so it would be really practical.
Yes it can!
Could you make this recipe using grain free flour such as chickpea or coconut flour?
Yes! Chickpea would work great!
I don’t have applesauce in the house, can I substitute something else? Thank you!
I would just double up on the pumpkin. 😊 Hope your dog loves it!
I’m planning on making this for my dogs 13th birthday. I’ll be using a cupcake tin to make individual cakes for my small dogs. How long should these bake in a cupcake tin? Thank you!
15-20 minutes! Happy birthday to your pupper. 🥰
What size star tip did you use for the frosting border?
Can you provide a few options of xylitol free peanut butter?
Certainly! Try this Smucker’s natural peanut butter or this natural no-stir peanut butter.
Question… was salt left out on purpose? I thought baking soda needed salt to help the batter rise? Just took my cakes out of the oven and they look a bit flat. Didn’t think of salt while I was mixing tho. Hopefully they still taste good 🙂
Hello and thank you for this recipe…I plan on making this for my 14 year old did this week. Question: is it safe to use almond milk?
Yes, as long as it’s unsweetened! You want to avoid added sugars and xylitol (sugar alcohol).
My dogs LOVED it!!! Very easy to make mine didn’t plump up as big but my baking soda was expired so maybe that’s why. Didn’t matter to the gang , they ate it up in no time! We topped it w/ a biscuit that read Happy and thin strips of Skirt Steak that spelled out Gotcha Day! Happy 6th Gotcha Day Ellie!
I’m so happy to hear that! Happy Gotcha Day Ellie!
Cute cake! Which brand of sprinkles did you use?
I made 1/2 recipe for my mini Aussie, Kaya’s 6th birthday (1st birthday with us after being re-homed). Lacking a 6″ cake pan, I thoroughly greased a 4″ ramekin and parchment lining with coconut oil. Baked for an additional 10 minutes. The cake rose enough for me to halve it and make 2 layers! It slid right out of the ramekin. She absolutely LOVES it! I confess, I tasted it! Although not sweet, it was really good – more like a carrot bread. Wish I could include a photo – it came out beautifully! Thank you!!
Happy birthday, Kaya! I’m glad she loved it!