Allergy Friendly and Drool Worthy-Homemade Dog Birthday Cake Recipe
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What sort of cake do you want for your birthday?
Cake flavor picking should fairly straight-forward. For our soon-to-be 17-year-old daughter, the answer came quick- blueberry and lemon.
Then we looked at our soon-to-be 13-year-old.
Our sweet, sassy, allergy-ridden, 13-year-old. Bucket the Basset.
Learn more about Bucket’s journey to 13 here: Basset Hound, Allergies, and Love: How One Delightful Basset Found Her Home.
Allergy Friendly Dog Cupcakes
This one was not going to be quite as easy. She has lived with significant food allergies for her entire life. This meant that her cake was going to need to be oat, wheat, yeast, and dairy-free.
(We did end up using yogurt in this one, which we do use on occasion to help with probiotics, but use it minimally.)
Thankfully, we have had years of experience adapting recipes to match her dietary needs. Thanks to that practice, and the bakery we owned for many years, we weren’t too afraid of jumping into the kitchen.
After spending a few hours researching flavor ideas and finding a good base recipe, we set about adapting, adjusting, and trialing to make a recipe that would work perfectly for her.
Let’s Get This Party Started
Once we were pretty sure we were good, we set out to purchase decorations. We quickly discovered this isn’t as easy as we had expected.
There are not many dog birthday decorations that are unique and reasonably priced, but we were able to find a few that made Bucket’s decorations stand out from our daughter’s. Our favorite find were these paw print balloons.
Eventually, we settled on decorations for both birthday parties and ordered some of Bucket’s favorite toys, including the household favorite hedgehogs.
On the big day, the smell of these cupcakes being baked had Bucket and Bones camped out in the kitchen making sure we could not move without tripping over them.
This recipe is super simple to make.
It doesn’t use cupcake liners, which is helpful because our dogs typically are not patient enough to wait for them to come off.
When it came to the icing, we decided to try something different and whip peanut butter. Taking a container of peanut butter, putting it in our mixer, and letting it beat on high for a couple of minutes made it much lighter and easier to spread.
You can definitely put a thin layer of regular peanut butter on top or whip up some for a fluffier topping.
Bucket approved of both versions but we preferred the easier to spread version.
And as we all know, it is hard to beat a happy 13-year old basset licking peanut butter off of her birthday cupcakes!
If you are looking for a simple doggy-birthday cupcake recipe, check out the one below!
Homemade Dog Birthday Cake
Please note the custom flours used in this recipe. Recipes made without wheat flour will be slightly heavier and denser than those you may be used to. This is normal and your dog will still be begging for more!
If your dog is able to have wheat, you can simply remove the rice, potato, and tapioca starches and substitute 2 cups of whole wheat flour.
Go ahead and give it a try and share your birthday friend’s photos with us on Instagram @bucketandbones
Allergy Friendly Apple Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons sugar-free natural apple sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1 1/3 cups rice flour
- 1/3 cup tapioca flour (tapioca starch will work as well)
- 1/3 cup potato starch
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup apple chopped
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
- 3 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray a cupcake pan with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, whisk together egg, water, yogurt, applesauce, and honey.
- Add dry ingredients and stir to combine.
- Stir in the chopped apples.
- Scoop prepared batter into the cupcake tin, filling each 3/4 full.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- While your cupcakes are baking- brown, cool, and crumble your bacon.
- Remove cupcakes from the oven, let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Top cooled cupcakes with peanut butter "frosting" (see note above to learn to 'whip' the peanut butter if you desire.) Sprinkle with bacon.
- Get ready to watch the excitement as your dog enjoys their birthday treat!
For More Bucket Pictures and Videos Check Her Out On Instagram @bucketandbones.
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