It is no secret that we are total dog nerds who love having fun with our pets, which includes making yummy treats for them when we can.  There’s just something about watching them enjoy some tasty canine creation of ours that gives us great joy.  We usually keep it pretty simple like some Yo Elvis Dog Ice Cream (frozen plain yogurt, bananas, & peanut butter) to add a little variety and coolness to the hot summer days.  But when we got asked to make a birthday cake for our friend Ben’s dogs, Harrie and Wikkid, we happily accepted this fun project.

We chose a Peanut Butter Carrot Oat Cake with a Peanut Butter Cream Cheese frosting – otherwise known as ‘Jack’s Fav.”   Jack is picky, so we know if he loves it, chances are good that Harrie and Wikkid will scarf it down like crazed birthday beasts!

Our Cake Recipe:

3 cups Flour, 2 cups Oats, 1 tsp Baking Soda, 2 cups water, 1 cup Natural Peanut Butter, 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil, 1 cup Shredded Carrots, 1/4 cup honey or molasses, 1 egg (or equal egg replacer), 1 tbsp Ground Flax Seeds, 1 tbsp Hemp Protein (or Hulled Hemp Seed)

Frosting:

1 block Plain Cream Cheese, 2 tbsp Peanut Butter

Directions:

Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Add in the dry cake ingredients and mix thoroughly, then add the wet ingredients.  Batter should be a firm consistency almost like dough.  Coat a large cake pan in non-stick spray or use a muffin pan.  Cake mix makes a fairly large cake or 2 smaller cakes.  It was enough for our 4 big dogs to enjoy twice in addition to the large cake for Harrie & Wikkid.

Bake for 25-35 minutes.  Cake will not rise much and maintains a firm consistency when baked making it easy to cut and make shapes with (in our case a nice dog bone shape).

Let cake cool for at least an hour after baking, then add cream cheese frosting and decorate.  Substitute plain unsweetened yogurt for a less fatty frosting.  Refrigerate after icing and feed in small servings as a meal replacement or mid-day treat. 

Once it was cooked, it was time to test it with our expert panel of furry judges:

Success!  Jack consumed his cake with ninja speed, then made sure to clean up any remaining crumbs left by one careless chihuahua…

while that chihuahua searched…

… and shamelessly searched for much bigger crumbs.

Once the success of our cake was confirmed by four very sleepy dogs who drifted swiftly into happy cake comas sprawled across the living room rug, we knew it was time to ice and decorate the final product:

And it was a good cake for 2 very good dogs.

Happy 5th Birthday, Harrie & Wikkid!