Birthday Cake for Your Dog!!!!!

What?  You don’t celebrate your dog’s birthday?  How cruel of a dog owner are you?

Just kidding, in all honesty my dogs are pretty spoiled, so treating them extra special on their birthday takes a lot of “extras” so it’s not just like any other day to them.  I do however save the cake for this one times a year occasion. I think every doggie birthday we’ve celebrated I’ve used a different recipe, but I recently came across this recipe from a member post on Mastiff-Forum.  It’s nearly identical to the dog biscuit recipe I use and with the rice flour instead of regular flour it is gluten free.  I went ahead and made an exception the other night and made one of these up for the dogs, and it was a hit! 

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dog Birthday Cake

Cake:
1 cup brown rice flour
1 egg
1/3 cup natural peanut butter

2/3 cup pure pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin-pie mix as that has sugar and other ingredients in it)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (I don't really like this ingredient but there is no substitute available)
1/3 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup water

Frosting:
2 tablespoons GREEK Plain Yogurt
2/3 cup natural peanut butter, slightly melted

Mix all cake ingredients. Bake in a small, greased and floured pan at 350 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool. Meanwhile, mix frosting ingredients and frost when cake is completely cool.

I think it’s funny how we instill human holidays on our pooches.  Do you celebrate any holiday’s with your dogs? Mine are just in it for the ride and love the attention, treats and toys that come along with celebrations.

 

All Natural Peanut Butter Pumpkin Treats

These are some of my dog's absolute favorite treats and they are so easy to make, even for someone who really doesn't bake (like me!).  They are made with human grade ingredients so you know they are healthy and if your husband needs a snack and likes pumpkin, well he can have one too :)

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Treats

• 1 can of canned pumpkin (not the seasoned pie filling, you want pure pumpkin)
• 2 heaping TBSP peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 1/2 cups flour + more to stiffen dough (all purpose or whole wheat, whichever you want).  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Mix the first 4 ingredients together well, then add the flour and mix in completely.  You should have a very sticky dough.  Add in more flour by the 1/4 cup full until a dough is formed you can work with that's not too sticky.

Press the dough out into about 1/4 or 1/2" thickness then use a medium sized doggy bone cookie cutter (or whatever shape you want) and put them on an ungreased cookie sheet.Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, flip 1/2 way through. You want them to be crunchy when they are done so they don't mold.

I have added whole oats to the mix for something different too, but it makes cutting them out a little more difficult. This recipe makes me about 2 large cookie sheets full. If I give each of my 2 dogs one per day this will last about a month.... oh, and kitties like them too!

UPDATE: I have started using brown rice flour instead of regular flour for this recipe to make it gluten free, it works great and the dogs still love them!