Happy cakeday, Humphrey! Celebrating Humphrey’s 6th birthday with a homemade beef, banana, and carrot dog birthday cake with coconut yogurt frosting. Doggone delicious! Here are the cake recipe and DIY decorating details.
Crazy COVID Shoppers and Changing Cake Plans
As shared in Humphrey’s 6th birthday post, I had a different birthday cake in mind for this year’s party. But, as fate would have it, NZ increased its COVID alert levels again on the eve of baking day. Crazy shoppers meant that I adjusted my baking plans to use a different combination of ingredients and avoid the grocery store chaos. Zero complains from Humphrey! This cake combines some of his favourite scents and flavours. The cake is a hybrid pupcake with baked in beef in the batter instead. The recipe also includes carrot (Humphrey’s favourite) and banana. The frosting is yogurt firmed with a touch of coconut flour, topped with a sprinkle of hemp hearts. Yum!
Beef Carrot and Banana Dog Birthday Cake Recipe
Beef, Carrot, and Banana Dog Birthday Cake with Coconut Yogurt Frosting
The recipe below fits two mini-springform pans (affiliate link), as pictured, but can be made in different pans or as mini-muffins, if you prefer. I used beef for this cake, but you could swap that for a different ground meat based upon your preferences and dog’s tastes. You can also omit the meat for a more conventional muffin-style cake (or muffins). You could even share them, if you’d like!
Cake Ingredients:
Cake:
- 1 ripe banana, mashed
- 1 egg
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1/2 cup plain dog-safe yogurt
- 1/2 cup baking bran or plain unsweetened bran cereal
- 1/2 cup wholemeal flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup lean ground beef
Optional Frosting and Decorations:
- Plain dog-safe yogurt
- Coconut flour to adjust yogurt consistency
- Optional dog-friendly edible decorations or garnish. I kept this cake simple, with just a little sprinkle of hemp hearts and the candles.
Making the Cake
- Preheat your oven to 160C (or local equivalent) and gather together your baking ingredients and materials.
- Mash the banana in a mixing bowl and mix in your egg, carrot, and yogurt.
- Stir in the bran and let the ingredients sit briefly so that the bran absorbs some of the moisture from the wet ingredients.
- Add the flour, baking powder, and beef to the mixing bowl and gently stir through to combine. At this stage, the mix should look like a cakey muffin batter. If your mixture is looking a bit dry, add a little water. If it is looking too wet and runny, add a touch more flour.
- Spoon into prepared pan(s) and bake for approximately 30 minutes (cooking time vary with shape/size).
- Remove from the oven and cool. You can release and reclip your springform, if using, after a brief initial cooling to reduce sticking.
Decorating the Cake (Optional)
To avoid soggy cake and save fridge space, frost shortly before serving if possible. Yogurt based frosting requires refrigeration. The cake can be sliced and refrigerated short term or frozen longer term (we have a few leftover slices in our freezer right now for special treats).
- When thoroughly cooled, remove cake(s) from the pans.
- Mix a small quantity of coconut flour into the yogurt to further thicken it into a mouldable mixture that will stay in place atop the cake. I used thick Greek-style yogurt, and it only takes a little coconut flour to make a great icing-like mixture.
- Frost the cake, garnish (optional) to decorate, and refrigerate until you are ready to serve. Pampered pooches might enjoy their slice of cake warmed slightly for extra smell and flavour.
Dog-Friendly Cake Making Tips and Tricks
- See our comprehensive post on homemade birthday and special occasion dog cakes for additional information on types of cakes, decorating ideas, storage, and more.
- Cakes can be baked into other shapes and sizes. Remember to adjust your cooking times and/or temperatures accordingly.
- Cakes can be made in advance (refrigerated short term, frozen longer term) and then decorated for the party. Leftovers can be cut into bite-sized snacks and refrigerated or frozen.
Recipe and Ingredient Tips and Tricks
- When using ingredients like peanut butter or yogurt for dogs, take care when when shopping to avoid the artificial sweeteners, especially xylitol, which is extremely dangerous for dogs. Xylitol may also be labelled as sweetener code 967.
- See our intro post on making birthday and special occasion dog cakes for different frosting and decorating ideas, or browse through the other DIY dog cakes and pupcakes for ideas.
Hungry for more tasty treats? There are all sorts of homemade dog treat ideas in our blog archives. You can also use the category and tag labels to find other recipes that might be of interest or use our internal search tools to find something specific. Remember, treats (bought or homemade) are for spoiling your pup in moderation. We share ideas from treats that we’ve made ourselves for our pets, but different animals have different preferences (likes/dislikes), just like people. Some pets may have special dietary requirements and/or food allergies/intolerances. If you are ever in doubt or have questions about what’s suitable for your pet, have a chat with your trusted vet.
