It’s cake time, pawty animals! Humphrey’s 11th birthday cake was a special double layered mini dog-friendly carrot cake, complete with doggone deliscious cream cheese frosting. And while it looks pawsitively decadent and smelled amazing even to the humans, his sneaky personal baker and doting Momma created a recipe with moderation in mind, along with the yum factors of scent and taste. Read on to join Humphrey (and visiting furfriends) in the barkday kitchen and drool over the dog-friendly carrot cake recipe and decoration details.
Extra Sniffing and Sampling Sous Chefs
As share in Humphrey’s 11th birthday post, his birthday fell on a day where we regularly host a scheduled playdate. For sharing with his guests and other furfriends, we baked mini-muffin chicken pupcakes. We often make meatloaf-style cakes, but I decided to use my chicken mince for the pupcakes and bake a more conventional-style dog-friendly cake for layering and decorating.
Adapting Homemade Carrot Cake for Dogs
Humphrey’s special 11th birthday cake was a layered carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, a nod to the carrot cake muffin pupcakes that we baked on his first birthday. Carrots are probably Humphrey’s favourite vegetable. He sniffs around for them in the garden and circles underfoot for samples during kitchen prep if he catches their distinctive scent. Although he usually enjoys nibbling on raw carrots, they’re also a good option for treat ingredients. Carrots can be used as raw shreds, or cooked and pureed as an alternative to ingredients like pumpkin or sweet potato (kumara).
Including shredded carrot in this cake batter gives the volume a major boost, letting us create a dense moist double layer birthday cake without bumping things up with extra flour or fillers. Unlike a typical carrot cake recipe for people, this carrot cake recipe for dogs has no added sugars, oils, or butter, and is made with whole wheat flour instead of white or cake flour. The full recipe and instructions are detailed below, along with tips for customising your own version of a carrot cake for your pups.
Cream cheese frosting and carrot cake are a classic paring. In this dog-friendly adaptation, we’ve skipped any added sugar and lowered the richness by blending our cream cheese with thick Greek yogurt, and then adjusting the consistency with a little bit of coconut flour to mimic buttercream. It smells amazing, looks great, and the dogs loved it.
Homemade Carrot Cake Recipe for Dogs
Dog-Friendly Birthday Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
The carrot cake 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. This is a thick muffin-like cake batter, and it makes a lovely dense moist cake or tasty little pupcakes. The recipe can be prepared without the carrot, but without the boost in volume it will only fill one springform pan. Here, it is paired with a dog-friendly cream cheese frosting to make a special double layered birthday cake for Humphrey’s 11th birthday celebration.
Carrot Cake Ingredients:
Cake:
- 1 large carrot, washed, trimmed, and finely shredded/grated
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup plain thick-style Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup wholemeal flour or equivalent substitute
- 1 tsp baking powder for rise (omit if using self-rising flour)
- Sprinkle of Ceylon cinnamon (optional)
I usually use a no added salt/sugar smooth peanut butter for dog treats, but I went with a crunchy for this cake. Either will work, so pick whatever best suits you and your pup. And as a handy hint, wetting your measuring cups or spoons before using them with sticky ingredients, like peanut butter, will help with easy release and less effort for clean-up washing.
Cream Cheese Frosting (Optional)
- Cream cheese
- Thick-style Greek yogurt
- Coconut flour
Making the Carrot Cake:
- Preheat your oven to 180C (or local equivalent) and gather together your baking ingredients and materials.
- Lightly oil your pan(s).
- Wash, trim, and shred/grate the carrot(s). As you can see in the photo collage, I’m using a single large carrot. If you have small carrots, you can double up for a similar volume, if needed. You’ll also see that the shred size is small, but not fine.
- Combine the egg, peanut butter, and yogurt in a mixing bowl.
- Add the Ceylon cinnamon (optional).
- Add flour and baking powder. Mix until just combined, then stir in the carrot.
- Spoon into the prepared mini springform pans (or alternative baking pan/dish of your preference) and smooth lightly to even out the batter.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes (time will depend on pan shape/size).
- Remove to cool slightly before loosening the spring-form ring to cool completely. If baking in advance, once fully cooled, the unfrosted cake can be wrapped short term or frozen for longer storage. My cakes were baked the day before frosting.
Making the Cream Cheese Frosting (Optional):
If you’re preparing the cake in advance, to avoid soggy cake and save fridge space, frost your cake shortly before serving. After the celebration, leftover cake can be sliced and refrigerated short term or frozen longer term.
- Combine a small amount of cream cheese and Greek yogurt in a mixing bowl. I used a ratio of approximately 1:2 cream cheese to yogurt. Blend together until smooth. (Note: My photos show the full combo in the bowl as a visual aid, but it will be much easier to get a smooth mix by hand if you incrementally add the yogurt to the thicker cream cheese.)
- Incrementally add a small quantity of coconut flour to further thicken the mixture so it can be moulded and stay in place atop the cake. The texture of my frosting was similar to a fluffy buttercream, but not as smooth since coconut flour has texture.
For our readers in other parts of the globe, our cream cheese tub is not whipped or fluffy like it is in some places. It’s quite similar to block cream cheese. Although you could use a different type of cream cheese, if you wish. Or just use the yogurt. The texture will come out a bit different, and always check the ingredients labels for any unwanted doggy no-no extras.
Frosting and Decorating the Cake (Optional):
If you’re layering the cake, like ours, then you’ll want a layer of frosting on the bottom layer to act as the glue and to flatly support the upper layer of the cake. Unlike fussy fancy cakes for people, I don’t trim my dog cakes flat. The frosting can be uneven to level out, if as needed. Once assembled, you can add any decorations or extras, then it’s time to celebrate!
It was Humphrey’s 11th birthday, but eleven candles seemed a bit extreme for a mini cake (even for a Dalmatian firedog, hehehe). Instead, I added two small birthday candles placed as a 1-1, along with a simple gelatin gummy bone treat as decoration.
Dog-Friendly Cake Making Tips and Tricks
- See our comprehensive pet chef 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.
- Treats, including cake, should be enjoyed in moderation. No one wants a sad sore birthday belly or to be a literal party pooper.
- Leftovers can be cut into bite-sized pieces to store and enjoy later (refrigerated short term, frozen longer term). For easy use from frozen, cut the cake into small pieces, place on a lined plate or tray, and freeze before transferring them to a container. That way the pieces won’t be stuck together when frozen. Pawfect for easy single snack defrosting later!
Recipe and Ingredient Tips and Tricks
- When choosing ingredients take care and check the product ingredients to avoid unwanted extras. For things like peanut butter or yogurt, double check for artificial sweeteners, especially xylitol, which is extremely dangerous for dogs. Xylitol may also be labelled as sweetener code 967.
- In addition to being doggone delicious and fragrant, cinnamon offers some great health benefits to dogs (and people); however, it’s not suitable for everyone. Pregnant or nursing dogs in particular should not be given cinnamon. Ceylon cinnamon, also referred to as real cinnamon, is the recommended variety for dogs, if/when used.
- As noted above, you can omit or alter the amount of carrot, but the cake will have less volume and may only fill a single pan. You can also swap the carrot for another dog-friendly fruit or veggie, but remember to keep the scents/flavours compatible for your pup’s palette, and avoid adding anything too wet/moist unless you are prepared to adapt the other ingredients to suit.
- If you are dogifying your own family favourite carrot cake, remember that not all spices are safe for sharing with dogs, avoid doggy no-nos like raisins (grapes are toxic for dogs), and avoid unhealthy extras like added salt, sugars, and excess fats.
- 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 use the categories and tags to find recipes that might be of interest, or use our internal search tools to sniff out 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.
