Mini Dog Birthday Cake
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What better way to celebrate your pup’s special day than with this Mini Dog Birthday Cake?! Complete with peanut butter and cheese and over 87 five star ratings, it’s sure to please!
This mini dog birthday cake is a huge hit, because dogs deserve cake on their birthday! My baby turns TWO today—like, how? I figured she deserved a dog birthday cake this year. Though my personal favorite cake is my chocolate vegan birthday cake, it’s not exactly dog-friendly, so I figured I should make a separate recipe for Layla.
I’m completely biased, but Layla is simply the best. She keeps me company all day every day while I work from home, she has an adorable underbite, she increases my daily step count thanks to having to walk her, and she brings so much joy into my life.
Oh, and if your pup loves this recipe, be sure to check out my pumpkin dog cake, too, along with other dessert recipes.
Recipe features
- This recipe has 85 five star ratings and counting!
- It’s made with peanut butter, pumpkin and topped with cheese — all of your dog’s favorite foods
- It’s easy to make, and is shareable too
Ingredient notes
Like most dogs, Layla’s a big fan of pumpkin and peanut butter, so I knew I needed to include those things. This dog birthday cake is quite similar to a human cake but with less sugar.
- all purpose flour
- coconut oil – or any kind of oil
- egg
- honey – or sub maple syrup
- canned pumpkin
- applesauce
- peanut butter
- yogurt
Step-by-step instructions
Step 1: Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, stir the flour and baking soda together and set aside.
Step 2: Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine the oil, eggs, pumpkin, peanut butter, and honey. Then, combine the wet and dry ingredients.
Step 3: Bake. Divide the batter into two greased 4″ cake pans, then bake the cakes for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick is clean. Wait for the cakes to come to room temperature before icing them.
Tips
Substitutions:
- Flour: This recipe calls for all purpose flour, but you could also use whole wheat flour. I haven’t tried it with any sort of gluten free flour before, but again, I’m going to assume a gluten free all purpose flour would work well if your dog eats a grain-free diet.
- Oil: Coconut oil tends to be my oil of choice, but it can also be on the pricey side. Canola oil works just fine and I promise your dog won’t know the difference 😉
- Yogurt: The icing for this cake is made with Greek yogurt and peanut butter. If your dog doesn’t like yogurt and/or if you’re worried about it upsetting their stomach (it shouldn’t!), you could try using just peanut butter. It’ll be stickier, but still tasty.
Questions? TONS of people have made this recipe, so be sure to read the comments for additional tips!
This dog birthday cake is one of the most popular recipes on this site, so if you make this recipe, be sure to leave a comment or, even better, tag @thealmondeater on Instagram/Instagram stories–I LOVE seeing your creations, especially when dogs are involved!
More pumpkin recipes
Want even more dog cake recipes? This article from Play Bark Run has a great list of dog-friendly cake recipes.
If you made this recipe, be sure to leave a comment and star rating below. Thanks!
Mini Dog Birthday Cake
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup honey, preferably raw
- 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
for the icing:
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Grease two 4" cake pans with a bit of coconut oil and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine flour and baking soda; set aside.
- Melt coconut oil in a saucepan over low-medium heat.
- While coconut oil is melting, whisk egg, honey, pumpkin, applesauce, peanut butter, and vanilla together in a large bowl using an electric mixer. Last, stir in the melted coconut oil.
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry and stir to combine.
- Pour batter evenly into the two pans, pounding them on the countertop a few times to the batter lays flat. Place the cake pans on a baking sheet and the baking sheet in the oven.
- Bake cakes for 20-30 minutes**, or until a toothpick comes out clean or mostly clean.
- Let the cakes sit in the pans for 10 minutes before running a knife along the edges and flipping them over onto a cooling rack. Wait until cakes are completely cool before icing.
for the icing:
- Stir yogurt and peanut butter together
assembly:
- Slice the tops of both cakes off (the "dome" part) and then lay the cut edges together, placing a bit of icing in between. Top the cake with additional icing. Additionally, if you want to cover the entire cake with icing (rather than just the top and middle), just double the icing ingredients.
- Top the cake with cheese to make your pup's special day that much better!
Notes
Nutrition
This is a great recipe! That said I made a few adjustments based on what I had at home. I used whole wheat flour and a banana instead of pumpkin. I also made these into cupcakes for easy sharing with other pups (it made 10). All of the pups loved these! I tried them, and I even love these. I’m half tempted to make another batch for myself. lol!
I’m so glad the pups liked the cake!
I made this for my pups 3rd birthday and my whole family likes them now! I used light olive oil in a batch since I don’t eat coconut and it worked great. I added blueberries too. I don’t add the frosting.
These are lovely with a cup of tea or coffee. I make them in mini Bundt pans.
The dog sits at my feet waiting for some 😂.
I’m so happy your pup liked the cake!
I used oat flour for my cake. I use oat flour in all bodies treat.
I just googled the equivalent for oat flour to regular flour and oat flour was 1/4 cup more. So anyone using different flour google it. Cakes came out perfectly. Great recipe ..thank you !
So happy your pup liked the cake, and thanks for the note about oat flour! That’s good to know.
My Grand Puppy loved this cake. I tasted it, too, it’s delicious. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
This makes me so happy — I’m glad it was a hit!
Made this for my golden retriever’s first birthday! He LOVED it! I used goat yogurt Trader Joes (for dogs who are lactose intolerant) instead of greek yogurt and it was great! I had a slice (without frosting) and it was a delightful cake, very nutty with a hint of coconut. I didnt have a 4″ cake pans so I used a brownie pan, cut out circles in the cake using mason jar lid and stacked it for two tiers. I baked it for 20 mins and it was a little dry, but I think 17 mins would’ve been perfect.
Thanks so much Maggie! I’m so happy he loved the cake! Happy 1st birthday to your little guy!
I wsh i had read review before cooking! I did cupcakes and ended up w 5.
I made this for my 2 year old frenchie’s birthday yesterday, and he loved it. I subbed the flour for Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free flour. Excellent recipe. Thank you
Thanks so much Mary! Glad the pup loved it!