What better way to celebrate your pup’s special day than with this Mini Dog Birthday Cake?! Complete with peanut butter and cheese, it’s sure to please.
Um yeah, I went there. This mini dog birthday cake is a huge hit, because dogs deserve cake too! My baby turns TWO today—like, how? I figured she deserved a dog birthday cake this year.
I always wanted a dog growing up, and in college, Miguel and I used to talk about getting a dog and maybe we sometimes spent every waking moment Googling dog photos. Then, Layla came into our lives and I can say with certainty that she’s all we ever wanted.
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 helps me get my steps in for the day thanks to having to walk her, and she brings so much joy into my life.
I still remember the day I brought her home. She was so, so tiny–I think around 8 lbs.–and so scared. I drove her back to my apartment, picked her up and placed her on the concrete and she immediately started crying. I wasn’t sure if she was scared or if it had been awhile since she’d felt concrete (or ever??), but I picked her back up, took her inside and then we took a million selfies together. I mean, WHAT ELSE was there to do? It was from that moment on that I decided we were going to be best friends.
So, what do dogs deserve on their birthdays? CAKE!
DOG CAKE INGREDIENTS
- all purpose flour
- coconut oil (or any kind of oil)
- egg
- honey
- pumpkin
- applesauce
- peanut butter
- yogurt
Like most dogs, Layla’s a big fan of pumpkin and peanut butter, so I knew I needed to include those things. This dog cake is quite similar to a human cake but with less sugar, but let me share some tips and substitutions.
DOG CAKE RECIPE
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 oh-so-tasty.
QUESTIONS? TONS of people have made this recipe, so be sure to read the comments for additional tips!
Layla, thanks for being you. I look forward to many more years spent together and I will continue to spoil you with this dog birthday cake and love you forever.
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!
Want another dog cake option? Check out this pumpkin cake!
Mini Dog Birthday Cake
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
- 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
**Cook times vary. My oven takes forever to heat up, so the cakes took about 30 minutes, but I recommend checking yours after 20 minutes.
Excellent! I had to make some changes because my family have but allergies. So no peanut butter. I used butternut squash and gluten free flour. I had difficulty with the measurements as we use grams or ounces. But I worked it out and doubled it to allow more batter for cupcakes. For the topping I used quark and raspberries.
For once Daisy was allowed to sit at the table for her 7th birthday, with dad holding her so she didn’t slip, she lapped the topping but struggled to bite it. Once broken it was a doddle. I have shared this on Facebook too.
That’s amazing–thanks for your comment and for sharing the recipe!
I just made them in my silicone dog bone mold, they’re pupcakes!
I can’t say enough good things about this recipe. My two dogs loved this more than their favorite treats! They lost their minds over it. I have pieces in the freezer and if I ask them if they want cake they run and jump everywhere for their cake! It is perfect!
Amazing–happy that your pups loved this cake!
I halved the recipe because I have a small dog, and got two (really tall) 2×4 inch mini rectangle cakes! I’d guess a whole recipe would make about 8 cupcakes (for those wondering).
I used butternut squash instead of pumpkin, banana instead of applesauce, omitted the vanilla, and baked in my toaster oven at 325 for 20 minutes, and still ended up with a perfect cake!
This recipe is so quick and easy and probably almost impossible to mess up. It even tasted good enough that I was happy to eat the trimmed-off tops… My dog loved it, thank you so much!
This is such a great comment–thanks for sharing all of your substitutions and I’m glad the cake is dog and human approved!
Made this today for my Charlie 3 Bday topped it off with bacon his favorite. He loved it. Very easy to make will make this every year!!
Made this for my “grand dogs” 4th Birthday. She loved it!! I had to use oil instead of coconut oil-but she didn’t seem to care. ❤️
Terrific recipe! Made it for Charlie’s 1st birthday, yesterday. He loves it. I took the trimmed muffin tops to the dog park to share with Charlie’s friends. Many owners asked me for the recipe!
That’s great–thanks for spreading the word about the recipe and for your comment!
Hi Erin!
Going to make this for my girl’s 11th birthday on Thursday. Gonna pick up a 4in cake pan, but just wanted to know if you happened to know the depth of yours that you used for this? was is 4×2 in?
Mine is 4×1.75″, but 4×2 will work just fine!
Look so cute! My daughter loves dogs, her birthday is coming soon, I will make a lovely birthday cake for my daughter. Thanks for inspiring
Made this the other day for my corgi’s 7th birthday!! Both she and her English Pointer sister loved it! I cut the recipe in half and made two cakes… one is in the freezer for the pointer’s birthday! Thanks so much!!
How long do you think these will stay for ?
You are a Gem. I love layla. And thank you so much for this tips! I cant wait to make one for my pup !
Cute cake & cute dog
Thank you so much TheAlmondDeater. I tried making mini dog birthday cake reading your article and I made it really delicious on 1st time. My daughter loved it. However, I was quite confused on some points. It would be better if you can make baking videos.
Amazing recipe!! Had such a fulfilling feeling baking this fabulous cake for my Ollie’s 3rd Birthday! I made my own apple sauce , mashed sweet potatoes instead of canned pumpkin and replaced the white flour with almond flour. The cake was so light and moist! My Westie Ollie and his fur buddies were literally bullying each other to get more cake! I doubled the recipe and baked in a round 10” pan so each furiend got to take more cake home! This is a definite keeper! It was easy and it was impressive! Thank you for this amazing recipe!
That’s amazing–I’m happy all the pups enjoyed it 🙂
Fantastic recipe.
Going to prepare this cake for my pitbull this weekend
I made this cake last year for my Beagle Ruby who was 6..I am going to make it again this year for my brother’s French Bulldog , Nugget, who will be 2 tomorrow. This was a fantastic easy to make recipe, flexible to add or remove ingredients if need be… I used banana instead of pumpkin and I added a heap of blueberries on the icing.. Ruby absolutely loved it and so did I.. perfect cake to share with your pooch. Thanks so much for this recipe.
But is there any other thing which I could substitute the peanut butter with?
Any other nut butter will work, or you could use canned pumpkin.
I haven’t tried to bake to bake it yet, but I’ll rate it 5 stars in advance, I went through a lot of websites but this recipe seemed to inspire me the most. My dogs, Doughnut Thea and Bagel Leah are turning 2, this Saturday…. I hope my little pups love my cake. Thanks for the recipe BTW. 🙏😊😉🤗
You are wonderful, surely the dog will be happy to live with the kind owner.
can u add carrots into the cake
I don’t see why not!
Okay well, first of all, your baby is adorable. Hugs to Layla from me, Tori. I know this is an older post, does that put her at about 3 1/2 now? I love the idea of a homemade mini dog birthday cake. You just gave me an idea for my girl Hanna when her birthday comes in July. She is a rescue and we are guessing about 13 this year. She is a chocolate lab so I am positive she will scarf it right up.
I am glad the effort to reduce sugar was considered, as I have been very cognizant of her weight and making sure that she stays at a weight that is healthy for her. I had considered creating a site about natural dog ice cream treats. I was going to call it Fido Freeze. It had a good ring to it.
Thank you again for the recipe. I will bookmark this for a July baking and maybe even try some other combinations to see how she will like those.
I’d love to know if anyone has reduced this recipe by half or even quarters. Would love to make cupcakes for my Labradoodle’s 2nd birthday but don’t want to make a huge batch. One or two cupcakes would be perfect.
Any advice on measurements appreciated!
This sounds so yummy for my Yorkie but if i don’t have Pumpkin what else can i use? Please Reply Thanks PS all the recipes sound yummy.
Hi! You could try using cooked, mashed sweet potato instead of pumpkin.
oh, that’s cute! thaaanks 😉
Made it for my little corgi who just turned 8 and he loved it! So did all the other dogs that came to visit 🙂 thank you!
Side note, I couldn’t find canned pumpkin at my store, they said it was only seasonal (???) so I replaced it with sweet potato and it came out great!
Yay!! Glad they all liked it and good to know that sweet potato works well.
Thank you Erin for the great recipe idea. My dogs birthday is coming up soon so it would be nice to treat her. I’m almost certain she will love it and her being a Labrador she eats everything!
Thanks for the great recipe! Its my baby’s birthday today he’s turning four. He took a few bites and was done, but he’s a very picky picky boy. Its the most he’s ever eaten out of a dog treat! I invited two of his doggie friends over (eve and Logan) and they devoured the stuff Bruno didn’t eat! Thanks again! I look forward to seeing more!
I just threw my roommates pup her first birthday party and used this recipe to a T but as cup cakes. Flavors are on point. Note if using a dark metal cupcake pan with the oven at 350° only bake for 8 minutes
Make this every year for my pupper, and for my grand pup too! They love it!
Making it today, as my Max is 9 today!
I use a 7 inch pan and it works great!
Thank you for the great recipe!
Has anyone eliminated the vanilla extract as it is not good for dogs? I’ve read that vanilla itself is not harmful to dog; the alcohol in both pure and imitation vanilla extract is.
Alcohol burns off when you cook it. Or, if you’d like, I’m sure you can just skip it. I can’t imagine a dog would even notice haha.
Hi! I haven’t made it but I am loving all of the good vibes!! Instead of coconut oil, can I use regular oil??? I’m baking this for my teachers dog and can’t afford to buy coconut oil for a dog that isn’t even mine lol
Sorry for this delayed response! Yes, you can use regular oil in this recipe.
My dogs shared this birthday cake. They love it! Every bite burst with happiness, it’s like the heaven opened its gates. This is so good, so thumbs up!
Happy 3rd birthday to our baby girl Sydnee. This recipe is amazing. Thank you! I wish there was a way to post pictures here.
Awesome recipe, Best recipe that i finally found. Thanks For sharing. Keep sharing more stuff.
Now i am goind to do something special for me Bunzoo(Dog). Will back soon with pictures of recipe. Thanks
Super confused….Graduated from culinary school in Chicago and have over 10 years of fine restaurant experience. Moving into making something delicious and healthy for my friend’s pups, I came along this recipe. After searching for mullllltiple recipes I decided this would be a good start.
Unfortunately I have followed instructions to a T and have ended up with not a batter at all, but more of a dough. Confused how everyone in this chat ended up with a batter. There is simply too much dry ingredient to wet ingredient. Doesn’t make for a batter. Would love some insight on this. Thank you!
I just made this for my dog and ended up with a batter my baby boy loved it
For me thEre was more wet ingredients over dry
Cooking/baking truly not my forte. However, this recipe looked simple enough and I wanted to do something special for my dog on her birthday. I did too get dough instead of batter after following the instructions carefully.
Question – How can you get it to a batter form?!
It would be great to get some tips. Thanks
I did not have 4″ cake pans so I doubled the recipe for a 9″ pan and had enough extra batter to make 4 pupcakes. The pupcakes turned out perfectly but my cake broke in two, not that the puppies cared. I used bulagarian yogurt so it was a bit thinner but I mixed the icing ahead of time and let it sit and thicken. My one year old puppies loved their first birthday cake and their 11 year old dog sister loved it too! Thank you for the recipe!
The batter tastes SO good! Making it for Chuy’s 14th birthday and I’m sure he’s going to LOVE it, <3 Thank you for the recipe. I think it'll be just fine for his human pack too.
We made this for my pups 1st Birthday. Her and my other 2 dogs literally scarfed it down. I added a tablespoon or so of honey to the frosting and of course they licked that off first, because who doesn’t love frosting :)! Thanks for the recipe!
That’s amazing! I’m glad they all liked it, and happy 1st birthday to your pup!
Is this a soft cake or does it get hard like a dog biscuit? My dog is very old with bad teeth. He will not be able to eat if it is hard
It’s a soft cake!
Can’t believe how tasty this was, even for humans! My pup had a birthday party with her pup-cousins this year and I made this cake and some homemade doggie ice cream. Everything was gobbled up!
I’m going to make this 4 my 3 year old boy, Opi! Can’t wait thx for the recipe!😁
Made this tonight for my boy’s first birthday! It’s tasty even for pet parents!!!
Ha yessss!!! I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it 🙂 And happy belated to your pup.
Just made this tonight for my sister’s Husky-German Shepherd pup Zelda. It was her 5th birthday and we weren’t sure if she was gonna like pumpkin but she LOVED this! We had a small pumpkin on hand and roasted that to make the purée, which ended up being enough to double the recipe. Didn’t have coconut oil so I used 1/4c more applesauce and the texture was still dense and moist. Baked it in an 8-inch pan for about 35 mins and used a round cookie cutter to cut out a nice 4-inch deep cake which Zelda DEVOURED! Glad I made a double batch, we are gonna freeze the leftovers for treats! Honestly it smelled delish, like peanut butter cookies, so next time I might make a version with salt and sugar for humans to enjoy as well ☺️Thank you for the recipe!!!
I’m so glad Zelda loved it!!
Hi I want to make this for my dogs 12th birthday. Do I need the coconut oil or can I substitute for olive oil. This Recipe looks really fun and I can’t wait to make it! Thanks so much!
I haven’t tried it with olive oil but I imagine it would work just fine. Happy early birthday to your pup!
Hi there. Would this be good for cupcakes? Would that make he temperature and baking times different
Made cupcakes with the recipe today. The batter was enough for 6 cupcakes and had a little batter left over. 350 for 20 minutes was perfect. Bella enjoyed this treat for her 5th birthday!!!
Please tell me if this recipe can be doubled successfully to make a regular size one layer cake. thank you.
Hi! I think that should work out ok… it might be a tad shorter than a traditional one layer cake, but pretty close in size I’d think. Let me know how it turns out!
I am having a “sweet 16″ party for my 16 year old dog, and I want to let 3 dogs and 5 people each have a small piece of this cake. Will this recipe double nicely to make a regular size 8 to 9” one-layer cake?
thanks for your reply.
Hi there. I was just scrolling through and found this as my pups 1st birthday is coming up in December. Do you recommend giving my pup the whole thing to eat or just a slice or two for one night and then make it last for a while?
It’s really up to you… I don’t give mine the whole thing at once because she’d probably get sick, but I imagine some dogs would be just fine. Happy early birthday to your pup!
So excited to see this. My sweet girl’s 10th birthday is tomorrow! I can’t wait to see how she reacts! And you’re not alone when you tear up thinking about how your baby won’t be here forever. You just gotta love them “to the moon and back” while they’re here. Thank you for sharing!
Ahhh dogs are just the best–happy 10th birthday to your pup! I hope she loves the cake 🙂
Hi Erin,
You are not alone when you are excited to make your pup a birthday cake… it’s the least we can do for them… for all the love they give us!!!!
I have a quick question… my baby boy’s 8th birthday is tmw :O and I wanted to make this cake the night before….do you think this will be okay if I keep in an air tight container in the fridge?? or should I wait to make the icing the morning of giving it to him?
Please let me know when you have time 🙂
Many thanks!
xox, Meg
Hi Meg, Happy early birthday to your pup! I think you should be fine to make this cake tonight if you’re going to store it in a container. As for the icing, I’d probably make it tomorrow before you assemble the cake. I hope he loves it!
Erin thank you so much for the recipe. Our Harley will be 1 in October so I thought I’d look around for a recipe. This one sounds like a winner!
Happy early birthday to Harley! I hope your pup enjoys this cake as much as mine did 🙂
Came out perfect and my dogs loved it. I just had to bake for a total of 38 minutes.
So good to hear! Happy birthday to your pups 🙂
Hi Erin,
Thanks for sharing this great recipe!
I bake all my dog treats so I’m stoked I’ve found this cake recipe!
I use almond flour for our treats. I have one quick question about the apple sauce though. What can I replace that with? I’m only finding apple sauces with sugar or artificial sugars in. Any ideas?
Thanks a bunch,
Rosemary
Hi Rosemary–you could try replacing the applesauce with a mashed banana instead. Let me know if you try the recipe!
Thanks Erin! I’ll be sure to let you know. 🙂
Rosemary,
I just ran across your request about pet insurance. I realize it was a yr ago, so I don’t know if you’re still looking or not. But when I was looking, I wanted the Best 4 the least amount of money, that covered the most, w/the least of out of pocket money. But, like I’ve learned w/all the companies you have 2 pay the bill 1st then u get reimbursed. So after looking & comparing I went w/ Petplan. But understand 2, a lot of it also depends on the breed & age of your little baby 2. I realize it’s a yr later, but hope it was a little help 2 you.
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Charlie and I want to thank you for the wonderful recipe! She was in love ?
I’m so glad your pup loved it as much as mine did 🙂
Hahah look at her licking her lips!!! So so so so cute.
Ray and I want to get a dog next year….we’re thinking German Shepherd pup.
Omg stop. German shepherds are so cute and smart–definitely a good choice in my opinion! (<--since my opinion counts and all 😉 )
I love how you did this the way people do with their babies! Happy birthday little Layla! Gaahh, I want a second dog now!
Hahah embarrassing! But thanks Kelly 🙂 Glad you appreciate it.
You forgot the #1 nickname…..MIZZ LAY!!
Happy birthday to Layla! This is so adorable – I made my dog treats recently and he devoured them, I can only imagine Layla inhaling this haha! I kind of want to eat it too…
It wasn’t too bad until I put cheese on top 😉 because you know, I had to taste test it for her…
Awwwww!! Happy 2nd birthday Layla!!! She’s adorable and I can’t wait to move in with my boyfriend so we can finally get a dog too haha! Such a perfect little cake, too. 🙂
Yes!! I can’t wait until you get a dog too–they’re just the best.