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
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup honey preferably raw
- ¼ cup canned pumpkin
- ¼ cup applesauce
- ¼ cup peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
for the icing:
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- ¼ 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!
Mariah says
My pup loved it for his 5th birthday party that we had yesterday! I made a few modifications since I didn’t have some ingredients on hand - I didn’t have any applesauce so I doubled the pumpkin, I used vegetable oil and vegetable oil cooking spray instead of the coconut oil, and I didn’t add the vanilla extract. I also used one larger round pan instead of two small ones. My dog didn’t seem to care whatsoever. 🙂
Sarah says
Made this today for my baby boys 3rd birthday! He loved it. It was hilarious watching him eat the frosting. I wish I could leave a picture comment to show you how cute it was. Thanks for posting this! I think it will be his birthday cake every year.
Erin says
That's amazing -- glad he gobbled it up!
Kathie says
I love this recipe!! I made it for my grand pup for his second birthday and he devoured it!!
Taylor says
What would be some good substitutes for apple sauce? My pup doesn't really do well with apple sauce. He loves blueberries and bananas. Would mashed/blended of either of those work?
Erin says
Yes! I think mashed banana will work. Might change the texture slightly but it should be fine.
Keisha says
I made mine with mashed banana instead of peanut butter (my dog doesn't like peanut butter). He loved it.
Naz says
My dog loved it and amazing idea using the potato mash as icing!
Melody Wentworth says
Made the cake - halved the recipe and made instant mashed potatoes for the frosting.. Jax loved it for his 1st Birthday cake.
Kim says
This is the most amazing puppy cake ever. It has been my dogs birthday cake for 2 years now. They can't control themselves when they smell it. I've made the cake in between birthdays and keep it in the freezer and if I ask them if they want cake they race to the freezer losing their minds. In fact whenever they smell peanut butter now they think it's their cake. Thank you so much for bringing so much joy into their sweet lives.
Monica says
Would the cake work out if you omit honey? Would you need to have a substitute to keep the cake's consistency?
Erin says
You can omit the honey, but just replace it with one of the other wet ingredients (maybe add extra pumpkin). Let me know how it turns out!
Anna says
What a perfect birthday cake for my pup 😍😍!!!
My golden retriever loves this cake! Thanks so much for this recipe!
Erin says
That's wonderful -- thanks for the comment!
Jessica Austin says
I just made this tonight and our pup absolutely loved every second, she licked the bowl happily. I felt good about all the ingredients going into this cake. The frosting was just the BEST she licked and licked! We will be saving this recipe for years to come.
Ashli says
Our dog, Walter LOVED his birthday cake; but the kids loved it as well!
Cake Delivery Nepal says
My other dog didn't like it very much but my older dog enjoyed it.
Thanks for the recipe !!!
Thomas says
Awesome! Loving your recipe, searching and catching it at your blog, this is great. I'll try it this weekend for a special day, hope everything looks good. Thanks for your recipe
Emily says
My puppers loved this recipe! I made it into cupcakes for his birthday and it was a hit! Thank you!
Kimberly says
We made this for Loki‘s birthday last year and loved it so much that everyone saying this year we have to have the same recipe don’t change a thing so I just found it again thank you so much for sharing this
Erin says
That's amazing! I'm glad it's your go-to dog cake recipe 🙂
Lesley says
We also made this cake for our Loki to celebrate his 2nd Birthday and boy did he love it. We did however top with plain 35% Cream whipped/ Whipping Cream to try keeping the big guys calorie intake low as he’s on a diet.😂😂😂
This recipient is a keeper for sure!
Jessica Luther says
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!
Lina says
Mini Dog Birthday Cake recipe is great! To be honest, I'm not good at cooking but I like them, they give me joy and excitement every time I finish the dishes, which is a great thing. With your recipe, I just need to follow the instructions and the rest is simple. Thanks for sharing!
Denise M says
Such a fantastic recipe. I made this cake for my aussies first birthday! He LOVED it! I wasn’t sure how yogurt and peanut butter would mix up but the icing was a wonderful piping consistency so I got a little fancy and piped a shell border with stars! Haha
Jenna Travels says
Brilliant! Thanks for this post. I'm definitely going to be trying this.
Danielle says
My dog LOVED this cake. I garnished it with mini milk bones and it looked adorable. I’m glad there were leftovers—she gets so excited when i pull some out of the fridge for her!