Pupcakes! (Dog cupcakes with “frosting”)

Pupcakes piled high with dog friendly frosting to celebrate Dozer’s 8th birthday! Easy dog cupcakes made with banana and peanut butter – the smell drives them crazy! The crowning glory is fluffy frosting made with no butter, no cream cheese, sugar free. Aren’t you dying to know the secret?? 😉

Pupcakes – dog cupcakes with fluffy frosting!

Dogs eat anything, but in my world, that’s no reason to lower the bar! So these cupcakes are everything you want in YOUR cupcakes – except they’re sugar free and made with dog friendly ingredients 😂:

• Tender crumb that’s soft and fluffy
• Moist, not dry – no pooch will ever choke from dry cake in MY house!
• Peanut butter banana smell that dogs go crazy over

As for the frosting? The secret ingredient is potato made creamy with yogurt and sweetened with honey! Far better for dogs than using copious amounts of butter, cream cheese and icing sugar used in normal fluffy frostings.

The thought of potato frosting mightn’t appeal to US. But pooches love it!

What you need for pupcakes

Here’s what goes in these cupcakes – these are all dog friendly ingredients. It won’t upset your dogs’ stomache and you won’t have a mess to clean up on your lawn tomorrow (sorry to gross you out 😂).

Dozer ate 5 of these yesterday, and 4 the day before (many photo and video retakes!) and it didn’t affect his digestion at all.

How to make dog cupcakes

The making part is no different to making your favourite blueberry muffins – ie super duper easy. Except you might have extra unwanted “help” in the kitchen if you let your pooch get involved…. (wait until you see Dozer “helping” in the recipe video!!)

Frosting for dog cupcakes

The secret ingredient in the creamy, fluffy frosting you see on these cupcakes is potato. A proven hit used in last years’ birthday cake for Dozer’s birthday!

You’ll see plenty of dog cakes and cupcake recipes online with sky-high swirls of frosting made with loads of high fat ingredients like cream cheese and peanut butter. Looks great. Bad for dogs.

At most, you’d limit it to a smear on each cupcake – which pooches wouldn’t complain about, but lacks the wow factor visually.

So I use potato instead. Made creamy with yogurt plus water, and a touch of honey to sweeten it = perfect piping consistency, looks totally authentic and far better for dogs than cream cheese so you can use plenty.

You and I wouldn’t eat it. But your dog is going to LOVE it!

What goes in dog friendly “frosting” for Pupcakes

Here’s what you need:

How to make Pupcake frosting

The trick here is to cook the potatoes until very, very soft – literally fall apart – so when you “whip” it up with yogurt, water and honey, it will become smooth with a fluffy buttercream frosting consistency!

Looks so real, humans will eat it!!

After last years’ hilarious incident when my friends’ husband ate Dozer’s Birthday Cake because it looked so REAL (while my friend watched silently, just for the amusement of seeing his reaction 🤣), I decided I better play it safe this year and top it with dog biscuits!!!

But actually, dog biscuit aside, these cupcakes are perfectly safe for humans to consume. They just taste rather…….interesting!!!

Virtual doggie birthday party!

Given that children aren’t allowed to have birthday parties in this new world order, it didn’t seem very fair that Dozer should have one. Also because after experiencing the carnage at last years’ party (which ended with me having to dive in to grab the cake and run away with it), I knew that the frenzy of excitement created by taking treats down to the beach with 20+ golden retrievers would cause chaos that would likely lead to inadvertent breaches of social distancing requirements!! 😂

So this year, I packed up the pupcakes and distributed them among his friends – here are a few pics of Dozer’s buddies enjoying them!!

Happy Birthday Dozer!🎉

Happy 8th birthday Dozer!! I’ve loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you, that fateful day when I went out “just window shopping” for a puppy. As a pure bred golden retriever, you’re riddled with flaws with your double joints, your long legs, and your abnormally large size.

But to me, you’re perfect – and I wouldn’t have you any other way! – Nagi x

PS Wait, I lie. If you could just stop shedding fur everywhere, that would be terrific. That’s the only thing I’d change about you!

PPS Also, picking up your own 💩

Watch how to make it

Dozer “helping” me make Pupcakes….(not!)

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Pupcakes! (dog cupcakes with "frosting")

Author: Nagi

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 25 mins

Total: 40 mins

Dog Treats

Western

5 from 18 votes

Servings12

Tap or hover to scale

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Recipe video above - don't miss Dozer "helping" me make these cupcakes! Made with banana and peanut butter which dogs go mad over, the crumb is moist and tender, stays fresh for a week. Frosted generously with doggie friendly icing made with potato - much better for dogs than using loads of cream cheese, peanut butter or other typical frosting options. For METRIC - toggle under ingredients.

Ingredients

Pupcakes:

• 2 ripe bananas (150g/5oz after peeling, ~2/3 cup mashed)
• 1/2 cup peanut butter , smooth or creamy (Note 1)
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour , all purpose/plain OR wholewheat/wholemeal (Note 2)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup oil , vegetable, canola, peanut or olive oil
• 3/4 cup water

Fluffy dog friendly "frosting":

• 500g / 1lb potatoes , peeled and cut into 2 cm/1" pieces
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup yogurt, plain low fat (any unsweetened type) OR sour cream
• 2 - 4 tbsp water
• 12 small dog bone biscuits , for decorating (optional)

Cups - Metric

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan). Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.
• Place bananas in a bowl and mash with a potato masher until smooth as you can get it.
• Add peanut butter, honey and eggs. Whisk well until smooth.
• Add flour, baking powder, oil and water. Whisk until smooth.
• Divide between cupcakes until 3/4 full. Bake 22 minutes until the top is golden, or skewer comes out clean.
• Transfer to cooling rack and cool for 30 minutes before topping with "frosting"

Frosting

• Place potato in a large pot of water. Bring to boil, then cook potato for 20 minutes until very, very soft and starting to crumble on the edges.
• Drain, then return into empty pot. Add yogurt, honey and water (starting with 2 tbsp). Beat with electric beater for 1 minute on speed 3, increasing to speed 5, for 1 minute or until smooth and creamy. Add more water if needed - it should have a soft consistency like frosting.
• Transfer to piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm / 3/5" round nozzle (Note 3 for other nozzles). Pipe in swirling motion onto cupcakes, top with dog biscuit.

Recipe Notes:

1. Peanut butter - make sure the peanut butter doesn't contain Xylitol which is an artificial sweetener that is not good for dogs. Kraft peanut butter does not contain Xylitol which is what I use.

If you are unsure, go for all natural peanut butter (health aisle of supermarket) which is just pure peanuts. (Then use the leftovers to make Thai peanut sauce for yourself!)

2. Flour - I'd ordinarily use wholemeal/wholewheat flour because it's got more nutrition than white flour, but I'm out of stock and trying to minimise grocery outings!

3. Piping - you can use a standard star shaped nozzle and the piped frosting will look like this (Meatloaf Cupcakes with Mashed Potato). But don't try to use a Wilton #1M or #1B nozzle used to make pretty swirls like in this photo on chocolate cupcakes. The consistency of the potato frosting isn't suitable - it just won't hold its shape (I tried and ended up with a total mess).

4. Storage - these have kept well for a week, hasn't lasted longer than that. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge (to ensure potato doesn't go off). The biscuit will soften - Dozer doesn't complain 😂

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 40kcal (2%)Carbohydrates: 8g (3%)Protein: 1g (2%)Fat: 1g (2%)Saturated Fat: 1g (6%)Cholesterol: 27mg (9%)Sodium: 12mg (1%)Potassium: 165mg (5%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 5g (6%)Vitamin A: 52IU (1%)Vitamin C: 2mg (2%)Calcium: 41mg (4%)Iron: 1mg (6%)

Keywords: dog cupcakes, dog treats, frosting for pupcakes, icing for dog cupcakes, Pupcakes

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Life of Dozer

Just because this ENTIRE post is dedicated to Dozer, doesn’t mean I’m going to skip the Life of Dozer section! 😂 Here he is, on the job during this recipe video shoot. He scored many, MANY Pupcakes in carrying out his job….