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 😂:
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Tender crumb that’s soft and fluffy
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Moist, not dry – no pooch will ever choke from dry cake in MY house!
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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")
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)
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:
Nutrition Information:
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….
Cindy says
Hello, help…I followed the frosting recipe exactly…however I had to use sour cream. I only used 2 tbsp of water. It is super runny. What could I add to it to stiffen the frosting up?
Nagi says
Hi Cindy, sounds like you mismeasured somewhere – the only way to thicken is to add more potato unfortunately 🙂 N x
Tatum says
Would I be able to use this recipe for an 18 week old puppy? I’m having a puppy shower for a friend and wanted to give the puppy a little treat as well!
Nagi says
Hi Tatum, their stomachs can be a little sensitive at such a young age – personally I wouldn’t. N x
Tatum says
Correction to my last comment, it’s an 8 week old puppy!
Christina says
What kind of honey did you use? I always thought honey was bad for dogs and could paralyze them
Nagi says
Not as far as I know Christina – I’ve never heard that before and a lot of people use it to sweeten treats for dogs 🙂 N x
Jacqui Littler says
Scaled recipe down by half to make 6 cupcakes for my cocker spaniels 9th birthday today. Frosting smells a little think because of the yoghurt but she loves it. Definitely need to refridgerate. Treats for next 5 days, yay!!
Mary Macleod says
I have 2 dogs. One is fussy and likes almost nothing and one eats almost everything. They both loved it! 100% would recommend. Also, I used frozen bananas and they turned out fine!
Nagi says
That’s great to hear Mary!! N x
Terri G says
Hi! Has anyone frozen these? I’d like to make ahead of time but I don’t have any experience with potato frosting (lol) so I wasn’t sure if it’d get runny or weird. Thanks! (:
Patti Petersen says
Do you know of any icing recipes for dogs that do not need refrigeration? I would like to gift treats for Christmas for friends and family who live out of town. Thank you!
Nagi says
Hi Patti, I don’t have a recipe just yet sorry! N x
Kaajal Maharaj says
How can I make only 1 of them? Can’t give them out right now and can’t give my pup a dozen cupcakes hehe.
Nagi says
Hi Kaajal, you can scale the recipe down to 1 serving but you may struggle measuring small amounts of each ingredient. You could always make a half batch and freeze some for later! N x
Mims says
Hi Nagi!! I made these with whole wheat flour and without the frosting
..tried one and it has a weird smell/taste to eat….like a strong flour smell?? I don’t know how to explain…is it supposed to taste good for humans? If so I think I did something wrong…maybe the flour went bad?
Natalie says
Hey im gonna make this tomorrow for my dog Tiny s 3rd birthday and i have three dogs so they each can have one
Marcella says
I made this for my dog’s birthday and he absolutely devoured them! I swapped the frosting with a cream cheese/peanut butter blend, and to me it was a lot easier. We garnished the top with a variety of treatos and shared with all his four-legged friends! 5 stars! Will definitely make them again
deb says
just made these for my golden retriever’s Snicker’s 3rd birthday today- they are cooling as we speak. We’re both anxiously awaiting for them to cool to see how he likes them!!
Ashleh says
Made these for my pug’s 8th Birthday this weekend! (Dexter) He loved them and his furfriends did as well. It took me a few mins longer to make these but was worth it. I used more potato after reading a comment about possibly being too runny frosting. More potato helped it from being too runny.
carin verrico says
Going to make these next week for my Charlie”s 2nd birthday and have his friend Cassie come over
Maureen G says
I made these today for my pug’s golden birthday! She is 16 years young today. I thought they were very easy to make, and the cupcakes smelled delicious while baking. I did have some trouble with the “frosting” though. I did not add any water and it was still too runny to pipe on the cakes. I just dolloped some on top of each cake. The pups did not complain at all 😉
Chelsea says
So cute! I’m going to try making these for all the dogs at the shelter for an event I do each year with my Subaru dealership (last year I made doggy fro-yo). Do you think the frosting recipe could be used with sweet potato?
Nagi says
Hi Chelsea, yes definitely! N x
Fiona says
Love this idea for potatoes as an icing. If I was to ice an entire cake, sides and top spread on, would the potato need to be warm in order to stick to the cake?
Nagi says
Hi Fiona, no it will stick even when cold 🙂 N x
Kristy says
Made these for my pups first birthday! She loved them! I don’t have a hand mixer so I had to mix the frosting in my Thermomix but I think it was to powerful I had to mix in a bit of flour to thicken it up
Carly Hunter says
Hi there-thinking about making this recipe for my puppy’s 1st birthday. Would sweet potatoes work for the frosting instead of regular potatoes?
Nagi says
Hi Carly, yes you could use sweet potatoes! N x
Kelly says
I dont have a muffin tin but I have a cake tin, what can i adjust to make this into a cake? I would use the carrot recipe from last year but my dog likes peanut butter more than carrots !