Recipe video above. A four-layer drip cake that looks so real, it's hard to believe it's made entirely from dog-friendly ingredients!!Frosting note: While it might sound weird for a frosting to be made of whipped potato, dogs don't care! It looks and behaves like buttercream frosting, but is dog friendly so you can use it in abundance to decorate the cake (not recommended for usual frostings made with cream cheese/peanut butter etc etc)
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time40 minutesmins
Cake cooling1 hourhr
Total Time2 hourshrs10 minutesmins
Course: Dog Treats
Cuisine: Dog Food
Keyword: birthday cake for dog, dog birthday cake, Dog cake recipe
Cake pans: Grease and line the base of 2 x 15cm (6") cake pans that are 7.5cm (3") deep (Note 3 for other cake pan sizes).
Mix wet ingredients: Whisk together eggs, peanut butter, oil, honey and milk (small peanut butter lumps are ok).
Add dry ingredients: Stir in carrot. Add flour and baking soda, stir until just combined (over-mixing = hard cake = sad birthday pooch!)
Fill cake pans: Divide batter between cake pans, spread and smooth surface.
Bake: Bake 30 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool on racks.
Level and halve: Trim the mound off the top of each cake to make the tops flat. Then cut each cake horizontally in half using a serrated knife so you have four, even, flat cake layers. Frost per below.
Dog-friendly "Buttercream"
Cook potatoes: Boil, steam or microwave potato until very soft.
Whip: Whip potato and yoghurt with an electric beater until fluffy and smooth as possible – about 1 1/2 minutes on medium speed (speed 5).
Adjust thickness: Use water as needed to loosen frosting to a soft, spreadable consistency (like human buttercream frosting). Use while warm – it "sets" and gets harder when it cools, Note 4.
White and blue frosting: Use uncoloured frosting to frost between cake layers and sandwich them. Keep remaining frosting to be coloured and used to frost the surface.
White Drip Frosting:
Mix ingredients in a small bowl, starting with 1 tablespoon milk. The frosting should be thin enough so it will spread quite smoothly on the top of the cake, but thick enough so the drips you make down the side will hold their form. (Do a test on a straight-walled glass). Adjust thickness with more cornflour / cornstarch (for thicker) or more milk (for thinner).
Frosting cake:
Sandwich layers: Place one cake layer on a turntable or serving platter. Spread with 3/4 cup white frosting. Top with another layer of cake, spread with 3/4 cup frosting, then repeat once more and top with the 4th cake layer.
Colouring frosting: Colour the remaining frosting blue using blue gel. To achieve the colour pictured, dip a toothpick into gel container and smear colouring on the surface of the potato. Dip a clean toothpick again into the gel and repeat (you need two dips to get enough colour into frosting). Mix frosting until colour is uniform.
Frosting surface with blue: Frost the top and sides of the cake with the blue frosting, spreading it as smoothly as you can.
Drip Frosting: Spoon 2 - 3 tablespoons of Drip Frosting on the top of the cake and spread carefully to the edge, ensuring you don't coax it over the edge. Now scoop up a teaspoon of the Drip Frosting and "drip" it down the side of the cake from the top edge. Repeat all around, making drips of different lengths.
Decorate: Decorate cake as desired with decorations that you want to stick to the frosting. I used silver, blue and white balls.
Set frosting: Immediately refrigerate for at least 3 hours to make the Drip Frosting set. (Also, the silver balls will sweat on the Drip Frosting unless it sets quickly). Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
Happy birthday to your pooch!!!
Notes
1. Large eggs - a large egg is standardised at 55-60g / 2oz each, and are sold in cartons labelled as such. Best to be at room temperature for ease of incorporation into the batter.2. Food colouring – I use Sky Blue colouring gel by Wilton, available at Spotlight (Australia) and speciality stores that carry food colouring gels. Gels are much more intense than liquid food colouring. As demonstrated in the video, I dip a toothpick into the gel then smear it on the surface of the "frosting", and I do this twice to achieve the colour shown in the photos.To achieve the same intensity of colour using liquid food colouring, you will need about 2 - 3 teaspoons.3. Cake pan – The four layer cake pictured is made with a 15 cm (6") pan that is 7.5cm (3") deep. It can also be made in 2 x 20cm (8") cake pans (for a two layer cake that takes 25 minutes to bake), or anything in between. Otherwise, use a square pan about 20cm (8").Bake times will require adjustment accordingly, but this is a forgiving cake! Just check with a toothpick to see if it's ready – it should come out clean once cooked.4. Serving size – Appropriate serving sizes should be determined having regard to the health, size, activeness and digestive sensitivities of your dog. Dozer was fine even eating 2 large slices (almost 1/8th of the cake!). But he is a large and highly active dog with a broad diet. He eats many things I make and tastes almost everything I eat myself!Do not use in place of a meal however. You wouldn't eat a cake for lunch (or maybe you do 😂), and so it is with dogs – cakes are not a well rounded nutritious meal!Also in case you are, ermmm, "interested", his 💩 was NOT blue!!😂 The frosting actually contains very little colouring per portion. It is merely 2 toothpick-smears worth (see post).5. Potato "buttercream frosting" –If it gets cold before you finish using it, it will become quite firm which makes it hard to spread smoothly. Warm in microwave and use water to loosen to a soft and spreadable consistency.6. Nutrition commentary (assumes 20 slices):
Eggs – A good source of protein for dogs
Peanut butter – The "treat" element. Dogs are mad for peanut butter! It gives the cake an irresistible peanut butter smell. 2.5 tsp per slice.
Oil – A very small amount used, about 1/2 tsp per slice
Milk – If you're concerned about your dog consuming dairy, sub with water. It works out at 1.5 tsp per serve, and also remember it's cooked!
Honey – For a touch of sweetness, 3/4 tsp per slice. Skip if you want.
Carrot – Carrot is good for dogs! I hide a lot of carrot in Dozer's meals. It also makes the sponge moist. Sub with zucchini or sweet potato.
Flour – Just like humans, carbs are fine to consume in moderation!
Baking soda – To make the sponge rise, OK for dogs in small quantities.
Potato – Same as flour, cooked potato is fine to consume in moderation! It's a better, healthier option than slathering the cake with a peanut butter + yogurt frosting, which seems to be the default for most dog cake recipes. Too much yogurt or peanut butter is not good for our pooches. Whether commercial sweetened spread or even pure unsweetened product, peanut butter is very high in fat. Some yoghurt is good for dogs but not vast quantities.
Yoghurt – Probiotics in yoghurt is good for dogs' digestive systems, just like humans! If your dog is sensitive to dairy, just use water.
Food colouring – I used gel because it's such a small quantity I was comfortable with it (see Note 2 concerning how little we use). You could opt to use natural food colouring liquid (available in the baking aisle at Woolies and Coles in Australia, labelled "Natural Food Colouring"). However the colour of the frosting will not be as intense. It's ideal if you want to have a pastel-coloured frosting base like this robin egg blue Easter Cake (that's a human cake!).
7. Storage – This cake is best kept in the fridge. It should be good for 5 to 7 days. Also freezable!8. Nutrition per slice.