One of our two little pups, Bogart, celebrated his first birthday this past weekend. We adopted him as a puppy from a local animal rescue when he was only 12 weeks old. He was my first puppy (our second pup we adopted as an adult), so it has been such a fun experience watching him grow and learn over the last year. I decided to make him a special treat for his big day. These “Pupcakes” are a Pretty Little Pastime, your four-legged best friend will definitely approve of!
What you will need:
Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (alcohol-free)
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (preferred) or white flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
I reserved extra peanut butter and shredded carrots to top my pupcakes. I also used Milk Bone brand treats and Beggin’ Strips to finish decorating.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the egg, peanut butter, oil, vanilla, and honey. Blend well. Stir in the carrots and mix thoroughly. Sift flour and baking soda together and fold into batter.
Fill 6 lined cupcake molds 3/4 of the way full with the batter. Bake for 20 minutes (35-40 minutes if making one full cake) or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and let the pupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Once cooled, spread peanut butter over the tops of the pupcakes and top with remaining carrot shred “sprinkles”. Break a Beggin’ Strip in half and push one side firmly into the cake to keep in place. Add a Milk Bone treat in front of the strip and your pupcakes are ready to be served!
Bogey loved his birthday pupcake and just like most kiddos he took the time to lick off all the frosting first! I made sure to remove the wrapper before he started on the cake also. This recipe only makes 6 pupcakes, which is great for a little birthday treat, and can easily be doubled or tripled if you are having a bunch of party animals over. It is sure to get all of their tails wagging!
Check back for more on our Doggy Birthday celebration.
Pretty Little Pastimes 
Just made these for my big guy who just turned 8 today 05/16/2013. Here is my results http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b549/Glen_Hanhams/Picture358359001_zps84f344d0.jpg
Thank you so much for sharing your photo Glen! It looks great and I love the candle! A very Happy 8th Birthday to your big guy!
thanks for sharing this recipe!! i recently had a birthday party for my furbaby and these were a hit! i doubled up the ingredients and used 1/2 cups wheat flour instead of 2 and it seemed to do the trick. i noticed doubling up 2 cups might be too doughy. i can’t wait to make these again!
1 1/2 cups not 1/2 😉
Thank you Melissa! So glad your furbaby enjoyed them! We celebrated our pup Maggie’s 3rd Birthday this weekend and my two little ones couldn’t have been happier to gobble their cake up 🙂 -Kim
This is an awesome idea thank you this is going to help my sister and I for our pets birthday party!!
This is adorable! Thank you for adopting from a shelter. Don’t shelter dogs make the best pets? Cats, too!
Thank you so much! Shelter dogs are absolutely the greatest! One of the best decisions I ever made was to open my heart and home to my two little pups! Wish I could rescue them all ❤
This is absolutely precious. I can’t wait to make it for my Sammy was going to be turning one. Thank you for sharing
Thanks for this! It was our dog’s 4th birthday on Valentine’s Day (her first one with us) and I wanted to bake her something special. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but the results were delicious!
Here are some pics:
http://maggiedeuitch.com/2014/02/dog-birthday-cupcake-recipe/
We are celebrating the 4th birthday of my Oki mix twins today! I’ve had them since they were six weeks old and this is the first time I have officially celebrated their birthday! I’m very excited to see how they respond to your yummy cakes! Lol. Thank you for posting them and making this day that much more enjoyable for us!
Aww, thank you for the kind words Monica! I absolutely love hearing stories of other pet parents celebrating their pups’ special day! Happy birthday to your sweet 4 year olds! – Kim
Making these right now for my 3 year old poochie baby! Cannot wait for her to dig in!
Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you for reading! Hope your pup loved them as much as mine do! -Kim
I LOVED this recipe! So easy. I replaced vegetable oil with safflower oil and used organic peanut butter. Turned out amazing, dogs loved them. 🙂 here’s a pic of my results! http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/1200x/17/a0/eb/17a0eb4fd876e47aa4a24c00c44e1570.jpg
These look SO great Larissa! I love when I get to see photos of the finished product! I am going to be adding some new pup-friendly recipes soon, so make sure to stop back by. ❤ – Kim
Love this recipe for ‘pupcakes’! Our rescue, our beloved Isabelle, would go mad with these! I have been looking for homemade treat recipes instead of store bought because I believe they are more healthier than buying store bought.
I was wondering, where did you end up purchasing your whole wheat flour? I have some saved on my wish list on Amazon, but I am wondering if it would just be cheaper to purchase it at my local grocer or even at Tops Market? What did you find to be best? Do you have a brand(s) that you have a preference to?
You have a new follower, btw 🙂 Thank you. I am glad I stumbled onto your blog 🙂
Hi there, I apologize for the hefty delay in response. I had to take a little break from the blogging world due to a new job + grad school program. I’m back now though and appreciate your comments so much.
I buy the 100% organic King Authur brand whole wheat flour, available at Whole Foods, but I am sure that you can find something very similar at your local grocer or Amazon.
Also, I will have some new Isabelle-friendly recipes up soon, so make sure to check back! ❤ – Kim
Just made these for my puppy Pepper’s 1st birthday today! She loved her pupcake and even shared one with her 11-year-old brother, Dexter, who devoured his in about 30 seconds! : )
Our sweet Chewie (Golden Retriever) turned one today. I made this recipe and it turned out GREAT! I made mini muffins so he can enjoy treats ALL week. They turned out great and took about 20 minutes or so to bake. GREAT recipe!! Chewie shared his treats with a visiting Chihuahua who also LOVED this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing it!
Thank you so much for sharing your feedback, Anne! I am so happy to hear your pup loved them too! Happy 1st Birthday, Chewie! -Kim
Going to try to make these today for my dog’s 12th birthday.
Yay! Happy 12th Birthday! I hope your pup loved them as much as mine do!