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!)
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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….
Love
Thank you so much !!!
My little peanut had his first birthday & loved the cupcakes 🧁
My boys Ed and Eddie loved these today on their first birthday, thanks!
Happy Birthday Ed & Eddie!!! N x
I cut the recipe in half and made 6 large muffins! I substituted apple sauce for the honey in the batter. For the frosting, I used a sweet potato mashed and beaten with some plain yogurt. I piped it out and it kept its shape! I topped it off with a small dog cookie. I did try one. Not bad at all!
Why would you put honey in this? Dogs don’t need the sweet.
It makes it more appealing for them and also acts as a binder 🙂 N x
Does it matter what kind of potatoes? Russet? Sweet potato?
Hi Jil, any white potato will work fine here 🙂 N x
these cupcakes work great!! my bernedoodle cosmo really enjoyed them (and i have to admit, they aren’t too bad tasting to humans, either!)
AWESØME PUPCAKES I LOVE THEM
Thanks so much Eesha!! N x
Hi! Thank you for the recipe! What oil should I use? Like coconut oil, avocado oil, canola oil, etc? And would the measurements change depending on what kind of oil I use? Thanks!
Hi Leah, as per the recipe, vegetable, canola, peanut or olive oil are suitable. N x
Thank you so much for sharing! My boys loved them and it was so simple to make, especially for a non baker like myself. The mashed potato frosting was amazing.
I’D LOVE TO MAKE THESE FOR MY DOG, BENNE HOW CAN I GET THE RECIPE OFF MY COMPUTER? CAN YOU HELP?
Hi Wanda, simply click the “print” button in the recipe card and you’ll get a printable version of the recipe 🙂 N x
I found the “frosting” too runny and had a hell of a time trying to thicken it up.
Hi Shagrubs, sorry you had issues here, how much water did you add to the frosting? N x
My pup loved these for her 1st birthday! Made them as minis and reduced the cook time to 12 minutes and they turned out beautifully. We also subbed whipped Greek yogurt & peanut butter for the frosting because she’s sensitive to potatoes- still looked great! Actually taste-tested a bit and the cake isn’t too bad even by human standards 😉
ooooo
Have you tried a version of these in the mini cups rather than the full-size cupcake? Just curious if the cook time would be different.
Made these yesterday for my pups 3rd birthday! They turned out great and all the pups devoured them in seconds. Bonus, no poop issues this morning!
I didn’t really measure for the icing, but I was able to get it to the right consistency to use the 1M Wilton tip too!
I would love to try these for my pup’s second birthday but my younger brother is allergic to peanuts. What can I sub for the peanut butter?
I haven’t tried with any subs here sorry Lindsay – tahini could work possibly! N x
Hi… I’m totally in love with this recipe. Any suggestions on how to alter it to add coconut flour instead of whole wheat flour? I’d reallt appreciate it! Thank you!
These were awesome and so fun to make! Wish I could upload a Pic!
Thank you so much!
Hello, can I substitute the oil for coconut oil?
Sure can Maryam! N x
My 6 month old lab puppy and all her friends loved this!! She can’t have wheat flour so I replaced it with rolled oats (and increased the amount of oats by 1/2 cup) and oh boy, did it come out good. It was cracked on the top but I didn’t particularly care since I was gonna “frost” it anyway. The frosting was a bit runnier than I preferred so I added 2 tbsp of potato starch and cooked it for a bit. It became a bit gelled up after it cooled down so I added 2-3 tbsp of water and beat it until fluffy. It had a pipe-able consistency and I could pipe rosettes (that held their shape!!!) on using a large open star tip. It had the consistency of buttercream, but slightly thicker. Anyways, thanks for the recipe. I’ll be using it in the future too! <3
Hi, I want to use rolled oats instead of flour too. Did you blend the oats to flour consistency or leave as is? And did you still have to add the baking powder? Thanks!