Celebrate your best friend with this single serving dog cupcake made with four canine-friendly ingredients. These ‘pupcakes’ are easy to make, grain-free and will make your pooch’s day!
Cakes for Dogs or Dogs for Cake?
You see that lovely, silly greyhound licking his lips and leering at his cupcake in the background?
He’s stolen two whole cakes before. Not cupcakes. CAKES.
After the second incident I made my way to the store to buy a cake stand with a lid to prevent any future thievery from him. He’s just so tall – he’s got pretty easy access to most food on tables and counters.
To be fair to Paddy he’s typically well behaved and his begging is quite polite. As soon as he hears a ‘no’ he backs off. A true gentleman. Unfortunately no one was here to tell him ‘no’ so fair play, I suppose.
Nowadays, the only cakes our silly, long boy gets to eat are his own.
Homemade Dog Cupcakes
This recipe makes either one jumbo size cupcake, or two regular sized ones. It’s aimed for dog tastes, but it’s certainly edible if you want to share one with your hound.
Altogether this recipe is made up of only four, dog-friendly ingredients:
- peanut butter
- diced apple
- egg
- baking powder
To make, simply mix everything together in a small bowl, then fill a couple of muffin cups, bake and that’s it! Easy, straightforward and basically fool-proof.
FAQ’s & Recipe Tips
What kind of peanut butter?
- Ideally look for a natural or sugar-free peanut butter. Just make sure that your sugar-free peanut butter doesn’t include artificial sweeteners like xylitol. Artificial sweeteners are often potentially deadly to dogs.
- Crunchy peanut butter will work just the same.
banana or pumpkin instead of apple?
- Yes! Instead of apple you can use 1 small banana (or half a medium/large banana). Just mash it up and mix it in.
- Use 1/4 cup mashed/pureed pumpkin in place of apple.
freeze these for later?
- Yes! Just make sure you cool them completely first. Wrap the cupcakes individually in plastic wrap then foil, then store in a zip-lock bag for up to three months.
- To thaw: you can let them thaw in the fridge overnight or in the microwave for about 30-40 seconds.
Do I need to peel the apple?
- Don’t worry about peeling.
- You can grate the apple instead of chopping if you prefer.
- Make sure to remove all the apple seeds. They contain a small amount of cyanide. It’s not likely to cause your dog much harm, but it’s still better to avoid any potential risk.
Whether or not you choose to make these for your pup make sure to give them some extra pets for me! They deserve it.
If you have any more questions please let me know in the comments below!
Single Serving Dog Friendly Cupcake
A dog friendly, single serving cupcake to celebrate the special hounds in your life! Grain free and no added sugar.
Ingredients
- 1/2 small or medium apple, diced into small pieces
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter + more if desired for frosting
- 1 whole egg
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (optional)
- bacon bits for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F.
- In a small bowl mix together all of your ingredients until combined.
- Line or lightly grease two holes in a cupcake tin or a small ramekin. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans.
- Bake for about 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Allow the cupcake to cool completely. You can leave it as is, or frost with peanut butter and sprinkle with bacon bits.
Notes
Notes of Safety of Ingredients for Dogs
- Make sure to use xylitol free peanut butter/ peanut butter without artificial sweeteners as they can be poisonous for dogs!
- Make sure to remove all the apple seeds. They contain a small amount of cyanide. It's not likely to cause your dog much harm, but it's still better to avoid any potential risk.
- Baking powder and baking soda can be toxic to dog but typically only in large amounts. According to the American College of Veterinary Pharmacists: " Toxicosis may be seen with ingestion of 10-20 g/kg of body weight. This equates to approximately 2-4 teaspoons per kg of body weight." That's roughly 1 teaspoon per pound of body weight. This recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon altogether which should be safe. If you don't want to take the risk, feel free to leave out the baking powder.
Alyssa says
Made it with a banana instead of apple and added a splash of honey, it turned out nice and moist and actually made 3 instead of 2. It was able to feed 4 little dogs and 1 big dog!
Sarah Nevins says
Thanks Alyssa! That sounds like it would be good for humans too 😀
Lyla n. says
My dogs were in love with this!!!they went crazy over it!when they just smelled it it they started whining🤣😂
Lyla N. says
He turned 3 btw and I will totally use this again!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sarah Nevins says
Aww – I love that! Give the birthday boy some extra ear scratches for me!
Jess says
Hi! These look great. What can I use instead of peanut butter? My human child is allergic. Thanks!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Jess! Any other type of nut or seed butter will work in place of the peanut butter!
Jess says
Thank you! We used the sun butter and added shredded carrots and some cream cheese in center. Can’t wait to serve them at the doggie birthday tomorrow.
Sarah Nevins says
The cream cheese addition – my dog would LOVE that! Thanks Jess!
Mallory says
It’s my dog’s birthday today and, as has become tradition on b-days & Gotcha Days, I made these pupcakes for him! He LOVES them and so do I, because they’re so incredibly quick & easy to make but still a yummy treat for him. Thanks Sarah, from me & Coco 🙂
Sarah Nevins says
Awww – I love to hear that! Happy birthday to Coco – please give your pup some extra belly rubs from me 🙂
Sharon says
Made these for my dogs birthday today, banana instead of apple and a cream cheese ‘frosting’. He blooming loved them, thank you for sharing xx
Sarah Nevins says
Oooh – great idea on the cream cheese! My boy would go nuts over that as a frosting! So glad yours loved it – give him some pets for me 🙂
Shirley Parr says
My dog LOVED it! I’ve share the link to this recipe, several times.
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! So glad to hear your pup’s loved it! Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and leave a review!
Canifeedrealkidsthis says
Ummm can i give these to my children, like human kids lol. I can’t see why not, given the ingredients, but just want to double check. They sound rather yummy … 😀
Sarah Nevins says
Totally! I’ve had a few people say that they quite like them for themselves – since there’s nothing bad in them I can’t see why not 😀
Gayathri M Sukumar says
My pup is allergic to peanut butter, so i mixed rice flour with coconut oil to bring it to the peanut butter consistancy and used in place of peanut butter. added some chicken pieces and Also reduced the amount of backing powder. Guess what it turned out so good. My pup loved it. He turned 2 today 🙂 wanted to bake something for him.
Sarah Nevins says
Awww – what a great idea to add chicken! Definitely trying that out myself! Happy birthday to your pup – I hope you two get many more happy years together!
Sophie says
Hi! Thanks for the easy recipe! I made them vegan with a flax egg (1 tbsp flaxmeal + 2.5 tbsp water) instead and it worked out great! Our pup turned 1 today! ❤️
Sarah Nevins says
Ooh that’s great to know about the flax egg!
Happy birthday to your pup! Give them some extra pets for me 🙂
Sendy says
I have a question. Can you leave them in a fridge overnight?
Sarah Nevins says
Yes! You can keep these in the fridge about 3-4 days
Mariluz says
I have a single dog microwavable bone-shaped pan 6.5 x 4.5 x 1.5 inches, Do you think can I use the microwave for 1 or 2 minutes?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Mariluz! I’m not too well versed on baking things in the microwave, but based on what I have tried in the past I do think that should work!