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.
Liz Corbin says
My dog absolutely loved these, kept licking his lips after, a great first birthday celebration in my opinion. I left out the bacon and added a sprinkle of cheese on top, it crisped up in the oven and turned out amazing.
Sarah Nevins says
Aww! Cheese on top is a great idea – I’ll have to do that for my dog’s birthday coming up!
Bernedoodle Owner says
My dog LOVED these! I made them for National Puppy Day (why not 😉) and he went crazy over them! I added a tablespoon of goat milk to the batter and topped it with dog treats. I recommend this recipe for your pup!
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! SO thrilled your pup enjoyed this! Love the idea of adding goats milk too by the way Give your bernedoodle a hug for me – they are such adorable dogs!
J Malik says
Thank you so much for this recipe! I adjusted this recipe and used a mini loaf pan to make a small bone shaped cake. I used a whole large apple, about 5 Tablespoons of peanut butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon baking powder and also added 1/4 cup of flour. It turned out great and my dog love it!
Sarah Nevins says
What a cute idea to make it into a bone shape! So glad you furry friend enjoyed it – thanks so much for coming back to let me know how it went 🙂
Kail G. says
We doubled the recipe and it made 22 mini cupcakes. They were a big hit at our dog’s birthday party!
Sarah Nevins says
Ooh! What a fun idea! That’s also so helpful to know that it can be multiplied – thanks so much Kali 🙂
Myra says
I made these for my dogs birthday. She and her friends loved them! I left out the baking powder though. Making them again this year! Super easy to make.
Sarah Nevins says
Aww! So happy the dogs enjoyed them 🙂 Thanks for coming back to leave a review – I love hearing about the dog birthdays!
V says
Thank you for this recipe! Made the 2 pupcakes for my dog’s first birthday yesterday. I left out the baking powder and baked for a few extra minutes. Both dogs loved them, even our picky eater!!
Sarah Nevins says
Aww So glad to hear your dogs loved them – give them some extra pets for me!
Ferguson Farms says
Quick question how long do you think these are without being in the freezer but stored in the fridge?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Ferguson! I think you’d be able to keep them up at least 5 days in the fridge – past that point the apple might start to spoil. Hope that helps!
Britany says
Very messy and hard to mix, but I’m sure my dog loved it!
Sarah Nevins says
Glad your pup enjoyed it!
Kylie says
Hi Sarah,
I love this recipe and have used it to make just the two cupcakes. I am a dog walker and want to make some for all my doggoes for Xmas. I have 20 in total – do you think I could increase the measurements by 10 and it would work? Thanks in advance!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Kylie! It’s hard to say! On one hand, the target audience is a group of dogs and I’m sure they wouldn’t be too picky, but on the other hand the ingredients amounts if you were to increase everything by 10 doesn’t sound right.
If I were to try to scale this recipe up for 20 dogs I would try it with 1 cup of peanut butter, 3 apples, 3 eggs and a teaspoon of baking powder. If the mixture feels too thick/dry you can add an extra egg. This would make about 9/10 small muffins (at a guess). I think you would be better off doing that twice as opposed to trying to double or 10x everything in one go. Baking can be a bit weird that way and I worry if you add too many eggs and peanut butter at once your muffins won’t fully bake in the middle.
I hope this helps!
Kathleen says
Amazing!
Sarah Nevins says
Thanks Kathleen!
Alaina Bilby says
They were so easy to make, and so fun.
✴️✴️✴️✴️✴️
5 Star review
Sarah Nevins says
Yay! Thanks so much Alaina!