scarlett is four: dog birthday cake recipe

It was recently Scarlett’s birthday — our baby poodle is now four years old! Very exciting. Although we didn’t throw a party like we did for her second birthday, I did bake her the same cake as I did then. The humans (Grant, my brother who was visiting at the time, and myself) weren’t as lucky, either, since I didn’t have time to bake us any kind of cake, let alone the decadent ombre almond cake with raspberry filling I had made then.

Let me just say that this dog cake was irresistible to Scarlett. She doesn’t tend to beg for food (from us, anyway, because she knows we won’t give her any. My dad, on the other hand…), but when this cake was on the counter, she would go and scratch the cabinet below it to ask for some cake. Or she would sand on her hind legs, nose up in the air, sniffing for it (we call it “meerkating”). In fact, she hardly ate her food for the days the cake was available to her: all she wanted was cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/4 c peanut butter
• 1/4 c cooking oil
• 1/3 c honey
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 c shredded carrots
• 1 c flour
• 1 t baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/175 C
2. Oil baking dish (or spray with cooking spray if you have access to some). Note: I didn’t have a bone-shaped baking dish so I used a loaf pan lined with tin foil that I made into the rough shape of a bone. It worked pretty well!
3. Combine egg, peanut butter, oil, honey, and vanilla in a large bowl. Helpful hint: measure the cooking oil before the peanut butter so the peanut butter doesn’t stick to the measuring cup. Stir in carrots and mix well.
4. Sift together the flour and baking soda, then fold into the carrot mixture. Spoon the batter into the prepared baking dish, tapping dish on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles.
5. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes, until browned on top. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes then place on wire rack to completely cool.

Don’t let your dog eat the whole cake at once! Scarlett is not a big eater — she is more of a grazer and just eats when she is hungry — but she definitely would have eaten enough cake to make her sick if we had let her. Know your dog and how much he or she can handle.