Friday, September 10, 2010

Dogs Deserve Cakes Too

It would be really unfair of me to just make cakes for humans and ignore all the other species who could love cakes. It's a different kind of bake, but it's still just as fun to make as human cakes. My first subject: Arali's dog - Zoey. Zoey's a pint sized girl who's the princess of the family. So, I thought she deserved only the best of dog cakes (and the only one I thought I could tackle at the moment).

A hypothetical dog that deserves a cake shown below:


I did what I did best and googled for a recipe for a dog cake. I stumbled upon this: http://www.dog-treat-recipe-exchange.com/dog_birthday_cake_recipes.html#PBDelight. How perfect!? A peanut butter delight doggie cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. yum.

Then I bought these:

1 cup white or whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup honey
1 egg

Then I did this:

1. Shredded one large carrot - because that equals 1 cup of shredded carrots conveniently enough.

2. Mixed the flour and baking soda together - this resulted in a flat thick cake. ****Then the second layer I made, I accidentally used baking powder (which is safe for dogs like baking soda in these small amounts), and it resulted in a fluffier more appealing cake. So, I threw the first layer away and made another layer so that both layers could be nice a fluffy.*****



3. Then mixed in all the remaining ingredients, put into a 9" pan and then put it into the oven at 350F for 20 minutes (until inserted toothpick comes out clean).

4. Cooled it down on a rack and then cut out a doggie bone shape with a template I made from scrap paper.





Beautifying Process:

Cinnamon Frosting (from the same website):

12 ounces nonfat cream cheese (room temperature) - mine must have not been room temp enough because it was really hard to work with.
3 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp honey



1. I started spreading the frosting all over the dog cake. It wasn't easy. The process was finally made easier when I decided to dip my spatula in water and then spread the cream cheese. This resulted in a very smooth looking spread (pretty!).

2. I put it in the refrigerator so I could finish decorating in the morning before I took it to Arali. I didn't know that the Grand Canyon of all cracks would form on my dog cake. I guess the environment in the refrigerator was too dry and the cream cheese cracked. Also, I must have spread it too thin. Sadness shown below:



3. I corrected the cracks with the leftover cream cheese (that I saved - thank goodness!).



4. Continued decorating with Newman's Own heart shaped doggie treats and some burgandy colored cream cheese to write Zoey's name and add some decorative dots on the bone.



Voila!

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