Easy Dog Cupcake Recipe: Peanut Butter And Bacon Pupcakes!

My dog Teddy turned 9 years old this year! Honestly, I can’t believe I’ve had him for almost a decade! Celebrating his 9th birthday reminds me of his first birthday. As he gets older, I get more sentimental knowing that his life is so short. Let me stop before I start crying.

To celebrate my sweet Teddy Muenster’s ninth year with me I wanted to bake him a whole cake or a single serving dog cupcake. I settled on individual bacon and peanut butter dog cupcakes because they are the perfect size for him. There’s nothing more that my dog LOVES than bacon and peanut butter.

To be fully transparent, I’ve never baked birthday cakes or cupcakes from scratch for myself so I was a little hesitant about creating dog cupcake recipes. Before I took the easy route and simply went to a dog bakery to get dog cakes I decided to give this pupcake recipe a try. What I learned is that dog cupcakes are super easy to make because dogs pretty much love most ingredients and they don’t mind if you mess up how it looks. I made the cupcakes grain free by using oat flour but you can use any flour in your pantry.

Make this easy dog cupcake recipe to celebrate your pup’s birthday or gotcha day with a special treat. I promise you, they will be drooling for these peanut butter and bacon pupcakes!

Dog-friendly Ingredients You Need For This Simple Dog Cupcake Recipe

Oat Flour: Using oat flour makes the pupcakes gluten free. You can make your own oat flour by blending down old fashioned oats into a powder. Or use any flour of choice such as whole wheat flour from your pantry.

Baking Powder: Helps the cupcake rise. You can choose not to use it and you will get a denser cupcake.

Peanut Butter: Use peanut butter with limited ingredients that doesn’t haven added sugar and Xylitol which is harmful to dogs.

Bacon: What dog doesn’t love bacon! I baked the bacon and chopped it up.

Applesauce: Use unsweetened applesauce. Alternatively you can use pumpkin puree.

Egg

Ingredient And Recipe Notes

Ingredients I didn’t add to the dog cupcake recipe are oil, baking soda, vanilla extract, cream cheese, and artificial sweetener. You can always choose to add them! I try to limit the added sugars in my dog’s diet. Make sure to use non-stick spray or paper liner on your muffin tin since there is no oil in the recipe or they will stick to the muffin tin.

Equipment Needed

Mixing bowls
Muffin tin or Mini muffin tins
Frosting piping bag
Wire Rack
Cupcake Wrappers (optional)

How To Make Bacon And Peanut Butter Pupcakes

I have never made cupcakes from scratch for people before so I thought it would be challenging. Turns out this peanut butter and bacon dog cupcake recipe is super easy to make!

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients, flour, and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients, peanut butter, applesauce, single egg, and bacon.
Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix well until combined.
Coat the muffin tin with non-stick spray or use cupcake liners. Pour the mixture into the muffin tin.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until golden brown
Allow dog cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack before adding frosting and toppings.

Easy 2 Ingredient Peanut Butter Frosting For Dog Cupcakes

The dog-friendly frosting for the pupcakes is even easier to make than the pupcakes themselves. It’s simply chilled greek yogurt and peanut butter mixed well together. Use ingredients that don’t have added sugars or Xylitol to make a dog-safe alternative frosting. Add the mixture to a frosting bag and pipe frosting on the cooled pupcakes. Decorate them as desired before serving them to your dog.

Decorate Dog-friendly Cupcakes With Toppings

Now for the fun part, decorating the dog cupcakes with tasty treats! I used Botanical Bones treats to decorate my dog’s cupcakes but you can use anything in your fridge and pantry. Such as berries, carrots, your canine companion’s favorite dog treat, and of course bacon!

You can even bake your own healthy homemade dog treats to decorate your own cupcakes. The possibilities are endless. Of course, you could leave the frosting and decorating off the dog cupcakes if your dog has allergies or intolerance to any of the ingredients.

Dog-friendly Cupcake Recipe Substitutions/Variations

This dog cupcake recipe is gluten-free when using oat flour. But you can use any flour that you have in your pantry. In fact, you can substitute most of the ingredients if your dog has allergies or an intolerance to the ingredients.

Creamy peanut butter can be removed completely if your family has a nut allergy. You can also remove the baking powder which will give you a denser cupcake. Your dog will still love it!

Feel free to add any ingredients to get more health benefits such as carrots, sweet potato or blueberries.

Use a mini muffin pan to create mini dog cupcakes for small dogs.

Dog Birthday Party Ideas

A birthday party for your dog? Sign me up! I treat Teddy as my baby already so a dog birthday party for him sounds right to me. In fact, I’ve seen many Instagram dog birthday parties on social media and I’ve been to a few myself. You can let the dogs play in the backyard or local dog park while you enjoy a cocktail or two.

Bake a full birthday cake for your dog or serve these individual peanut butter and bacon dog cupcakes to your four legged guests. A single serving of pupcake is all a dog really needs.

Create a decorating bar that has an assortment of dog treats, fruits, vegetables and bacon so each dog can have their favorite toppings on their pupcake. Send your dog guests home with these birthday goodie bags from Barkuterie Boards.

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A post shared by Sharon + Ted | Lifestyle Blog (@sharonandteddytakethecity)

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