Birthday Cake For All!
Tanner after he’d been with us 1 week
Our Tanner Boy turned one last week. He’s a really special member of our family. Our 6-year-old Australian Shepherd, Cooper, was hand-picked. We looked for exactly his breed and age, then sifted through pictures and found the right one. Cooper was the pup for us, and we have loved having him in our family for the last 6-years-minus-10-weeks of our lives. Tanner, though, is a different story. We didn’t even WANT another dog. We weren’t looking. Weren’t checking rescues or breeders or classifieds. Weren’t checking out parent dogs or pre-buying supplies. We were just driving down a very rural, country road on our way back from getting some raw milk from homesteading friends who had a surplus and gave it happily. We were headed home on an early summer afternoon, temperature over 100 degrees already, when I saw a tan fur ball running down the middle of the pavement ahead of us. I slowed way down to go around what I thought was a cat, but he moved right into my path so I stopped. It was a puppy. A tiny puppy, the size of a cat, in really poor health, running frantically down that broiling hot, black pavement. I got out, crouched down right there in the middle of the road and said, “Aaw, come here, Buddy. Are you scared? It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.” He practically leaped into my arms. He stunk to high heavens like urine and feces, was newly shaved(yes, a tiny puppy was obviously shaved), eyes were sunken, nose was dry and cracked like a dog who was seriously dehydrated. He felt like he weighed nothing. I drove to the one nearby house, brought him to the door, and asked if they were missing a puppy. They said no, but took my information and said if they heard of someone who was they’d have them contact me. It was late on a Saturday, animal control was closed for the weekend, so we brought the puppy home with us. We’d foster him until animal control could find his family or a home for him.
The birthday boy
A billion more details and A LOT of time at the vet later, and he became ours. Our Tanner boy chose us. We discovered pretty quickly he had a lot of trauma in his past, and it’s been a lot of work to teach him our home is safe, food is plentiful, and no one will ever hurt him again, but it’s been worth it. He’s now a big and beautiful, happy and handsome, tan and fluffy half-crazy-puppy-half-gentleman-teenager-dog. We celebrated how we always celebrate birthdays: With cake. In the vlog about Tanner’s birthday, I showed his dog-safe cake that we like to make for our puppers on their birthdays and promised to share the recipe. CHECK OUT THAT VLOG HERE!
Birthday Cake For The Dogs
Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 egg
- FROSTING(optional):
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt or cultured sour cream
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- SPRINKLES(optional):
- 2 strips of bacon, diced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
- In a separate bowl, mix the oil, peanut butter, apple sauce, and pumpkin puree. Once combined, stir in the egg.
- Combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients, stirring just until they're fully combined.
- Pour mixture into a greased 9-inch round cake pan.
- Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool entirely before removing from the pan.
- Serve as is, or add frosting and "sprinkles."
- Add yogurt/sour cream and peanut butter to a mixing bowl bowl and whip until thoroughly combined and fluffy.
- Spread evenly on the cooled cake.
- Top with diced bacon or any other protein your pup loves.