Pumpkin and Applesauce Puppycake (dog Friendly)

There are plenty of reasons to celebrate milestones in any good dog's busy lives and this cake is the perfect way to make any occasion a special one. Made with tasty peanut butter and sweet pumpkin puree, it’s a tempting refined sugar-free treat even a person might enjoy!

This cake is a simple recipe that takes less than an hour to complete from start to finish.

Step 1: Making the Batter

To make your own cake you will need:

• 1 Cup white or whole wheat flour
• 1 Tsp. baking soda
• ¼ cup peanut butter
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup applesauce
• ½ cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon activated charcoal powder

Preheat your oven to 350°F /180°C.

Mix together your flour and baking soda. When well blended, add the butter, vegetable oil, applesauce, pumpkin, vanilla, honey, egg, and charcoal powder.

Transfer this mixture to a small round pan (it's just enough to fill an 8" pan nicely) and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife stuck in the middle pulls out clean.

Allow the cake to cool completely. As you're waiting, let's make the frosting and decorations!

Step 2: Frosting and Decorations!

To make your frosting you will need:

• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp. beet juice (optional - just gives it a nice red color!)

In a bowl, whisk together your yogurt, peanut butter, cinnamon and beet juice until well combined.

Use this to gently frost your now cooled cake.

Because I made this cake for my dog, I made white yogurt chip teeth to go around the edge. You don't have to make teeth, you can make whatever you want...or skip this step altogether.

If you decide to make the teeth, you will need:

• 1 Cup white yogurt chips

Carefully melt the yogurt chips by microwaving in 30-second bursts and stirring until smooth.

On a piece of parchment paper, carefully pipe out sharp yogurt chip “teeth” and allow to cool.

Once cool, peel your yogurt chip teeth off of the parchment paper and press them into the outer edge of your now frosted pup cake! (I also sprinkled a little bit of grated yogurt chip on top for extra decoration.)

Serve a small slice at a time to your favorite and most deserving pup!

Store your pup cake covered in the fridge for up to a week.