Peanut Butter Frosted Pupcake (Dog Cupcake)

I can’t believe Nike is turning 1 year old tomorrow! Our little fox has all grown up – last time I blogged about her was December last year.

While it’s been a lot of work having a puppy, it’s been totally worth it and has gone surprisingly smoothly. She’s really been the best pup and is so easy going – she’s small, doesn’t bark, and is very cuddly. With that personality plus her cute face, we’ve been lucky to have lots of people more than willing to help out with raising her.

In fact, people come by to visit her, not us (“Can we come play with Nike?)

She’s developed quite a personality. Fun quirks includes

• she plays cat and mouse with her treats including pieces of fruit and forgets to eat them 50% of the time 
• no fear with trains, ambulances, or thunder, but she’s terrified of watermelon and will hide under the couch if it’s near her
• to my sadness, she’s not a food lover – she won’t eat mango, peach, pears, apples, vegetables (except corn), or even lobster (we dropped a lobster roll chunk accidentally)
• she likes to hurl her toys 90 degrees vertically so I’ll find her toys in my kitchen sink and on top of the sofa or shelves
• she stands on top of her crate to “protest” (because we can see her better when she’s on top) and will stamp her foot 
• she doesn’t bark thank goodness
• she’ll bring toys to play fetch with you, but after a few throws she gets so excited she than starts self fetching so I don’t have to do anything

Mutts are unpredictable, but we thought she would be bigger. She stopped growing at 12 lbs. However, she’s quite the hiking buddy and can outhike all of us, so she’s an adventurous small dog. And a small dog is very useful in small apartments and with traveling on trains.

A moving pup is challenging, but my dog and nature photography has definitely gotten a lot better. I can’t believe she’s got 10,000 followers on instagram by her first birthday – I’m glad to see that people love her as much as we do.

I had to bake something for her birthday and made this Peanut Butter Frosted Pupcake (Dog Cupcake) adapted from Damn Delicious and Love From the Oven. It’s basically a healthy muffin with healthy icing. It’s pretty human friendly too, I ate one for breakfast this morning with some jam.

She of course had to wear a birthday outfit, and I love dog bandanas – this one is from a small business called Muttcloth, which uses designer and vintage fabrics. This cloth is so soft and beautiful – it makes for a great food prop too.

It’s an easy recipe but makes for a fun photo shoot (although keeping Nike from eating the pupcake was a challenge). Nike is a very dainty eater and slowly licked away the icing, then slowly ate the muffin. Happy Birthday little freckled fox!

Peanut Butter Frosted Pupcake (Dog Cupcake)

Ingredients
CUPCAKE
scant 1 cup flour (I did half wheat, half all purpose)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup banana
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg

FROSTING
6 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/4 cup peanut butter
dogs treats, to garnish


Directions
CAKE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour and baking soda. In a separate bowl mix together olive oil, peanut butter, banana, pumpkin puree and egg. Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir until combined. Batter will be thick.

Pour batter into a cupcake tin greased with oil. This will make 4-6 cupcakes depending on size (I filled mine to the top to get the nice dome shape) Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cupcake cool before adding frosting.

FROSTING
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, yogurt and peanut butter. Frost cupcakes with a spatula or a pastry bag fitted with decorative 1M tip. Top with dog treats. Store in fridge if not serving immediately. Enjoy!