In the outskirts of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (in the United States), ten years ago, a family with a few dogs of their own had one that gave birth to a litter of chihuahua, jack russell, pug mix puppies. And in that litter—the runt of the litter—if you ask my wife and me, came a dog who, in two months, will be picked up to live in his forever home. And today, that same dog who came home with us is now ten years old!
So many years we got to celebrate with our little one; he’s taken the role of our fur baby very seriously, and we’re so grateful that he has come into our lives! Time has seriously flown with him; he’s been around for a total decade, and we still have many more years to go! The grays are showing on him, but he can still be a spunky pup—when he wants to.
In two months, I’ll be posting another blog here about ten years with our dog and how, for someone who has had dogs my whole life, it still taught me many lessons.
This is the fourth year in a row that I’ve made him pupcakes for his birthday. The first year, we didn’t know how he would eat the pupcake, but we sure learned from that mistake, when he grabbed it off the napkin and wolfed it down. Now, we give him pieces of it–smaller bites, so that he’s not almost choking on it! Lesson learned there…
Unfortunately, I cannot credit the source of this recipe because it came from my wife’s former coworker and was given to us, typed on printer paper. But below is what I used to make these pupcakes for my dog, and I’ll gladly take any recommendations for other desserts to try out. I do like to bake!
Pupcakes
Ingredients (makes 6 pupcakes):
| US Measurement | Everywhere else |
| 1.5 cups — whole wheat flour | 12oz — whole wheat flour |
| 1/2 Tbsp — baking powder | .25oz — baking powder |
| 1 ripe banana — mashed | 1 ripe banana — mashed |
| 1/4 cup — unsweetened applesauce | 2oz — unsweetened applesauce |
| 1 Tbsp — maple syrup | .5oz — maple syrup |
| 1 cup — water | 8oz — water |
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/176.667°C.
- Grease the cupcake tin with coconut oil.
- I’ve used olive oil, and it works out fine.
- Side note: From experience, do not use cupcake liners. The pupcakes will be stuck to that, and you’re spending time ripping them apart.
- In a small bowl, mix the flour and baking powder, then set aside.
- Cream the applesauce, already mushed banana, and syrup in a large mixing bowl.
- Alternate adding the flour mixture and water, while the mixer is running.
- Pour the batter into the muffin/cupcake tin and bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let the pupcakes cool (either in the tin or a cooling rack), then once fully cooled, you can add the pumpkin puree on top.
- I don’t really care for visualization (as you can tell from the image above), but you can pipe the puree on top, if you like.
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