Fuel-Up Fridays: Carrot Cake for Canines (and their humans too!)

I can’t say I’ve ever met a dog that doesn’t like carrots at least a little bit. The average dog seems to back flip for carrots, so what could be better than a birthday carrot cake? I’m not overly impressed with store bought dog cake mixes. Prior to baking these cupcakes I looked up dog cake mixes, and the ingredient list of one is literally just wheat flour, sugar, and baking powder (then you add a few things from your fridge). Sugar content aside, those sound pretty bland and boring to me; not nearly worth the price tag attached to it. These cupcakes on the other hand have a (pleasantly) earthy quality to them, are not quite savory yet not quite sweet either, with a hint of ground cinnamon and ginger (hold the nutmeg as it’s very toxic to dogs).  And with honey as a sugar substitute, the cakes are so fluffy that any human guests are going to have a hard time believing there’s no butter or oil in the recipe.

I actually baked these cupcakes at one o’clock in the morning, so there are no in-progress photos because my camera just isn’t built to handle dim lighting. The harsh flash coupled with the stainless steel mixing bowls caused every photo to have a giant white blob covering everything up. Sorry about that.

Carrot Cake

2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup honey
4 large eggs
3 cups grated carrot

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger in a medium bowl.
3. Whisk honey and eggs in a large bowl until blended.
4. Add flour mixture and stir until blended.
5. Stir in carrots.
6. Divide batter among cupcake molds, filling ¾ full.
7. Bake cupcakes 14 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean.
8. Let cool in pans for five minutes or so, then transfer cakes to a cooling rack.