Some of you may still have pumpkins dotted about the house following Halloween – but did you know your dog loves pumpkin too? Don’t throw it out – use it to make these pumpkin and cream cheese pupcakes your pet will go barking mad for.
Pumpkin is great for your dogs digestion and can even help with diarrhoea and constipation. It’s a source of fibre, as well as vitamins A, E, and C, and potassium and iron. Dogs can eat the flesh, pulp and seeds – the seeds also contain anti-oxidants!
Cream cheese is very much a ‘treat’, and should be fed in moderation, but it makes for great ‘icing’ on the cakes.
For the pumpkin and cream cheese pupcakes you will need:
- 300g whole wheat flour
- 30g rolled oats
- 1 egg
- 230ml water
- 1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
- One small pumpkin, roasted and pureed
- 100g cream cheese
The night before making the pupcakes, I roasted a small pumpkin by cutting it into chunks, removing the seeds and putting in the oven on a low heat for an hour. After this I peeled off the skin, put it in a blender and blended until smooth. This went in the fridge overnight so that it was nice and cold.
To make the pupcakes:
- Pre-heat oven to gas mark 4 (180-degrees)
- Mix the whole wheat flour and oats, egg, water, peanut butter and two to three spoons of pumpkin puree – I use our electric stand up mixer for this.
- Spoon the mix into cupcake cases in a cupcake tin
- Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes until golden
- Leave the pupcakes to cool whilst you prepare the icing
- I mixed the rest of the pumpkin puree with around 100g of cream cheese and whisked with the mixer until smooth
- Add this to a piping bag, or sandwich bag, and placed in the freezer for about 15 minutes to cool
- Once the pupcakes are cool, you can pipe some of the icing onto each cake, and top with pumpkin seeds. You could even make ‘butterfly cakes’ and scoop the top of the pupcake out, fill it with the icing, and place back on.
Disclaimer: Whilst Lady & The Scamps provides homemade recipes, we are not vets or dog nutritionists. We conduct our own online research, but also advise you to do the same. We recommend consulting your vet if you choose to change your dogs diet. It is not possible to provide accurate advice on every dog’s diet. If you have specific questions about your dog’s health or specialised dietary needs most authorities recommend that you consult your vet.
Lady & The Scamps accepts no responsibility for any inaccuracies in the information contained on this website and persons relying on this information do so at their own risk.
