Ever consider what our dogs must think of us? I mean, here we come back from the grocery store with the most amazing haul – chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we are the greatest hunters on earth!
-Anne Tyler
Ya’ll, my oldest puppy Miller turned FOUR almost 1 year ago! What! I feel like yesterday he was sitting in my lap shaking as I brought him home. He is now my 60 pound monster that won’t go to bed at night until I give him head rubs and is staring at me every morning waiting for me to wake up.
Every year for my dogs birthday it is a huge celebration. They are normally allowed “human food” once a year on their birthday & they love it. Because Miller has to share my love with Charlie 364 days of the year, I decided to go big for this birthday and make him pupcakes.
What I love about this recipe is every ingredient is found in the average household & is both dog and human friendly to eat.
To make Miller feel special I used majority of the recipe to make him a 3 layer mini pupcake & made Charlie a few pupcakes so he could celebrate with us. Dogs & peanut butter go hand in hand so naturally they licked every crumb up that they could find.
How to make these simple but perfect for your furry friend PupCakes:
To begin, you will first make your “cake” and that starts by preheating your oven to 350 degrees.
Next, grab a large bowl and add your egg, peanut butter, honey, vanilla & coconut oil. Mix them until they are combined.
Pupcakes Baking Tip: The main “tip” I have for making your cakes is to mix the wet ingredients first then incorporate the dry ingredients in so the batter will be smooth. (Mine was a little lumpy because I did not mash the bananas out completely I left a few chunks in there.)
Next, add in your mashed banana. Stir to combine before adding in your flour and baking soda.
Combine all ingredients until a thick batter is created.
When your batter is ready, spray down your pupcake molds (or grab cupcake liners) and add an even amount of mixture to each mold.
Place your pupcakes into the oven & bake for 20-25 minutes.
Now it is time to make the frosting for your PupCakes:
To do this, grab a small bowl and add greek yogurt & peanut butter. Mix well until a thick frosting is created.
Frosting Fact: The frosting for the pupcakes was definitely a dog favorite (I tried it…definitely not a human favorite…way too bitter for me!). If I had been making it for myself I would have swapped out the yogurt for cream cheese to help with the flavor but the dogs loved it!
When your PupCakes are completely cooked, remove them from the oven and place them on a cooling rack.
After they have had time to cool (5 minutes or so). Remove them from their cake molds & spread a thick layer of frosting between each layer. Top with more frosting & a dog bone for effect!
Serve to your pup and watch them enjoy!
The ever stoic birthday boy with his cake.
And here is Miller clearly loving life.
He got 10 uninterrupted minutes to eat as much of the cake as he wanted before we shared with brother & he was in dog heaven!
Happy 4th Birthday Mill-man! You have brought nothing but love to my life since the day I picked you up to come home with me. Thanks for being my best buddy, my protector & the best cuddler I know.
Dogs give us unconditional love so any chance we get to celebrate them we need to take the chance. Hopefully your dogs will love these peanut butter & banana pupcakes as much as mine did!
ENJOY!

- 1 cup wheat flour
- 1 cup bananas, mashed
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 egg large, beaten
- 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
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Into large bowl add egg, peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla & honey. Whisk until ingredients are combined and smooth.
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Add in mashed bananas. Stir until well mixed (try to get as many clumps out as you can).
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Finally add flour & baking soda into mixture. Fold in until completely incorporated with other ingredients.
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Spray either 4 small non-stick cake pans or 8 cupcake holders with baking spray. Evenly divide your mixture into all (you want to fill them 2/3 of the way full).
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Bake for 20-25 minutes (depending on your oven). Once cooked allow to cool on cooling rack and begin making "frosting".
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Mix together yogurt and peanut butter until smooth. When pupcakes are cooled spread on frosting- either on top of your cupcakes or between layers of your cake.
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Serve to your puppy and let them enjoy!
I love this great help but all 3 of my doggies i want to give them cupcakes for they Christmas treat but they also have they Christmas gifts too this was helpful
I found your site recently and am LOVING the way your pictures look!! But what I love best is that you have a section JUST for dog treats!! Funny enough, a few weeks ago, I made pupcakes too!! (Link below) Anyway, I am excited to see what else you cook up!! Have a great weekend!
http://melliedee.com/happy-2nd-birthday-luna/
I will prepare this recipe for my bichon’s Birthday coming up this week.
I just want to point one thing and that is that I read that vanilla extract may not be the best choice for dogs because it contains some alcohol. I read it’s best to substitute with maple syrup. Otherwise the recipe sounds like it will be a hit with my dog Lucy. 🙂
After I make my cake how do I stove it and how long is shelf life.
Teresa,
Did you mean store? I stored these cakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 5 days!
Since they are made with yogurt, do they have to be refrigerated ???
If I don’t have coconut oil, what other oil can I use
Can I bake ahead & freeze the banana peanut butter cupcakes, thaw night before and icing morning of party🎉❓
My dogs love it! I made them for no reason but to make them happy! Thank you!
Vanilla with alcohol is bad for dogs….
No they cant
Can I substitute all purpose flour for wheat flour?
Can I substitute all purpose flour for wheat flour ?
These turned out amazing!!! My pups loved them. Thanks for the awesome recipe! Definitely saving this one. ♥️
I can’t wait to try these for Aspen’s birthday next week!
My little white lab daughter will be a year old and I want to take these to day care with her.
But I won’t have time to make them during the week for her to take on Friday.
So I’m wondering if I can make them a week in advance and freeze them.
wow, charlie loved it like never before. thanks for this awesome post
Can you use almond flour instead of wheat flour? Trying to make this grain free since my pup is allergic.
I would love to know this as well!
That’s a heckin good doggo, eating some heckin good pup cakes!!!
Would you recommend these as borkday cakes?
Today is my Luna’s 2nd birthday! In the midst of this pandemic, I wanted to do SOMETHING for my baby girl. We have been extremely cautious going outside when she has to go potty (because for some reason every senior neighbor wants to pet my dog and say hi to me) and it’s just depressing to not do something. She LOVES bananas so I thought I could look up a recipe to make a cake and I found this. And sweet jeezus, she scarf this down no problem! And no lie, prep and cook time definitely went by faster than 20 minutes. I truly appreciate this recipe! From me and Luna, thank you!
Me and my dogs loved this recipe
Cam i make this is a mini bundt cake maker?
This recipe was so simple I gave it to my dog Stella for her 4th birthday and she loved it I would make it for her again any day I even took a little bit and it is perfect, if I made it for myself I would add more peanut butter than greek yogurt for the frosting but overall it was awesome and my pup loved it.
Just made this recipe tonight for our dog, Stan’s 12th birthday. He and our other dog, Hank LOVED them!!!!
Y all I ve got two AMAZING things to share today that are going to make your life in the kitchen easier. The first is this absolutely delicious and crazy easy Chicken Parmesan Bake. It has all the delicious flavor of traditional chicken parm, but with literally a fraction of the work.
Well, I would say that at the top, I think you should type what the ingredients are . But my dogs love it,
😵💫😶🌫️
PS. I’m 8 years old.
Oh, I made the pup cakes for fun. Not for the pooch’s bday. Love, the person who wrote the same review.
Dogs cant eat vanilla extract can they
So good my pup turned one and him and his buddy’s enjoyed it thank you so much for the recipe:)
Vanilla extract is toxic to dogs, why would You add that as an ingredient?