Tasty Tuesday: A King Cake Fit for a Dog

We’re pretty lucky where I live. Just as soon as the Christmas season ends, we start celebrating Mardi Gras. Technically, Mardi Gras is just one day–the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, February 17 this year–but we like to celebrate every minute leading up to and including that day. (It can all seem a bit confusing. Click here if you’d like more information.) One of the best parts of Mardi Gras is the King Cake, but human King Cakes aren’t good for dogs. Bummer! So my human mommy searched the internet for a dog-friendly recipe and found one at DogChannel.com. Yea! Today we made our first ever Dog-Friendly King Cake. Yum! Here are the ingredients and instructions:

 

Ingredients:

2/3 cup bananas, mashed

1/2 butter, softened

3/4 cup water

3 large eggs

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon dried ginger

2 teaspoons cinnamon

**1/2 cup chopped pecans, chopped (**Mommy wasn’t sure about adding the pecans, so she turned to the internet and found a number of sites that said dogs shouldn’t eat pecans. We didn’t add the pecans to our batter.)

Nonfat plain yogurt mixed with honey and food coloring (in the traditional Mardi Gras colors–purple, gold, and green) for the frosting

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside. Beat together the bananas and butter in a medium bowl until creamy. Beat in water and then eggs one at a time. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine. (**At this point the recipe says to add the pecans; but based on Mommy’s research, we skipped this step.) Pour the batter into a prepared Bundt pan and bake for 35 minutes.

When we poured the batter into the Bundt pan, it seemed a little pitiful. Mommy crossed her fingers (and I crossed my toes) and we both hoped that it would rise a bit while baking. It did.

Before popping the cake into the oven, we added a small homemade dog treat. Human King Cakes traditionally are baked with a little plastic baby inside. Whoever gets the baby in his or her piece of cake is expected to purchase the next King Cake or throw the next party. Mommy and I thought it would be fun to put a dog-friendly spin on that tradition.

While the cake baked, I helped with cleanup. This is absolutely and positively my very favorite part of Tasty Tuesday!

After the King Cake cooked and cooled, Mommy mixed the icing. The recipe didn’t have specifics on amounts, so Mommy used about two tablespoons of yogurt, 2 teaspoons of honey, and a few drops of food coloring for each color. It seemed to work. As you can see, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get a piece of King Cake after my dinner tonight. Mommy says we’re going to let the cake rest in the refrigerator overnight. Then tomorrow we’ll deliver pieces of King Cake to my canine friends. I can’t wait to see who gets the baby hidden dog treat . . . I also can’t wait to get my very own piece of Dog-Friendly King Cake. Happy Mardi Gras!

Today, I’m participating in the Tasty Tuesday blog hop, hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever. You can click on the link below for more yummy recipes and tasty treats.

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