What’s An “Up Dog”?

Posted by bakingtruehappiness on March 29, 2011 · 5 Comments 

I love my dogs. I know some people say their dogs are “like their kids” but my dogs ARE my kids. I couldn’t see my life without a fancy little Westie, McCartney, and a big, goofy Golden, O’Brien.

Like their mom, they love to be in the kitchen. Whether it’s generally being in the way.

Or simply begging for cheese, popcorn, or tuna fish (here it was orange peel).

Why am I blogging about my dogs? Well, other than the fact that they are probably the cutest dogs you’ve ever seen, March is a big month in our house. March 13th is McCartney’s Gotcha Day. He was a little death row puppy that we rescued two years ago. And today, March 29th, is O’Brien’s birthday! He turned 1! Just as a reference, here’s a picture of him and McCartney, the day we got him, at just about 2 months old.

So since it was such a big day, being O’Brien’s birthday and all, I woke up knowing I’d have to be making some treats. I make my own dog cookies, and seeing as we’ve been out for some time, I decided to make some cookies first. If you notice, I don’t use lesser ingredients for my dogs. I use ingredients that I would eat. If I don’t want to eat high fructose corn syrup or artificial dyes, I don’t want my dogs to either, but I’m weird like that.

You mix the peanut butter, eggs, and oil with a cup of hot water to get the peanut butter to melt and make it easier for mixing. And of course you mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and then, as you’ve probably guessed you mix it together. Then you roll the dough out, I put corn meal down to keep it from sticking.

Then, I call The Husband to come help. For some reason he likes to cut the cookies out, and I don’t like cutting them out so it’s a win-win.

I put them on a baking sheet, cook them for 30 minutes, and voila, homemade dog cookies!

I wasn’t going to just stop at dog cookies. I needed something extra special. What was I going to make? CARROT CUPCAKES! I looked around online and found this recipe, http://www.dogtreatkitchen.com/dog-cupcakes.html. I love cupcakes so I just had to make them!

I gathered my ingredients.

Mixed the wet ingredients.

And then mixed the dry ingredients.

And then I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, I mixed wet and dry together. Then I kind of just mashed them into a lightly greased cupcake pan.

They came out so cute! Lumpy but cute!

I even made the cream chesse frosting from the recipe. Just cream cheese and a little applesauce. And yes, the cream cheese was organic.

I knew that if I made carrot cupcakes for the boys, The Husband would be sad that there weren’t any for him. So being my awesome self, I made carrot cupcakes for the humans of the house. Complete with brown sugar cream cheese frosting.

The Husband is working nights, so he comes home for dinner and then has to go back to work. So even though our bellies were full of bow ties with pesto, we decided it was time for dessert early. We gave the pups their treats first. I made sure to take a picture of one before having them tear through theirs.

Since O’Brien’s my dog with a tiny bit of self-control, I made him wait for his cupcake. As much self-control that dog has, he couldn’t help himself but creep up on that cupcake.

When I told him to go ahead and eat it, he did something strange, he didn’t go straight to eating. He instead, took the cupcake in his mouth and walked around the house a bit, not eating it, just carrying it. I think he thought it was a toy.

I decided to give the little guy his cupcake. He went straight for the frosting. Once O’Brien saw McCartney eating, he got the hint and followed suit.

After the pups were through with their cupcakes and were onto licking the floor, The Husband went on to eat our cupcakes. We enjoyed our cupcakes with a little glass of milk.

I can’t believe how much O’Brien has grown and learned already in his young life. I can’t wait to watch him grow up, and maybe some day he’ll make me a cupcake. Probably not, but a girl can dream can’t she! HAPPY BIRTHDAY O’BRIEN! Love you dawg!

Filed under Cupcakes, Dogs