Pupcake recipe - Tray of frosted Pumpkin Banana Pupcakes on a marble cake stand with birthday candles.

It was Theo’s FIRST birthday last week so naturally, being the dog mamma that I am, I had to whip up a Theo-approved pupcake recipe to celebrate his special day.

While Theo is normally pretty picky when it comes to food, he *devoured* this pupcake recipe. Proof below.

Nut Free Dog Cake

While Theo loves peanut butter, (okay, any type of nuts / nut butter), his stomach isn’t the biggest fan. I wanted to make a pupcake recipe without peanut butter so Theo could enjoy them, without having to deal with the consequences.

For these pupcakes, the base is a pumpkin + banana mixture which gets mixed with eggs and coconut oil. I then used a mixture of regular flour with rolled oats. Feel free to sub whole wheat flour and/or almond flour if you know your dog does okay with nuts!

Pupcake recipe - Close up image of a frosted Pumpkin Banana Pupcake on a marble cake stand with a lit birthday candle.

Dog Icing Recipe

What kind of cupcake doesn’t have icing?? Obviously had to come up with a dog-friendly icing recipe to top these bites with, and I think it was Theo’s favorite part too!

Instead of using all cream cheese for the frosting (which would pipe better), I did mostly greek yogurt with a little bit of low fat cream cheese (another Theo favorite). Unfortunately, because of the high fat content in cream cheese, it doesn’t always sit well with his stomach. Using a greek yogurt based frosting was another Theo modification I decided to incorporate into this pupcake recipe.

If your pup does fine with cream cheese, you could definitely do all cream cheese and skip the greek yogurt entirely!

Pupcake recipe - Frosted Pumpkin Banana Pupcakes on a marble cake stand. Candles blurred out in background.

While this is the first dog friendly recipe I’ve got on The Mindful Hapa blog, let me know if there are any other special doggo treats you’d like to see in the comments below. And if you do make these pupcakes, PLEASE TAG ME over on IG (@themindfulhapa), because nothing makes me happier than photos of cute floofers!

Lastly, if your dog isn’t sensitive to nuts, there are a lot of tasty peanut recipes out there such as these Peanut Butter Pupcakes from Damn Delicious. If you’re looking for a mini cake, you can check out this recipe from The Almond Eater.

I also want to say that with Theo, we only let him have 1-2 pupcakes to make sure he did okay with them (he did!). We stored the extras in the freezer and have been giving them to him as treats for when he’s being an extra good boy 🙂

close up top down image of banana pumpkin frosted pupcake

Pumpkin Banana Pupcake

Prep: 10

Cook: 12

Total: 22

Servings: 24 mini muffins

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A delicious nut-free pupcake recipe to spoil your furry friend on their special day. Dog cake made with banana and pumpkin, topped with a homemade greek yogurt + cream cheese frosting your pup will LOVE.

Ingredients

Pumpkin Banana Pupcake

½ cup super dark mashed bananas ~1.5 medium bananas
½ cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 tbsp coconut oil melted
¾ cup regular or whole wheat flour
¼ cup rolled oats
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder

Frosting

1½ cups greek yogurt
4 oz low fat cream cheese room temperature
1 tbsp maple syrup optional

Instructions

Pumpkin Banana Pupcake

Preheat oven to 350F and spray a mini muffin tray with coconut oil.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together mashed banana, pumpkin, egg, and coconut oil.
Stir in flour, rolled oats, baking soda, and baking powder and stir until just combined.
Split batter evenly between 24 mini muffins and move to the oven to bake at 350F for 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool to room temperature before frosting.

Frosting

In a medium bowl, use a hand blender to beat room temperature cream cheese for ~1 minute or until softened.
Add greek yogurt and maple syrup (if using), and beat for another 1 minute until combined.
Pipe frosting on top of cooled pupcakes. Alliteratively, use a spatula to add a little bit to the top of each - I promise your dog won't taste the difference!

Notes

Ingredients used have been determined safe for MY pup! If you have any questions as to the safety of ingredients for YOUR dog, please check with your veterinarian.

About Casey Colodny

Avid home cook and baker since College, Casey went on to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and complete the basic intensive cuisine course. Interested in creating healthier recipes for the V/GF, vegetarian, pescatarian, and paleo eaters! Started The Mindful Hapa in 2018 and has been cooking and sharing tasty recipes and photography ever since.