Healthy peanut butter banana pupcakes (with potato frosting)
Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet and gentle, energetic and playful pup Bentley! We had two birthdays in the family in the space of a week…mine, and the fur baby’s. Guess which one I was more excited about celebrating? Nothing turns a tough day around as quickly and convincingly as a wagging tail, and few things can reassure the heart like the pure, unconditional, unquestioning love and loyalty of our animal friends/family.
Bentley’s special day featured plenty of toys, including a very fun dog toy craft made from old T-shirts (we’ll be repeating this one time and again, for Bentz and all his friends), playtime with his favorites (canine and human), a beautiful walk, and these wholesome pupcakes, complete with piped potato frosting.
It’s fun experimenting with treats for dogs. For one thing, there’s always the background knowledge that you can’t really go wrong. I mean, is it even possible to fail in the kitchen when preparing something special for one who is willing to eat garbage and poop? With that in mind, there’s no reason not to take all the shortcuts. For instance, go with one bowl and don’t worry about it. While typically you’d want to whisk the baking powder into the flour first, then make a well and add the wet ingredients, here it just makes more sense to mash those bananas first, mixing in the peanut butter and chia eggs in next. And about those chia seeds, we’re vegan, but our dog isn’t—feel free to swap out the chia seeds and water for an egg or two. Either amount will do just fine.
When you’re ready to add the dry ingredients, pour the out flour on top and lightly mix the baking powder into that before mixing everything together into a batter. Here I’ve processed oats into a fine flour myself. You can use actual oat flour no problem, but if you’re like me, it feels better to be more economical.
This recipe makes a good 24 mini muffins, which is a lot, so you may want to consider halving it—or, pop extras in the freezer. And if you’re curious, you can absolutely eat these little bites, too. I won’t say they’re the best human treats, but they’re not bad (at least, without the “frosting”)! Throw in some blueberries, and they’re not far off what we eat as a family anyway. You could make them more toothsome and add chocolate mini chips, but obviously that would rule out the birthday pooch from eating them, as chocolate is a big canine no.
I would love to hear if your canine companions enjoy these, if you make some! And if you give them a taste (unfrosted, of course) yourself. It’s funny, because pupcakes are easily more about us and our conventions than the dogs’ taste. Bentley’s dream “cake” would in all honesty be a jar of peanut butter scrapings. It does feel oh so good to share these, though. Sharing our traditions and seeing them through his bright, shiny eyes, just for a moment it feels like every day is all pure love and adventure, just because. xo
Wishing you pawesome celebrations!
Peanut Butter Oat Pupcakes
Yield: 24 mini muffins/pupcakes
For the pupcakes:
3 ripe bananas
½ Cup peanut butter
2 Tablespoons chia seeds in ½ Cup water
¼ Cup applesauce
½ Tablespoon baking powder
1 Cup oats, processed into a fine flour
Water as needed to thin
1 recipe “frosting” (see below)
Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan). Line a 24 hole mini muffin tin with cupcake liners or prepare with cooking spray.
Place 1 cup of oats in a food processor and process for several minutes until forming a fine flour.
Place bananas in a mixing bowl and mash with a potato masher until smooth as you can get it.
Add peanut butter, chia “egg”, and applesauce. Stir well.
Add the oat flour and baking powder to the top. of the wet mixture. Whisk the dry ingredients lightly to combine, then stir everything up into a batter.
Fill the muffin holes 3/4 full. Bake 12 - 15 minutes until the top is golden and firm with a bit of spring to it when pressed. Let cool before topping with "frosting".
Potato Frosting
1 medium russet potato
1 medium sweet potato
1 Teaspoon olive oil (optional)
Peel and dice the potatoes, then place in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer, cover, and let cook approximately 12 minutes, or until potatoes are tender (it’s ok to go a little overboard).
Add oil (optional) and mash with a potato masher before transferring to a food processer to process briefly until smooth, “frosting” consistency. Let cool before adding to pupcakes. (Piping optional, but works great with this!)