On May 7th, our monster-dog, Cooper turned 28 in “dog years.” He won’t get to have a 30th birthday because the silly dog years calculation doesn’t allow it (well technically you could divide 30 dog years by 7 and get 4.28571 human years, which is approximately 4 years and 3.36 months, which would put us near the beginning of August, but then you have to figure out leap years and then try and fit all that info on an invitation and it’s all just TOO MUCH)…anyway, Tina decided to make him some “pupcakes” to help ease him into adulthood.

Part of the hope was that she would make cupcakes specifically for him and that we, as humans, might also enjoy them.

Nope.

Not even a little. They sure look pretty, though.

When figuring out food sharing between humans and canine companions, there are three simple rules of thumb:

• To dogs, human food tastes like the-best-thing-ever-OMG.
• To humans, dog-friendly food tastes like garbage.
• Oh and to dogs, garbage also tastes like the-best-thing-ever-OMG.

“It’s my birthday? Awesome! Hey, what’s a birthday?”

In actuality, all cupcakes (except chocolate) already are pupcakes, because dogs will eat and love anything we eat. Really, we should call regular cupcakes human pupcakes, because we’re the ones with the sophisticated palates who demand a certain quality in our desserts. Dogs aren’t asking for anything special! Cooper would be just as happy eating the banana cupcakes that I stuffed my face with last night. Hell, he’d eat a bag of flour if we let him. But we didn’t give him the banana cupcakes. Why?

Because sometimes it just feels nice to make something special for your dog. And although he’ll never fully grasp the idea behind it (or the idea of birthdays in general), he does appreciate the effort (even if his appreciation level for you making a pupcake is equivalent to you arriving home from work, “OMG-you’re-home-from-work-you’re-the-best-ever”). That’s why dogs are so great, because they love everything, even when we don’t.

“OMG-I-Don’t-Know-What-A-Birthday-Is-But-I-Love-It!”

PEANUT BUTTER PUPCAKES RECIPE

Cupcakes

Tina found a pretty simple Doggie Birthday Cake recipe from Allrecipes.com for the cake and made a frosting (below) out of peanut butter and cream cheese.  It’s a small batch and only makes five cupcakes, but your dog probably doesn’t need to eat more than five anyway. And YOU won’t be eating any…

Frosting

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup peanut butter

Directions:  Mix with a hand or stand mixer until smooth. Then, pipe onto cupcakes with a pastry bag/tip.

Misc Recipe Notes:

• It’s been a full 24 hours and Cooper hasn’t climbed the stairs to our room and vomited on our bed, so I think we’re in the clear digestion-wise.
• If you hate your co-workers, whip up a batch of these and leave them in the break room. Make sure to stand there and watch everyone eat them, so they have to lie to your face and tell you they’re delicious. Fun times.
• Seriously, though they weren’t that bad. I’d liken them to a sugar-free peanut butter coffee cake with a savory peanut butter cream cheese frosting. Sounds horrible, right?