Gemma makes a Dog Birthday Cake for Waffles | Bigger Bolder Baking

Hi Bold Bakers! So a lot of you know my dog Waffles, lying here beside me. So he's a big part of Bigger Bolder Baking and a huge hit on social media, I might add. He always gets tons of likes. So it is Waffles' 6th birthday and I couldn't let that go by without celebrating with a dog-friendly birthday cake. So he's gonna hang out here beside me, eat some carrots, and we're gonna make his birthday cake. Now as always, the recipe can be found on BiggerBolderBaking.com and make sure you go over to my website because I do have a few pet-friendly recipes over there. Okay, Waffles? I have a feeling you're gonna be no help at all, so you lie there, hang out, and we're gonna make your birthday cake. So I just wanna start out by saying, you know your pet best, so make a call on what they should eat. I do say everything in moderation, so only give them a little bit of the cake, a little bit of each ingredient, and they'll be fine. Okay, Waffles? So let's start out in a nice big bowl. So because I'm a man down here, I'm gonna make this real easy on myself and just start adding stuff into a bowl. So add in your eggs, oil, honey, applesauce, peanut butter, and grated carrot. And then whisk all these ingredients together. So so far we're really liking the ingredients that are going into this cake. Okay, so those are our wet ingredients. Into this we're gonna add in some whole wheat flour. Because it's a cake and it needs flour. And then a little raising agent to give it that rise. And then with a spatula, just mix until it forms a batter. So a little note about the peanut butter you want to use, use unsalted, smooth, and one that doesn't contain xylitol because that can be hazardous to dogs. Now unfortunately this cake is not good for cats, because it contains peanut butter and other ingredients that don't agree with them. You've got peanut butter all over your face. I washed him yesterday, in the tub, I got him nice and clean, and now you're filthy. Okay, I'm surprised we've gotten this far and he's still here. So let's get this into our tins. Come here, Waffles. So divide your mix evenly as you can without getting it eaten, between your two prepared 6-inch tins. These are nice little small tins, and I'm actually gonna put a link on my website, because these are what you'd use for a smash cake for a child's birthday, or for kind of a bakery style cake. They're really handy to have. I already know Waffles likes this raw, so I'm sure he's gonna love it baked. So there you go, there's our dog-friendly cake made in one bowl with one hand trying to stop our dog from eating it all. Now we're gonna pop these guys into the oven. Bake your cakes off at 350ºF or 180ºC for roughly 30-35 minutes. So now while our cakes are in the oven, let me tell you a little bit about Waffles in case you don't know him. Waffles is a wheat and terrier lasso-opso mix, we adopted him 5 years ago from NKLA, which is a no-kill shelter here in LA. He was around 5 pounds lighter, he was shaved from head to toe, oh, he looked like a little lion because he's, he had hair on top of his head and he had hair on his tail but nothing in between. He was there by himself and they think he was living on the streets for a while. He had really bad anxiety, but myself and Kevin went to go see him in the shelter. We loved him, we knew that he was gonna be a gorgeous dog, super lovely temperament especially because he's a terrier mix, he's just super friendly, really lovable. If you've met Waffles, you'll know where you're gonna lie down, man. Okay, you lie down there, you lie down, I'll tell the story. So that was 5 years ago, so now he's 6, and he's like a different dog. A lot of time went into him, but he really has transformed. So if you wanna see more of Waffles, check out my Instagram, especially my stories, jemma underscore stafford, he is always in there making an appearance because he follows me around the house all day long, so he makes for great Instagram content. So true story, once or twice I've been out in my neighborhood, and I know people have recognized me because of Waffles. Every time they look at me, and they look down at him, and then they say, is that Waffles? Because you're famous, because you're a famous doggy. So our cakes are out of the oven, as you can see, my co-star pieced out hard. Now come here to me, I want to show you what your cake looks like when it's done. It is a little bit golden brown, just a little bit of color, and then if you put your finger in the middle of it, it's firm underneath, so it is nicely baked. What I'm going to do now is set these aside, let them cool down completely in the tin. So the layers of our cake have cooled down, now the next part is super simple. What I have here is some smooth peanut butter, remember the note I said about peanut butter earlier, no xylitol? What you want to do is just smear this on one layer of your cake, just a thin layer. Pop on your hat, or your top, then on the top of your cake, frost it with a little bit more peanut butter. Just like that. So here I have some birthday candles, because Waffles is very special and deserves birthday candles. Just gonna pop those on top, it's probably a good thing he's not here for this part, because I want him to be really surprised when he sees the cake. Not like, fake surprised. Gorgeous, look at that. I have to say, this is my first doggy birthday cake, and it's pretty rockin'. I think that's really awesome. So if I'm gonna go to so much trouble to make my dog a birthday cake, of course I'm gonna put it on a cake pedestal, make it look really nice, take it outside, and do a doggy photo shoot. Let's go. So cut your dog a piece of cake, then slice the rest and keep it in the freezer for the future. So I hope you enjoyed this Waffles episode, he is such a big part of our team and our family, I know I enjoyed it, probably not as much as he did, but anyway, thanks so much for watching and I'll see you back here really soon for more Bigger Bolder Baking. Yeah, was that a nice birthday cake? Was that a nice birthday cake?