The History of Dog Birthday Cake

Over the last few weeks, I have been asked repeatedly what kind of cake I would be making for Lacey. Initially I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of making a cake for Lacey's first birthday. I've made a lot of cakes and cupcakes in the last few years-- how would I make one that was especially special for Lacey?

After flipping through an album of photos from my first year, I found my inspiration.

Dog cake, circa 1985

When I turned one back in 1985, my mom made me a dog cake. I always remember when I was younger how I would look at photos of that cake, and think how cool it was that she had made it into an animal. After that, the answer came very easily: I would make Lacey a dog cake too! Not the exact same cake, but something similar. I would use my mom's design, and tweak it to make it original for Lacey.

And here is how I did it:

Step 1: I baked a carrot cake in a 9" x 9" pan. I forgot to photo document this step, but it's not a very exciting step to document anyway!

Step 2: Cut the cake into a rectangle. 2/3 of the narrow rectangle became the dogs snout, and the other 1/3 was halved to become the dogs ears.

Step 3: Trim the cake to get a rounder shape. Eat cake scraps.

Step 4: Slather with cream cheese frosting.

Step 5: Make eyes, nose and mouth out of candy melts. Melt candy melts, and pipe warm chocolate into appropriate shapes. Let cool and harden in fridge.

Step 6: Tie a bow in some shoestring licorice.

And behold!

Dog cake, circa 2017

In a cake to cake comparison, there's not much resemblance, but there's enough for me!

It also seems like Lacey appreciated the cake a whole lot more than I did...

That girl really loved her cake!