Pet Birthdays

Yesterday was our dog Lucy’s 4th birthday, so what better way to celebrate it than with a cake. A meat cake, that is.

Looking over the last few years we really haven’t done anything for our dog’s birthday, let alone any of our pets’s birthdays, and I figured why not make a special treat just for her. So I pulled out an old container of ground turkey I’d thrown in the freezer before it went bad… wow, this isn’t starting out so special is it? Six month old possibly freezer burnt lean ground turkey? Oh well. I put the ground turkey in the microwave and zapped it for a minute at a time until it was thawed, mixed it together with some fresh rosemary and sage I picked from the garden along with an apple, couple handfuls of carrots and celery that I finely chopped in the food processor, and three beaten eggs with a scant quarter teaspoon of salt and a couple grinds of pepper. If I was thinking, I’d have also chopped up some garlic. I baked it in two six inch cake pans until it was done and let it cool.

I also peeled some potatoes and boiled them until cooked, drained and tossed them into the KitchenAid stand mixer with the whisk attachment and whisked them with some olive oil, garlic powder and Nancy’s Honey Yogurt, which used to be known as just Plain Yogurt with Honey, and is a whole milk yogurt and very delicious. I continued to whisk the potatoes until they were smooth and frosting consistency.

After the meat cake layers had cooled, I plated the bottom layer and filled the center with mashed potatoes, adding the top layer and covered the whole thing with the potatoes in the same manner as I would do with frosting on cake. When it was done, it looked like a frosted cake too. For decoration, I added a border of peas on the bottom and cut out her name from slices of cheddar cheese before we wished her happy birthday, cut half of it out and gave it to her for dinner.

I know this seems like a lot of effort, but really, aren’t our pets worth it? They give us so much love and affection day in and day out, it seems like making them a special dinner once in a while is such a small thing to give them in return. Of course, when our dog first started showing signs of skin allergies, we decided to simply make her meals for her, which was basically a chicken stew with potatoes, carrots and peas without any seasonings. Very bland, but she loved it. However, this is not something I would prefer to do with our dog, as she is so huge I was making a batch every other day!

Our pets are such a huge part of our family it only seems logical to celebrate their milestones like we would if we had kids. I hope you think of your pets the same way.