Best Friend Birthday Cake

A no-bake dog chow sardine cake for the pooch in your life! Your best friend will love you even more after you make this. 

Do you have a very special friend?  Someone who is always there for you and is always delighted to see you?  You can be away from each other for five minutes, five hours or five days and the effusive greeting you get upon your return just about bowls you over?  I have a friend like that!  He is never in a bad mood, always listens to me with interest, especially when I am in the kitchen cooking, and he is never happier than when he is snuggled up next to me.  His love for me is total, unconditional and borders on adoration.  You may have guessed that I am talking about my dog.

I have to tell you, we started out rough.  He is skittish by nature and he didn’t take well to change.  We got him as a puppy in the summer of 2007 and from the very beginning, he would run behind our legs when a city bus went by our house in Houston – despite the fact that we were behind an eight-foot wooden fence, in our own yard.  

Cutest puppy ever.

After we went home to Malaysia, he stayed with my sister and her family until he was old enough for his first rabies shot and she said that when her Beagles would bark at a noise, he would run and hide.  Brave was clearly not in his vocabulary.  

Already bigger than them but not as brave. 

While he was there, my sister noticed he was lethargic and felt hot so she took him to the vet.  Thank God she did because, as it turned out, despite having had all his shots on schedule, he had Parvo.  He spent several days in the vet clinic on an IV drip until he was deemed healed enough to return home.  As you can imagine, we prayed fervently the whole time.  We were already so attached to his cuteness.  He recovered, got his rabies shot and they sent him on to us.  He was with us but a couple of months when we were transferred to Singapore.  It was a mere four-hour road trip but required 30 days in quarantine to enter the country.  We visited him every day that we were allowed but bless his little soul, he was a basket of nerves when he got out.  He is still a nervous Nellie but he is also a little sweetheart.

Today was his birthday and I made a cake for him.  He watched me, as he usually does when I am in the kitchen, but, frankly, the whole picture taking and candle lighting did try his patience.  He loved his cake and we love him.  You might want to make this no-bake "cake" for your pooch.  As if he or she doesn’t already love you enough!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups or 180g dog chow of your choice (1 1/2 cups is Beso’s usual amount of dog food for each meal.  You can adapt this to your dog’s normal meal using his or her usual amount of chow and following the instructions proportionally with the hot water.  One can of sardines will probably add enough flavor no matter the amount of chow.)

1 can sardines

Your choice of dog treats for garnish

Method

Put one cup or 125g of the dog food in a heat resistant bowl.  Pour in 1 cup or 240ml of very hot water.  Cover with cling film and allow the chow to absorb the water.

Open your can of sardines and pour out the oil and save it.  Mash the sardines with a fork.

Once the dog chow has absorbed the water and is softened, mash it with a fork.  Add in the sardines and then the half-cup of dry dog chow, to add a little crunch.  Mix thoroughly.

Line two ramekins with cling film and pour half the reserved sardine oil in each.   Fill the lined ramekins with the chow/sardine mixture and pack them tightly.

Turn them out onto a plate, one on top of the other.  Decorate using whatever dog treats you have on hand. 

 Light a candle and sing Happy Birthday to You.  

Let your most faithful friend enjoy!

Whoa! Candle finally blew out.  Let's eat!

Check out that long tongue!

Just a little alarming.  Top layer fell off!

Never mind.  Still tasty.

And, it's gone!