CAKES FOR CANINES
"We treat our animals like people and people like having birthday cakes." Jessica Paterson
Nobody wanted to lick the bowl when Jessica Paterson made Pippi’s birthday cake.
It looked like a dog’s breakfast, and that’s what it was.
The cake was made from meat moulded into a dog bowl shape, covered in cream cheese icing and decorated with bones and letters made of cheddar.
Paterson has recently started making personalised birthday cakes for dogs at her Hawera pet shop and dog grooming business The Dog Box.
Pippi, a shetland sheepdog, is one of Paterson’s grooming clients.
Last Thursday was Pippi’s birthday but due to an injury was confined to a crate to stop it running about, so there wasn’t much of a celebration.
That was until Patterson and shop manager Lisa Robinson arrived with the cake, which was decorated to look like a purple dog bowl full of treats, and smelling just as you’d imagine.
It came with a card, but Pippi was more interested in the cake.
It began with some ladylike licks of icing and then nibbling at the cheese, before Pippi tucked into the treats - a mixture of dog biscuits, cooked kumara, carob and tasty goodies from the pet shop.
Owner Lizzy Roguski said Pippi’s mate Thor, a labrador german shepherd-cross dog, would help the Pippi finish the cake.
Paterson said she and Robinson began experimenting with making dog cakes after seeing the idea online.
‘‘We treat our animals like people and people like having birthday cakes. We made one for a friend’s dog - he was the trial, and he just hoed into it.’’
The cakes were a team effort by Paterson, her husband Sean - a chef-turned-dairy farmer who still enjoys a spot of baking - and Robinson who worked in cafes before switching to pet palates.
They checked with the dogs’ owners what their pets liked best when deciding on the flavours, Paterson said.
They had made cakes shaped like paw prints and even a two-tier pink number iced with roses for two rottweilers. All the ingredients used in the cake were safe for dogs.
‘‘There’s no chocolate, we use carob instead, and there’s no beef or grains in them to avoid allergy problems.’’
They opened the shop in December and are about to move into larger premises where there will be room for more dog treats, including ‘‘pupcakes’’.