To us, our poodles are our ‘children’ so when brother and sister, Pluto and Pippi had their first birthday no one was surprised about being invited to their party. An informal ‘dog club’ had formed from people walking their dogs in our local park. Two of the other poodles, Henry and Josie were about to turn one at the same time, so it would be a combined party.
The invitation insisted that dogs should come dressed; owners could be as casual as they wanted. Pippi wore pearls and a sparkly silver hair clip, Pluto wore a cravat with a smart green bow tie. They watched for their friends arriving, dressed in bow ties and ribbons, two Lhasa apso/bichon cross dogs, Mac and Piper, another bichon, Jenny and the two poodles sharing the birthday. Josie had been to the hairdressers and looked fabulous. Henry had a crisp blue bow tie.
The cake was a layer cake of dog food pressed into a mould decorated with a dog ornament, flags and tiny dog bones trimmed with shiny ribbons. Paper plates with pictures of dogs held an assortment of dog treats and dog biscuits.
They played ‘find the treasures’ in the garden, hunting for chewable treats set all around the section. This was one by the smallest dog who found nine of the ten treats!
They had a ‘lollie’ scramble with small pieces of Smacko dog strips thrown from the balcony. They might have had a game of musical ‘sits’ where the music would stop and the owners command their dogs to sit. Whoever didn’t would be ‘out’. But this went by the wayside as the human barbeque took precedence.
We drew the line at an attempt to sing or bark our way through ‘happy birthday’ but the presents of new toys made up for any lack of this excitement.
Recipe for a dog birthday cake:
Two different coloured dog rolls – one light one darker. Make sure you buy a variety that is quite soft.
Miniature bone biscuits
Method:
Use a rounded bowl. Press layers of the dog roll into the bowl alternating the colour strips. These should be quite thick so that the end result is about four/five layers.
Put in the refrigerator for an hour or two to settle.
Turn the cake onto a dog dish and decorate with the mini bone biscuits.
Dog birthday cake 2
Beef mince
Cheese
Dog treat sticks
Method
Mould a square of minced beef. Then grate the cheese on top and decorate with the sticks to look like candles.
