Gramma's Bentos!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Behind-The-Scenes: The Making Of 'The Meat Cake'

First of all, I would like to thank everybody for the wonderful birthday wishes! You all are too kind! *grins* I think it was the best birthday for me so far! heh!

Okay, as promised, here is how Mom came about with my birthday Meat Cake! *grins* It ALL started with Mom looking for some recipes for doggie birthday cakes...she came upon loads of great recipes, but somehow she feels that there is too much flour used and she wanted something that (somewhat) resembles our raw diet...meat! *wink* And then she came upon the Meat Cake Recipe...so,she went through the recipe and the gallery of other versions of the Meat Cake, and got 'inspired', especially by this version! LOL!


Anyways, she got to it and started looking up the ingredients for the cake...in the process, also modifying the recipe to make a mini version of it, coz let's face it...3 lbs of meat to make a cake? o.O" I think it could last me a month just eating it. LOL! So, let's move to THE DAY of preparation...heh!


The ingredients for the cake layers! From left: about 500g of minced beef, a teaspoon of basil, a teaspoon of minced garlic, an egg, and a cup of bread crumbs.


Us as the 'official taste testers' waiting to do the job..hehehe!


Mix all the ingredients above thoroughly...Mom thought it was too dry, so she added another egg. Apparently, the eggs she got were small sized ones, so if you have bigger sized eggs, one large egg would do. *grins*


It got all nice and smelly after mixing...I think it was the basil and the garlic. Made me drool a lot...*grins*


And so, Mom gave us a teensy bit to taste...me first, of course! I'm the birthday boy! *wink*


And then it was Kenji's turn!


Divide the meat evenly into two small pans and bake them for about 35 minutes at 200 degrees C (or 400 degrees F)...Mom used the disposable aluminum pans because she's lazy like that. LOL!


Voila! The freshly baked cake layers! Mom did not expect them to shrink and shrivel like that though (Just goes to show how much she knows about cooking...*rolls eyes*). No biggie! She let it cool off on the rack and patted off the excess oil with kitchen paper...


While waiting for it to cool, we got ANOTHER taste test...hehe! My tongue just can't get enough of the yummy beef! Sad that I had to wait a bit longer...


Kenji got a little googly-eyed as usual when presented with yummy food...haha!


Back to the prep of the cake! For the 'icing', Mom used instant mashed potatoes! It sure is hard to find plain old instant mashed potatoes here...Mom said she went to a few supermarkets before finding this one! >.<" Most of the others that she found had other flavors put in which she didn't want....


It's so funny to hear her exclaiming when she followed the instructions on the box: 'OMG, it REALLY is instant! Just add in water and milk, and it's done!' Well, hate to say the obvious, but DUH MOM!


For the 'chocolate flakes', they were actually BACON BITS! *drools* Gramma said to get those thinly sliced bacon if we want to get crispy bits, so here they are...heh!


Into the frying pan they go, then drain off excess oil, chop them into teensy weensy bits...


...and TADA!! Bacon bits...yummy! Mom stole a few of them as she chopped, but didn't offer any to us...no fair! *pouts*


After all that was done, it was cake frosting time! LOLLLL! This was Mom's lame attempt at frosting the cake...hahahaha! She didn't know how to do it like in the original recipe, where you actually had to lob off the tops and sides or something to make it level and easy to frost...go figure! No matter, she says...we're going to cover it with bacon bits anyways. Now we're talking, Mom!


Sprinkle the bacon bits on the top and sides, and we have our finished meat cake! YAYYY!


Mom is feeling a bit smug now...*sigh* Give her something easy that she can relatively pull off, and she thinks she can cook. Oh dear...


Me with the finished cake! This was before the candles were put in...Mom was so nervous when I started sniffing near the cake! She thought I would ruin it...*rolls eyes* It's meant to be eaten, no?


What the inside of the cake looked like...LOL! DEFINITELY nowhere near the pretty layers of the original recipe, but still edible nonetheless! haha! I forgot to mention that there's also a layer of mashed potato between the two cake layers...don't think it's visible in the photos here, but there was one. *grins*



Well, that's about it for our Behind-the-Scenes post! Maybe you could persuade your Moms to make you a meat cake too for your birthday! I'm sure your Moms will do better, especially the ones who are great cooks...*wink* After this successful recipe, Mom says she wants to try out more recipes for dog treats...as long as it's for me Mom, I ain't complaining! *wink*

xoxo,
Scottie

29 paws to this post!:

Simba and Jazzi said...

That looks too yummy for words. I hope we get to try some of that one day.

Simba and Jazzi xx

Diana Chiew said...

Hey Scottie, please thank your mum for sharing the recipe...*drool*...I can't wait to get Aunty Diana to bake me that cake!!

Checkers & Chess said...

even if it didn't look like the one in the photo I bet it was very tasty and you have the added benefit of LOVE in your cake!

Checkers

Wei Qian said...

wow, your mom is really pawsome! Thanks for sharing too ... I'm drooling now

best regards
Vodka

Petra said...

That cake almost looks too good to be true! Now I can't wait for my birthday because I'd love to have a cake like yours. Droooooooll!

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

WOW!

That looks even yummier now that woo have revealed all the sekhret and special ingredients!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: Now your mom has my mom hungry fur german chokhlolate khake!

Jans Funny Farm said...

All we can say is ....

Droooooooooooooooool!

White Dog Blog said...

Yummy from start to finish! What a splendid birthday cake. Mom did a great job...and it looks like you got to enjoy lots of leftovers.

Laurie, Woo's Editor said...

Happy Birthday Scottie! I'm so glad your mom gave great step by step details about the cake it looked pawsome.

Fred said...

Mmm....

JD and Max said...

Oh wow that cake looks yummy, we're gonna add this particular post to our 'favourites' and then leave the page open just before OUR birthday, he he he! We're glad you had a great birthday Scottie, sorry for late birthday wishes. What a handsome and grown-up doggie you are now! Tail wags - JD and Max.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing that great recipe! I'll be sure to get my mom to make me a meat cake for my birthday! :-) It looks yummy.

Sniffs and licks,

Chase

Lorenza said...

Hi, Scottie!
Delicious!
thanks for sharing it! I hope my grandma can make it for me some day!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza

Alison Ji An said...

Nice cake there Scottie..
I shall steal your cake next time.. haha.. Happy belated birthday by the way.. ^^

Huskee and Hershey said...

Hi Scottie,
Sorry we are late in wishing you a Happy Belated Barkday!!
Hershey's 1st barkday is Fri and mom is planning to make her some meatballs.. now she is soooooooooo inspired by your mom's creation.. it looks soooooooo delicious (and we bet it tastes delicious too)!!

Aki and Poopie said...

oh my scottie... i am afraid you pulled a trigger there. i can see the sissy grinning ear to ear after reading your step by step instruction. she thinks she would be able to pull off something like this too...

on second thought, who am i to contradict! bring on the cake sissy!

Thanks a lot scottie!! You were a wonderful virtual chef! Im off to the groceries now. ta-da!

drooly kisses,

Aki

Amber-Mae said...

Wow! It looks soooo good! Not bad for your Mom's 1st time. I think it's better than what Mommy made for Faith. Shhh, don't tell her I said that. Bacon? I love bacon! Happy Belated Barkday Scottie!

Smoochies,
Solid Gold Dancer

Molly the Airedale said...

OMG, we are drooling! We hope mom uses this same recipe when it comes time for our birthdays!

Love ya lots,
Maggie and Mitch

Kess And Her Mama said...

What an awesome cake. With a treat like that, you probably wish every day is your birthday. Happy belated birthday!

Lacy said...

w00fs, yummmmmmmieee is all me gots to say...that looks sooo good...got me drooling now..

b safe,
~rocky~

Moco said...

That cake looks wonderful. We would love to have that for our birthdays. Your mom did a good job. Happy Birthday to you.

Dewey Dewster said...

Wow Scottie....that's the most delicious lookin' doggie birthday cake that I have ever seen..ya are sooooo lucky.....since I'm supposed ta be on a diet, I'm sure Gram will never make one fer us.... but maybe if I work hard 'n firm up I can get one fer my next birthday.....my paws are crossed....

Dewey Dewster here....

Twinkle a.k.a Chicken Little said...

O M doG !!!!

Your mom is pawsome!!! I dont care, I gotta kick my mom's butt for this. She has no excuses as you have explain the recipe so details here.

Thanks Scottie!!


slurp licks,
Twinkle

erin said...

Hey Scottie!
First I must tell you that your blog is looking fantastic! It's been a while since I stopped by since my girl has been really lazy lately so I don't know when you made the changes but I think it looks great!
Also, meat cake!?!?! Wow! That looks delicious! I'm starting to drool!
Woof,
Keeley

Lady Kaos said...

I think that is the most wonderful cake ever!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kaos

Rambo said...

OMD! YUMMY. That is the best looking cake I have ever seen.
I need to get me one of them.
Rambo

Mango the Maltese kiddo said...

HAPPY BELATED BARKDAY, SCOTTIE!
I'm so sorry for failing to visit you and even worse, forgetting your barkday, it's unforgivable! No excuses!
How can I make it up to you, Scottie?
I thank your mom for the delicious recipe, just looking at it enough to drown me with my own drool!
Is it true that we should not use garlic for pup? I don't know why, my mom just heard it somewhere so she avoids using spices for doggy food.
I love Kenji, his face shows delight when he tastes food!
And in the previous previous post, it's very nice to see a white Min. Schnauzer.
Love y'all, will you forgive my mom for being too slow in reading your blog, Scottie?

SaSa said...

Scottie, belated birthday wish to you ya!! urs cake seem super delicious ! hope i can have a bite :),hope i can get 1 on my birthday lol *wink* and *roll eye* mouth watering~

Carrie

Pedro said...

Scotty,

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Second - you are such a lucky dawg! I've never had a birthday cake before and you got one with meat, potatoes and BACON! Whoa, you must have already gotten your birthday wish :P

Pedro