Cat Hacks - How I made Lucy's Catfood Birthday Cakes

How I made Lucy's Catfood Birthday Cakes


Ingredients:

• 3 Heaping Tablespoons - Little Friskees Canned Liver and Chicken Dinner, Pâté Style

• 3 Heaping Tablespoons - Sheba Perfect Portions Savory Chicken Entree Pâté in Natural Juices

• 1/3 cup - Blue Buffalo Chicken & Brown Rice Kitten (Dry) Food 

• 1 1/2 Heaping Tablespoons - Bubble Bee Very Low Sodium Solid White Albacore Tuna Packed in Water

• 3 drops - Vegetable Oil, whatever does not cause a health problem for your particular cat. 

I chose these wet foods for their consistency and color. I wanted to make a layer cake. You want wet foods that have a spreadable consistency. You could use whatever food your cat prefers. I chose the tuna for a little special flavor and the whiter color and NO SALT or ANYTHING ADDED, except water. 

Tools needed: 

• "Cake Pan" or mold, I used a ramekin.

• Spatula (Small Offset Spatula is best) or knife for spreading & popping the "cake" out of the mold. 

• Fork, mallet, fingers or something to shred and mash tuna for frosting 

• Small spoon, like a tableware tea spoon

• Small Plate for the cake, to turn cake out onto and for presentation

• Small bowl, larger than your ramekin and hot water for a water bath to help remove the cake from the mold

• Small bowl to smooth the cat food consistency, and to mix the frosting

I used a ramekin 3" in diameter and 2" deep. I spread a thin layer of vegetable oil over the interior surface of the ramekin. This is to help your cake slide out of the mold more easily later on. 

Use your spatula, back of a spoon or other tool, to blend the darker color Liver and Chicken wet food to a smoother consistency before spreading it into the bottom of the ramekin. Spread a single layer, about 1/4 -1/3 inch, of the wet food in the bottom of the mold.              



                      



Place a layer of the dry food on the layer of wet food, gently pressing it in.
  
                                     


I placed the ramekin in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up the wet cat food, so that spreading the next layers, does not mess up the first layers. 

                                                                                          Take the mold out of the freezer and spread another layer of about 1/4 - 1/3 inch of the darker Liver and Chicken smoothed out pâté, over the last layer of the dry food. 

Then place another layer of the dry food on the previous layer of wet food, 
gently pressing it in.


  



Place the mold back in the freezer another 15 minutes to firm up those layers. 

While the mold is in the freezer, you can make the "frosting."

Frosting:

Now I used the lighter color Chicken Pâté wet food and blended about a 2:1 ratio of cat food to tuna. I used the tuna meat, squeezing out most of the water, shredding it between my fingers and smashed it up a bit with a fork before blending it in with the wet food. If you want to get fancy, you could probably use a mixer and whip air into the frosting. I just blended until smooth with my spatula. 

                                                    
Get your plate ready that you are going to turn the cat food cake out on to. 

Fill your small bowl with hot water, tap hot water should be fine. Don't get burned. The water level should be low enough so that when you place the ramekin or mold in the hot water bath, the water will not get into the dish of cat food layers. 

You are going to place the ramekin or mold in the hot water bath just long enough to loosen the cat food cake from the ramekin or mold. (If you have left the mold in the freezer so long that the food is frozen solid or the outside of the mold is frosty and you are using any container that can shatter with changes in temperature use sensible, reasonable caution. Don't let yourself or your pets become injured.) 

Take the ramekin out of the freezer.  

I set the ramekin in the bowl. You can see the edges around the food begin to glisten in a moment as it thaws. You can tilt the water bath bowl and drain the water out. Or carefully pick up the ramekin by the edges. 

Run the spatula or a thin knife around the rim of the cake           straight down the interior sides of the ramekin. Place the plate   on top of the ramekin, face down, and then holding down the     bottom of the plate, flip over the ramekin and plate. The cat       food cake should slide out on to the plate. 

If a little sticks in the ramekin, no worries, just scrape it out with your spatula and apply to your cake and even the sides and top as necessary. Your cat is not going to judge you. You cat is going to love his/her special treat!



If your cake is too squishy after putting on the plate, you can pop it back into the freezer until it is firm enough to the touch for frosting. 

If you use a plastic or silicon mold, you can pop the cake out. If you hard freeze the cake, you can still pop or slide it out, decorate it, and then just thaw or defrost it before serving your kitty. 

Frosting the cake: 

I mixed up my Frosting in the Tuna can, since I was using up what was left in that can. You can use a bowl or whatever you prefer. 

I spooned a little onto of the cake, spread it around. It doesn't have to be to perfection at that point. Then I applied a layer to one side of the cake, and I usually frost with one hand and turn the cake plate with the other as I spread the frosting. Turn the plate a little more, apply a little more, spread a little more. And before you know it you have gone around the cake. Then I spread for smoothness, like my cat is going to care, hahaha 

              

Then for decoration, I applied dry food around           the base and top trim of the cake as croquant.            I also used the dry food to write out "9" for her         9th Month Birthday, and so on. 

                                               Be careful with candles.

                                    

                        
                        Lucy eating away the icing, revealing the layers. 

                 Leftovers. I wrapped the uneaten cake in plastic and refrigerated.  

                                 Lucy got a piece of cake each day for 4 days.

                                

                                               

                          

You could make a cake and cut it up (before the Birthday Girl licks off all the icing) for your feline Birthday Party Guests. The recipe can be adapted for larger quantities and for canines as well. 

                                                           

         If you make a cat food cake, I would love to see or hear about it. 

We made another 10 Month Birthday Cake and decorated it with pumpkin "icing." I simply took canned pumpkin puree and spooned it into a makeshift pastry bag. I sealed the zip lock sandwich plastic bag, and then snipped a small hole from one of the bottom end corners of the plastic bag. The hole is the size I wanted my script to be. Then I gently squeezed the bag to produce a line of writing "icing". Okay, so I have messy handwriting. But as you can see, Lucy loves her pumpkin icing! 

          

I also made a Cat-food Chocolate Easter Bunny and Candy Cat-Food Eggs. Once again I used the darker Little Friskees Canned Liver and Chicken Dinner, Pâté Style for the Chocolate Bunny. I the Bubble Bee Very Low Sodium Solid White Albacore Tuna Packed in Water for the interior, contrasting color for the Bunny's ears and cotton tail. I used canned pumpkin puree to color some eggs orange and a few crushed, fresh frozen blue berries for the purple juice to color the blue eggs. I used crushed fresh frozen green peas for the green accents on the plate. Later I mixed the peas in with the Bunny and Eggs for a tasty meal.   

I know there will be haters who are against whatever cat food that is not the food they feed their cats. You can use any brand or homemade food you want. I am just demonstrating how to make a fun little project for your cat. When most of us have human birthday cake, it's probably not the best nutritional choice either. So everybody, just get along. It's all about how much we love our cats. 



You can follow Lucy on Instagram at and YouTube . 

Lucy was bred at the Love Branch Cattery in Toney, Alabama. You can also visit the LoveBranchCattery on Facebook.