How to Make Liver Cake
This is the world's most popular homemade dog treat—and for good reason! It's incredibly simple to make, uses cheap, everyday ingredients, and your dog will absolutely love it.
Liver is easy to find in any supermarket (Morrisons is a great bet) or from your local butcher. The recipe calls for roughly 500g (about 1lb), but don't worry if your pack is a bit more or less—this recipe is very forgiving. If you don't have liver, you can easily swap it for other proteins like minced beef, kidney, heart, chicken livers, or even tuna!
This cake is perfect as a training treat, a special birthday cake, or even to sell at fairs. You can top it with cream cheese for a "frosting" or bake the mixture in a cupcake tray for individual pupcakes (check out my pupcake recipe for details).
For this recipe, you'll need a 9" cake tin. You can find one online here.
Equipment
- 1 9" Cake tin
Ingredients
- 500 g Liver (approx. 1lb, a standard pack)
- 2 Eggs
- 200 g Wholemeal flour (200g = 7 ounces)
- Splash of milk
Instructions
- Add the liver, the eggs and a splash of milk to a jug.
- And blend it. It should look a bit like a smoothie once done.
- Transfer the mix to a large bowl and add 200g (7oz) of flour
- Mix ingredients until it’s a thick sticky goo. You can add a bit more flour if it’s not thick enough. But it should be fine.
- Grease a cake tin with a little butter.
- Empty your mix into cake tin, making sure it’s level.
- Put cake tin into the middle of a preheated oven at 160ºC (320ºF/Gas Mark 3) and cook for about 45 mins.
- Right, it should now be cooked. Yummy!
- It’s easier to cut while it’s still warm.
- Cut into squares and fridge. Freeze what you won’t use in a few days.
- If your dog is like mine, she will have watched you the entire time.
I heard do not use pigs liver as dogs can have bad behavioural reactions with pork.
Hi Jamie
To celebrate World Galgo Day today (1/2/2015), I’ve just made yet another batch of your recipe for liver cake for our Galgo, Tango. Your recipe is by far the best one we’ve tried (my making, his eating) in the last 11 months since Tango came to us.
As time is pressing today, I’ve experimented, made half the quantity & cooked it in the microwave in a well known make of oven-to-tableware glass dish.
Oiled the dish & cooked it in 2 batches, four mins each on high in a cat E oven.
Success.
PS sardine biscuit & banana bombs – fantastic! Thanks for your great website.
Janet.
Instead of using flour, try using porridge oats. Better for your pooch, good texture too.
****Warning****
Decided to make this today.I imagine Barry (our pooch) will love this once it’s done but my goodness the smell is like nothing I have smelt before. I recommend a full bio hazard suit!! Thanks for the recipe though! 🙂
Hi, how old do the dog have to be to have the liver cake? Thanks
Well, prob best that dog was an adult and if they’ve not had it before then small bits to begin with so they get used to it.
Hi, can I ask how many cubes the recipe makes if cutting into 1 inch cubes please?
Hi…Like an idiot I picked up a pack of beef heart instead of liver in Tesco’s; can I use this as a liver sub? Shame if I can’t as I’ve got the magi mix revved up ready to get going!
HI Simon!
Yeah, beef heart sounds good – don’t see any probs. Let me know how it goes!
Jamie
Love this cake, made first batch to try and tempt a dog in rescue to take his meds as everything else had failed. This was a major success and now he is in his forever home his new humans are still making it for him. It freezes so well and retains it consistency once defrosted so is still easy to squidge tablets in to.
Have made a fresh batch today as we have a new dog in that is very very stressed, fingers crossed this will win him over.
Also, if you don’t mind handling the liver, if you chop it up before (i use scissors) then it blends so much easier x
Oops, I only cooked mine for 30 minutes – I didn’t actually have a recipe – only the ingredients. Seems to have turned out okay – except, I almost blew up my blender. I made the big mistake of putting the ingredients (although, luckily, only half) all in at once! Will follow this recipe next time.
Hi
Any idea how long you can store the liver cake for? Is it suitable for freezing?
Thanks
Yeah, just freeze for when you need it.