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 have just made a half batch, and it looks really good. My lurcher Babs really liked it, and she is not usually bothered by food/treats
Hey Jenny! I’m glad Babs loves it…it’s such a popular recipe!
I would just like to say thank you for this very simple and easy to follow recipe, I was going to buy some liver cake online then I found your recipe and noticed how easy it seemed so I thought I would give it go as my boxer will be 1 tomorrow. This made a huge batch and I have put some in the freezer for recall training that we will be doing over the next few weeks. There was not much of a smell until it came out the oven but it disappeared rather quickly once the window was open a little, all in all I will definitely be using this recipe again and I have already recommended it to some friends and family. Thanks again.
Thanks Paula! I’m really pleased it’s worked out well. There’s not really much to it and dog’s love it!
My Golden Cocker Spaniel, Gabby, suffers from chronic colitis. I have switched her onto the BARF diet and she’s doing extremely well. You mention that liver acts as a laxative (which is an obvious concern to me!); do you think the liver cake will adversely affect her?
I think this is something that maybe a vet would be better with advising. For me, I’d be more concerned about the flour than the liver and would just bake the liver on it’s own and like with all dogs just a few small treats to begin with to let their body get used to it.
Hi Frances!
Thanks very much for your detailed comment! My local supermarket does sell NZ liver so I’ll give it a try! 🙂
please can you help me I’m Making cup cakes how long do I cook for.
Hi Jean!
For these liver cupcakes I used my liver cake recipe. I cooked them for 40 mins! Good luck!
HI I’ve been making this recipe for 6 months now and have to say its my Lab x GSD’s favourite treat. we do lots of formal training and this is the top treat for difficult or new “tricks”, but then she is very food orientated, cheese and apple being her other favourites! Now we have a rescue border collie who is ball not food obsessed and this still comes out top, so thankyou for posting it! PS cow/ox liver is a nightmare to blend, lamb is much easier! I also only use standard plain flour.
Hi Lisa! Thanks for the comment! I’ve just got a hand blender and blending liver practically fries the motor. Thanks for the tips about the lamb liver, I’ll try that next time!
I was given some advise to make liver cake as a treat for my 11 month old Beagle…….little lady has followed me around begging for more 🙂 can’t wait to see how she reacts to her training tomorrow . THANK YOU for a really easy recipe .
🙂
hi do you have to use selfraising flour?? i only use natural spelt flour!!
Hi gary! The natural spelt flour will be just fine. Let us know how you get on!
Thanks for the wonderful recipe. Made a batch for the in laws Bernese mountain dog for her birthday. She loved it! I was her best friend all day after a few bites! One very happy doggy! Will be making more for our puppy when he is a little older and able to stomach liver. Do you have any recipes for puppy training tib bits suitable for 8-16 weeks? Many thanks
Hi Charlotte! Glad the liver cake went down well with the Bernese mountain dog. Try using minced meet (beef/chicken) or tuna loaf until your pup grows up a little..