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.
Hi
A friend of mine makes a similar cake to this. What age is it suitable for? I have a 10 week old Golden retriever who is starting training in a month or so & wondered if now or then would be too early to give it to him??
Thanks for your help 🙂
Hi Carla! I’d wait until your pup got a little bit older before you started feeding offal. In the meantime try replacing the liver with Tuna and you’ll find it’ll work with great success!
I was sure dogs couldn’t have flour?
Hi Margaret. If you’d rather not use wheat flour you could replace it with a 50/50 combination of coconut flour and corn flour. But I’d add at least an extra egg and you might also need a little more milk.
dogs can have flour; most dog food has some sort of grain or cereal in it to bulk it out, especially in cheaper foods. Usually it is better to go for high protein low carb/cereal foods and treats. Grain free foods use sweet potato or potato instead as the starch/fibre in the recipe. Rice flour is gluten free if gluten is a problem in their diet, also, though obviously it is still a grain.
An almost identical recipe was given to me by a friend who took her puppy to training classes. I’ve made it several times and it’s a winner with all dogs. I wasn’t too keen on using white flour, so tried 1/3rd rice flour (because it’s expensive) AND 2/3 rolled oats. Works perfectly. I’m going to try adding herbs like parsley or sage to next batch.
Thanks Ronnie, I like the idea of the rolled oats and will give it a try next time I make it!
Also Jamie, would it be ok if I used whipped cream cheese for frosting?
Hi Cara!
Yeah, minced meat, tuna, sardines should all work fine, i’ve never tried anything except tuna so let me know how it goes. But I’d consider trying liver just to see if you can handle it and also cause it’s really quite cheap.
Cream cheese frosting sounds delicous!
Thanks Jamie!
Hi Jamie, I want to try and make this for my dog but I am really squeemish when it comes to things like offal, would it work with minced beef or chicken?
We are making our second batch now. Muffin the terrier’s training has been much smoother with Liver cake treats to hand. She loves it!!
Thanks Fiona! Am glad Muffin enjoy’s it!
Just made next batch of your recipe – to freeze. Very successful training aid for my whippet puppy – now 12 months old. Have added some minced raw lamb/mutton to this batch – so will see how that is.
In a 2-door AGA – I put half the above recipe quantities into the smaller roasting tin, and it takes about 2 3/4 hrs. in the lower, simmering over. I don’t enjoy the washing-up of the food processor afterwards!!
Thanks for your comments Sue!
I’ve always wanted an AGA, I’m so jealous! I have a wood burning stove and sometimes I cook the dogs dinner on it!
Washing up blended liver is pretty nasty but thankfully by bro does it!
I cooked this today for my 6 month old cocker, Coda and he is absolutely delighted 🙂
I’m an almost vegetarian so dealing with the liver was a little gross, and I don’t like cooking so this was really going out on a limb.. But it was so worth it! Cheap and easy recipe that I will def. do again 🙂
Hi Louise!
I’m very impressed you managed to stomach the liver considering your a veggie! Coda obviously has a very devoted owner!
BTW, I love cockers…best overall family pet you can get, imo!
Thanks Jules! The whole blended offal takes a bit of getting used to but it’s worth it! 🙂