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.
Thank you so much for this recipe, Jamie. My Papillon menagerie are on a raw food diet but turn their nose up at raw offal so this is how I get it in em. It’s been a lifesaver. So simple too. I put the liver through the fine bit of a mincer so then I can bung all the ingredients together in a bog bowl as one big batch 🙂
Thanks Mary! I’ll try the chicken livers next time I make it.
Hi Jamie, I just found your site and all your wonderful recipes. I’m hoping to make this liver cake tonight as my dog Lucy has suddenly lost all recall training and we need to start from scratch with a tempting treat to lure her to me. Do you think this would work with cous cous or mashed up sweet potato instead of flour? Any type of flour seems to make Lucy’s skin flaky. Thanks in advance for your help.
Tbh, if it’s for training then you can’t beat dried liver treats! https://www.bdws.co.uk/2011/05/08/homemade-liver-treat-recipe/
I’ve done the dried liver treats too Jamie, Lucy loves them, in fact so did the two Lurchers who sniffed them out in my pocket from across the playing fields yesterday!
I wanted something for my dog who has recently been diagnosed Cushing’s Disease, she’s hungry all the time & losing lots of weight, but has become a bit fussy since being diagnosed, so I thought this might perk her up. It has certainly done the trick, both dogs love it. Thank you!
Thanks Nicola! I’m sorry to hear about your dog but glad she likes the liver cake!
I’ve just put a batch in the oven. You’re right, I was watched the whole time!!
Hi Jamie! I just want to thank you so much for this amazing recipe. The liver flavoured treats where I live are too expensive and my beagle, Charlie, loves liver so much. I tried making this for him, just to test if he likes it and just so I don’t have to spend a ton of money on treats. He was taking a nap when I put them in the oven and as soon as they were done. He woke up and started jumping in front of the oven. Needless to say, he loves the brownies! Thank you so much for this recipe!
-Jea
Thanks Jea! Glad you and your dog like them! 🙂
Hi, Can I ask how I check if its cooked through? May sound silly but I am more used to baking “regular” cakes than liver cake and have no idea how to tell when its done.
Thank you
P.s also tried the tuna loaf which didn’t last long!!
Hi Julie! Thanks for commenting! I hope your lab has a great 1st birthday! Liver cake is great for birthday treats!
Hi, tonight I have just baked my first liver cake and my 11 month old labrador loves it, we now have a stocked freezer! She is 1 on the 10th April so will be making this as a birthday cake, great easy recipe thank you.