Liver cake dog treats recipe
Article by Matthew Revell
Matthew Revell is the editor of Dogby and lives with his family, including Teddy the Black Lab and Bo the German Shepherd, in Shropshire.Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
Easy
Portions: Lots!
While liver might have gone out of fashion in human cuisine, this is a tasty dog treat recipe that’s easy to make and shouldn’t break the bank.
Even better, these treats freeze well and there’s enough to last you a week or two. Simply pop a bag of them in your pocket when you’re training or out and about.
We used lamb’s liver here but any liver will work just as well. For photos and tips, read on below the recipe itself.
Ingredients
- 350g of lamb’s liver
- 100g of buckwheat flour
- 300g of self-raising flour
- 3 large eggs
- 250ml of whole milk
Method
- Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4 and line a 30cm deep rectangular over dish with baking parchment.
- Measure 100g of buckwheat flour into a large bowl, then add 300g of self-raising flour and combine the two.
- Whisk the three large eggs in a separate bowl. Add the 250ml of whole milk and combine.
- Add the blended liver to the egg-milk mix and combine with an electric whisk.
- Slowly add the flour mix to the wet ingredients and combine with the electric whisk. If it becomes too hard to mix, add a little more milk but be careful not to make the mixture too sloppy.
- Pour the mixture into the oven dish and then bake on the bottom shelf for 35 minutes.
Liver cake is a favourite of dog trainers pretty much everywhere. And no wonder. Most dogs love it and you know exactly what’s gone into it.
It’s also super easy to make in your own kitchen using ingredients you probably have already. Not everyone keeps liver in the fridge, of course, so you’ll probably have to buy that in specially. While you won’t always find liver in Aldi or Lidl, your local butcher and larger supermarkets, such as Asda or Tesco, stock it.
Why buckwheat?
You might be wondering why we’ve used buckwheat flour in this recipe. Buckwheat flour is one of those alternatives to wheat that you’ve probably eaten in soba noodles or blinis.
Buckwheat offers a better mix of nutrients than white wheat flour but it is a little different to work with. That’s why we’ve used 25% buckwheat to 75% self-raising wheat flour, as that way it still behaves more or less like a full wheat flour recipe and there’s no need add baking powder.
If you don’t have buckwheat flour –– and let’s be honest, who does? –– then you can replace it with wholemeal wheat flour or use 100% self raising white wheat flour. There’s no need to feel guilty, either. It’s a treat, after all.
Working with the liver
The liver is probably the trickiest part of this recipe. Not because it’s easy to get something wrong but because it’s potentially messy. First up, there’s the blending. If you can, you’ll want to use a closed blender rather than a hand blender.
Then, when you’re mixing the wet ingredients, including the liver, into the dry ingredients you might find that the mixture starts to rise up the whisk. Ideally, you don’t want raw liver touching your electric whisk’s non-washable parts, so use a spoon to encourage the mixture back down into the bowl. And once you’re done, make sure to wash and scrub everything thoroughly as the liver is harder to remove once it has dried.
Did it pass the doggy taste test?
Yes and no. Bo, our German Shepherd, loved these despite not being all that interested in food otherwise. Teddy, the Black Lab, is food obsessed and yet turned his nose up at this.
So, your results may vary!
