Lip-licking good: Sydney, a white Westmoreland Terrier, tries one of Laura Draper's Pupcakes in The Airyfairy Cake Boutique in Didsbury, ManchesterIf you have ever been the guilty recipient of puppy-dog eyes when refusing to share a slice of cake with your dog, now there is a solution to the problem: Pupcakes.
Laura Draper, a cake-maker with a shop in Didsbury, Manchester, has created a healthy cupcake especially for dogs, and one which she hopes might curb Britain's canine obesity epidemic.
Some 35 per cent of all dogs in Britain are overweight.
But, made out of gluten-free flour, low-fat peanut butter, bananas and low-fat cream cheese frosting - and occasionally decorated with Bonio biscuits or doggy chocolate drops - Pupcakes won't be adding to the problem.
In fact, the sweet treats have proved extremely popular with both dogs and their owners, and have been flying off the shelves of The Airyfairy Cake Boutique.
A lifelong dog-lover and former marketing manager, Miss Draper said: 'I had dozens of dogs passing the shop on a daily basis with their masters and mistresses and every time their tails would wag and their noses would go in to overdrive in the direction of my kitchen.
'One day I just got chatting about it to a friend and he said it's a shame the dogs couldn't enjoy the cake and I went away and did some research.
'I thought straight away people love to buy their pets treats and it seemed like a gap in the market.
'Sydney, my friend's dog, got to be the test dog, and he just wolfed them down. And our next door neighbour's dog loved them too.'
Give a dog a bone: Pupcakes are decorated with mini dog biscuits or canine-friendly chocolate dropsConcerned about coming under fire for creating a sugary treat for dogs, Miss Draper formulated a healthy, sugar-free, low-fat recipe that dogs can enjoy without worrying about piling on the puppy pounds.
Completely vegan, Pupcakes are also suitable for humans (if a bit bland for our tastebuds, admits Miss Draper, who has tried them herself), though you should remove the dog biscuit topping or doggy chocolate drops first.
And now the boutique has even bigger plans for the future.
'We've started to do big Pupcakes too now, for bigger dogs like Alsatians,' said Miss Draper. 'They're six or eight inches and would serve about eight or ten people or one or two big dogs.'
Tasty morsel: 'We've started to do big Pupcakes too now, for bigger dogs like Alsatians, they're six or eight inches and would serve about eight or ten people or one or two big dogs'Dog obesity in Britain is dramatically on the rise, with 35 per cent of dogs classed as overweight and predictions that over half of the nation's dogs will be overweight by 2022, according to recent figures by insurance company More Than.
The number of overweight dogs rose by 37 per cent between 2006 and 2011, with the figure reaching a collar-busting 2.9m out of 8.3m last year.
If dog obesity continues to increase at the current rate there will be approximately 3.8m obese dogs in the UK by 2016 - 46 per cent of the current dog population.
For more information about Pupcakes visit www.airyfairycupcakes.co.uk
source: dailymail
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