Making a hamster-safe birthday cake
Hi everyone,
As you know, Mouse celebrated her 1st birthday last Friday, 21st July. Sadly, hamsters do not have long life spans and so Mouse's first birthday was quite bittersweet. She is officially half way through her life and I wanted to make her feel special by making her an extra special cake.
Surprisingly, the cake is really fast and easy to make and pre-heating the oven probably took longer than the actual cake making itself. Also, all the ingredients used are hamster-approved and probably healthier and contains less sugar and crap than some store-bought treats. Remember, just because they sell it at the pet store does not mean they are good for your hamsters! :)
The ingredients used are similar to the hamster pancakes that was featured in my previous post.
Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350°F
Ingredients:
For the cake
5cm / 2inches of ripe banana (the riper the better)
2 teaspoon of beaten egg
A tiny squeeze of honey
A tiny splash of milk
2 teaspoon of self raising flour
- Smash up the banana until you get a smooth paste
- Add the egg, a drop of milk and a tiny drop of honey. Mix well
-Slowly add one teaspoon of self raising flour, mix until all lumps have disappeared
- Add the second teaspoon of flour and mix again
Your batter should not be too runny but should drop off your spoon in dollops. If it is too runny, add a little more flour, if it is too thick, add some more milk.
Grease up your baking tin with a drop of olive oil. I used a muffin tin used for making miniature muffins to bake three individual layers of Mouse's cake. If you do not have one, you can use the following substitution ideas:
1. Substitute with a normal muffin tin, grease it and add the whole lot of the batter into one cup. You will need to bake it longer in the oven but once it is cooked, you can use a mini circle cookie cutter to cut through it vertically, before slicing the cake into three layers horizontally.
2. Same idea as Substitute idea #1, but if you do not have a small, circular cookie cutter, you can cut the cake into a square/rectangular shape instead of a round one
3. Cook the batter in a frying pan (follow the same method as my pancake tutorial) and turn your hamster cake into a multi layer crepe cake!
If you choose to bake the cake, pop the batter into the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Timing wise, this is a rough estimate so keep an eye out on the cake to stop it from burning or being overcooked.
Wait for the cake to be completely cooled before decorating it.
For decorating
Approximately 1 tablespoon of Plain greek-style yogurt (thicker than normal yogurt and has that frosting-like consistency!)
1 blueberry - Cut into wedges
1 small strawberry - Slice thinly width wise
1/4 of a walnut - Chopped
To assemble
Spread some yogurt on one layer of the cake, add a slice of strawberry
Sandwish this with the next cake layer and repeat the previous step
Once all the layers are stacked up, top with remaining yogurt and add your blueberry wedges, cut up the remainder of the strawberry slices into tiny bits as decoration
Sprinkle some of the chopped walnut in the middle
Once assembled, you are ready to surprise your little hamfriend with the cake.
Be aware that you should not feed your hamster the entire cake. An appropriately portioned size is advised and don't forget to remove all uneaten cake from your hamster's nest as soon as possible.
Lots of love and fluff,
Rach & Mouse
