TOKYO
(Reuters) - Don't know what to get your pet dog for the holiday? Depending on
whether they were naughty or nice, nothing will say Christmas quite
like a special Japanese holiday cake for canines.
Pastry
chef and Italian restaurant owner Naohiko Nagatani came up
with a dog-friendly take onJapan's Christmas cake, which is usually based
on sponge and laden with whipped cream, that can be eaten by both dogs and
their owners.
"The
birth rate's declining here in Japan, so dogs have pretty much become like
children and people want to share Christmas with
them," Nagatani said.
"But
if it's just the humans eating cake, the dogs put on a really sad face. They
want to have some themselves and get upset if you don't give them cake
too."
To
make his creation canine-friendly, Nagatani leaves out chocolate and alcohol.
He makes the sponge from spelt, a type of wheat that he says causes fewer
allergies than regular flour.
The
cake, which he first began selling six years ago, has proved popular. This
year, the restaurant has already filled orders for 70 of them, priced at 6,000
yen ($73) each.
Akiko
Uchida, whose six-year-old mongrel Kenji is a cake shop regular, said the
special cake is a guilty pleasure.
"I
share out the cake between us, take photos and shoot videos to capture the
moment," the 46-year-old said, as Kenji lapped up cake from a fork.
"But to be honest, I probably enjoy it more than him."
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