Edibles have evolved since the first time someone ate weed. Dispensaries have infused cheese puffs and fridges full of cannabis drinks. But nothing hits like an old school homemade weed cake.
Luckily adding cannabis to a recipe is as easy as replacing butter, oil, or other fat with an infused option. With a cake, frosting, filling, and toppings can mask (or heighten) that herbaceous flavor. And a simple cake recipe is a suitable project for a beginner home baker.
Sometimes called Space Cakes, these psychoactive treats can be the perfect addition to a bachelorette party weekend or a game night. There are just three steps: bake a great cake, decorate it accordingly, and eat responsibly. Sure, it sounds easy as pie, but even so, here’s some tips for pulling off the perfect cannabis cake.
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Weed cake 101
Making a luscious weed cake starts with cannabis infusion. Once you’re ready to infuse, it’s time to decarboxylate your weed.
Decarbing is the process of heating up the bud to convert THCA into THC. When baking a marijuana cake (or any edible), you must decarboxylate the cannabis flower to have a psychoactive experience. This process also happens when you heat flower before inhaling a hit.
To decarb, there’s the old-school method of using a pan on the stove for a few hours. But that can be dangerous, especially for those with a gas stove. Then, there’s the crock pot method, which renders a huge amount of butter with minimal effort. A classic approach.
The good news is that nowadays, there’s many gadgets made just for weed. Some even do the decarbing for you. The Magic Butter Machine, Ardent FX, and LĒVO are all great pieces of cannabis infusion tech that cater to a slightly different experience.
Whichever method you choose, once the cannabis is infused into the butter or oil, pour it into the cake batter as the recipe describes.
Tips for baking yummy weed cake
Another necessary component to infusing a cake is figuring out what fat goes into the recipe. Most cakes are made with vegetable oil because they can retain more moisture, but few people turn down a butter cake. You’ll notice a cake mix often uses oil. Whichever fat you choose, knowing the ingredients is essential to infusing the right fat into the recipe!
Reading the recipe before diving also gives you time to identify any culinary devices that might be needed. For example, a chocolate cake recipe often calls for a double boiler which helps melt the chocolate without burning it. It’s possible to create a double boiler with a saucepan and a glass bowl, but thinking ahead ensures you’ve got all the right stuff.
Since we’re talking hot tips, do yourself a favor and line the bottoms of the cake pans. A few pieces of parchment paper can make turning that baked beauty out of the pan a breeze.
But how do you know it’s time to take the cake out? Usually, the test is with a toothpick inserted that comes out clean. Once it’s ready, pop it onto a wire rack rather than a trivet so it cools out of the bottom rather than retaining heat and continuing to cook.
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Best weed cake decorations
One common mistake with baking cakes is decorating too soon. If the bake is hot at all, the frosting and decor might melt right off. It’s imperative to wait long enough before getting to the adornment phase.
To speed up the process and get to the decorating, some bakers wrap the cannabis-infused cakes in saran wrap and put them in the fridge. Once cooled, they’re ready to be shaved down to size (or left as is) and decorated to your liking.
As far as choosing the decor, that’s about as personal as choosing your favorite cannabis strain. There are classic favorites but also new trendy options.
When it comes to weed cakes, comic book cake embellishments are currently trending. Bakers use piping to create an illusion that the three-dimensional cake is a 2D comic book illustration.
Maximalist Lambeth Cakes are still basking in their moment in the spotlight with gaudy, intricate piping and bold colors. A Lambeth weed cake featuring different tones of green frosting and nug-topped dollops could be the perfect play on this vintage cake design style.
Enjoying the experience
So it’s infused, it’s decorated, and all that’s left is to enjoy. But don’t forget that despite the cake being delicious, you can’t eat more than one serving with cannabis edibles. Weed math is generally done in the infusion phase of the cannabis baking process.
Edibles math entails equations and butter ratios, and most infusion machines and cannabis cookbooks come with education on both. Those that can’t roll the dice with overconsuming cannabis should pay close attention to the weed math.
Even after solving all the necessary equations, eat less than you’d think. It’s easy to make mistakes, and it’s impossible to un-eat edibles after over-consumption. So undereating the calculated THC levels will be the smart dose for the first slice. This gives you space to understand the scope of the effects.
After everyone has been served, keep an eye on errant plates. Nobody wants the cat to eat the weed cake. Be responsible when baking with cannabis at home, and this goes without saying, but that’s especially true when there are children in the home. Honestly having a weed cake in the house might be best saved for when the kids are at Grandpa’s.
Baking a weed cake can be an engaging way to connect with the plant, and the full body high of cannabis edibles is pretty fun too. Heighten that effect by opting for indica genetics at the dispensary.
Be responsible, read the recipe, properly measure the baking powder, pick decorations that make you happy, and above all else: never forget to decarboxylate. With these tips, even a beginner baker is going to turn out a heavenly cannabis-infused cake.