Baking With CBD — Essential Tips and CBD Cake Recipes

Feel like adding a dash of pizazz to your CBD routine? Why not try baking with CBD? Creating CBD cakes or other traditional baked goods is a breeze — provided that you keep in mind a few important tips and tricks.

And that's where this article comes in. By the end of this blog, you'll be fully equipped to spice-up your CBD regimen (and all your favorite baking recipes) with a delicious and therapeutic CBD twist!

So without further ado, let's jump into all things you'll need for a proper CBD bake-off — or should we say, a CBD cake-off?

Why Try Baking With CBD?

In short: baking CBD cakes or other CBD-infused baked goods allows you to add a whole new level of enjoyment to your regular CBD routine. After all, why settle for the ordinary when you can enjoy a slice (heh) of sweet confectionery bliss?

CBD baked goods combine the very best of two of life's great joys: CBD's therapeutic benefits alongside the delicious flavors of all your favorite baked goods. It's a mix made in heaven, and a perfect way to enjoy all that CBD has to offer.

Whether you want to enjoy CBD's therapeutic benefits but dislike traditional CBD tinctures or you just really love cake, baking CBD cakes is an easy and enjoyable endeavor that only requires a few small tweaks to your normal baking routine.

The Two Key Tips for Baking With CBD

1. Keep your temperature around (or below) 325°F.
   This is a bit below your standard baking temperature, but it's important for ensuring you get the most out of your dose of CBD. Too much heat will degrade the CBD, reducing its effectiveness, and it just so happens that 325°F is right there in the magic zone for keeping CBD from reaching its boiling (and degradation) point.
   
   This will require you to modify the baking time for your traditional (non-CBD) cake recipes, so be sure to factor that in if you're modifying an old family favorite.
2. Use the right tools: bake with CBD butter or CBD coconut oil.
   CBD is fat-soluble, so the best way to ensure proper dosage and distribution in your baked good is to infuse your dose of CBD into a rich fat like butter or coconut oil.
   
   Sure, you could simply add a dose of CBD tincture or CBD isolate powder to the recipe — but that's likely to create uneven distribution and make it very difficult to get a consistent dose from each slice of your CBD cakes.
   
   Making your own CBD butter is a simple, straight forward process, and we cover an easy recipe for it below. If you'd rather go the coconut oil route, things are even simpler, as we have a CBD coconut oil ready for all your baking needs!

How to Make CBD Butter

Using a CBD-infused butter is a great way to boost the quality of the CBD cakes and baked goods you'll be making with it.

The bad news is that it's virtually impossible to find a CBD butter (though CBD coconut oil makes for a good substitute).

The good news is that making your own CBD butter is one of the simplest things you can do in the kitchen. The following recipe comes courtesy of The Joyce of Cooking.

What You'll Need:

• 2 cups of your favorite traditional butter
• 1 cup of water
• 20ml of your preferred CBD oil

Note on CBD potency: Depending on the potency of CBD oil you choose, 20ml of CBD oil that this recipe calls for may add up to quite a lot of CBD indeed. Try to assess the amount of butter that your recipe calls for, then choose a CBD oil that will deliver your intended dose with each serving size.

Cooking Instructions:

1. Chop the butter into smallish pieces.
2. Place the butter, water, and CBD oil into a small pot.
3. Heat the pot over a low heat (to prevent the CBD from breaking down) for ~2 hours.
4. Let the mixture cool but not harden.
5. Stir thoroughly, then pour into an airtight container.
6. Refrigerate as you would with traditional butter.

And that's it! From there, you can use your DIY CBD butter as a perfect substitute for all your favorite baked-good recipes. Just remember to keep the temperature in the guidelines mentioned above and, if necessary, adjust your baking times to match.

Simple CBD Cake Recipe

All set up with your DIY CBD butter or CBD coconut oil? Well then, you're just one last step away from delicious CBD cakes all your own!

Baking with CBD is extremely simple, so long as you follow the tips we've listed above. Feel free to adapt your favorite traditional baking recipe, modifying for temperature as appropriate.

But to get you started, here's one easy (yet utterly delicious) recipe you can use for cakes, cupcakes, or whatever CBD cake variant tickles your fancy.

Crumb CBD Cake Recipe

Ingredients for Crumb Topping

• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
• ⅛ tsp table salt
• 8 tbsp CBD butter (see recipe above)
• 1 ¾ cups cake flour

Ingredients for the Cake

• 1 ¼ cups cake flour
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp table salt
• 6 tbsp CBD butter (see recipe above)
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ⅓ cup buttermilk
• Confectioner's sugar

Baking Instructions

Make the crumb topping:

1. Whisk sugar, cinnamon, salt, and butter in a medium bowl until combined.
2. Add flour, then stir until a thick dough forms.
3. Set aside and allow it to reach room temperature, approx. 10-15 minutes.

Make the CBD cake:

1. Place oven rack in upper-middle position, pre-heat to 325° F.
2. Prepare an 8-inch baking dish with non-stick spray and cover with parchment paper.
3. Mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt using a stand mixer or egg beater.
4. Mixing at low speed, add CBD butter one piece at a time. Continue beating until mix resembles thick crumbs and no visible butter remains (1-2 minutes).
5. Add egg, yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy (approx. 1 minute).
6. Transfer the batter into your baking pan, then spread into an even layer using a rubber spatula.
7. Break crumb topping apart into preferred crumb size, spreading evenly over the batter.
8. Bake for 35-40 minutes until crumbs are golden and a wooden skewer inserted into center comes out clean.
9. Allow cake to cool for at least 30 minutes, then remove cake from the pan.
10. Dust with confectioner's sugar and serve.