Looking for a delicious, sweet, savory, and unique treat that will be sure to impress during the holidays? With homemade buttercream cream cheese frosting and bacon crumbles with a syrup drizzle, these medicated maple bacon cupcakes are the perfect combination of flavor and texture. Be prepared to watch them disappear in front of your eyes!
**Note: The beauty of making cannabis edibles is that you can infuse and medicate in endless ways. You can medicate this recipe by incorporating cannabis-infused sugar and ready-to-use (decarboxylated) concentrates, or you can use canna butter as I did. (: You can also choose to medicate the batter, the frosting, or both! Just make sure you use a dosage calculator to ensure the strength of each individual serving.
In my cupcake recipe, for example, I used concentrated canna butter in the batter. Divided by 12 cupcakes, each cupcake equaled to approximately 15mg of THC… wonderfully suited for a cannabis-friendly gathering! Don’t forget, you can always split your final servings to suit your desired dosage.
Start by preparing your ingredients. Insert 1 of your glass mixing bowls into the freezer (the cold helps your frosting form stiff peaks that hold their shape). Let your butter and cream cheese sit out to soften. Preheat your oven to 325°F, line your cupcake pan with paper cups, and set aside. At this point, I usually bring out all ingredients and pre-measure what I can for ease of flow throughout the cooking process.
Step 2: Making Your Batter
In your other glass mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
**Note: I couldn’t find maple sugar in time to create this recipe, so I added small amounts of maple syrup into ½ cup of granulated sugar until all saturated when mixed, and they turned out deliciously (:
With your mixer on low, beat in chunks of shortening and butter. Turn the mixer to medium, and beat until your mixture has small crumbs.
In a separate, medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, milk, eggs, (yolks and whites first whisked separately), maple extract, vanilla extract, and maple syrup.
**Note: Whipping the egg whites and yolks separately at first seems silly, but it has a purpose! Whipping them separately creates a foamy texture that is responsible for leavening the cake. (Fluffy, softer texture, while still maintaining its firmness, form and structural integrity)
With the mixer on low, slowly pour the egg mixture into a glass bowl with dry ingredients. Turn the mixer back up to medium and beat until incorporated; about 1 minute. Wipe down the sides of your bowl with a spatula to get all of your cupcake batter, and stir to mix.
Step 3: Baking Your Cupcakes
Spoon about 2 ½ – 3 Tablespoons of cupcake batter into each cupcake liner. Bake in the oven for about 27 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. *Allow cupcakes to fully cool before decorating*
Step 4: Making Your Frosting
In your chilled glass mixing bowl, with the mixer on low, beat softened butter, (sifted) powdered sugar, salt, and maple flavoring.
**Note: Sifting your measured powdered sugar directly into the chilled bowl with the other ingredients ensures a wonderful whip and hold to it. You will thank yourself later for sifting the powdered sugar in looks, texture, and ease of decorating your cupcakes (:
Fill a pastry bag with a cupcake tip inserted, using a spatula or spoon if needed. Watch the consistency of your frosting. If it’s too soft to hold its shape, you may need to chill it in the fridge for a few minutes. If it’s too hard to pipe with a good flow, let it sit and warm up for a few minutes.
Step 5: Decorating Your Cupcakes
Cook bacon according to cooking directions and your preferences. (Baking your bacon creates even cooking, and easier crumbling to top your cupcakes.) Transfer cooked bacon to a few layers of paper towel and finely chop once grease is absorbed.
Using your piping bag with frosting, lightly line the rim of your cupcakes and stick bacon crumbled to the frosted rim. Top your cupcake generously with more frosting, moving from the outside to the inside in a circular motion to create a whipped peak (like you would with ice cream or whipped cream)
As a final step, sprinkle the remaining bacon on top of each cupcake and drizzle with maple syrup garnish! P.S. Don’t worry if they don’t turn out “pretty” or perfect…these cupcakes will be enjoyed no matter what they look like. Just have fun with it!
*Finished cupcakes must be chilled until 30 minutes before serving*
Enjoy!
Cooking with Cannabis-Infused Ingredients
A good starting point for ingesting cannabis edibles is to limit yourself to <5mg THC ; even less if you are new to THC-infused food. They can have the tendency to be stronger, more intense, and can differ drastically from smoking. For one, the effects can take anywhere from a half hour to 3 hours to fully metabolize, depending on an individual’s unique body and metabolic rate. In addition, because the THC is digested through your liver and can more readily cross the body’s blood-brain barrier, the high can be stronger and last longer. With that said, your edible’s potency depends on many factors; how it was prepared, the potency of your starting product, as well as considering the strain or concentrate’s cannabinoid and terpene concentrations. To test the potency and effect of your finished product, try a smaller amount (<5mg) and see how that dose affects you after 2-3 hours. Titrate your dose as desired, and you can then use this personalized “standard” dose as a baseline for your recipes.
**Check out our dosage calculator for help in calculating your edible’s dosage @:
https://www.plant-family.com/thc-dosage-calculator/ **
Happy Cooking!
