The Munchie Report: Cannabutter Quarantine Part 1 - Chocolate Cupcakes

The Munchie Report: Cannabutter Quarantine  Part 1 - Chocolate Cupcakes | By Penelope Puff

I’m sure most of you are like me. Working from home, bored to tears, trying not to spread a deadly virus. Lucky for us a company that shall remain nameless, gave me a pound of cannabutter to try and review. FUCKING AWESOME TIMING. Definitely not sad about being on lockdown with a pound of cannabutter. 

Now I have eaten a lot of edibles. Homemade and commercial-grade (there’s a rap lyric for you). The cannabutter can make or break your tasty treats. If it tastes too much like pot, it’s gross. If there isn’t enough THC to get you roasted, you got fat for nothing. 

Finding that delicate balance is hard.  Anyway, I can’t wait for this cannabutter to get on the market. 

Visually, it’s green and smooth….like cannabutter. No flakes of stuff, no uneven coloration, professionally molded into a perfect half-disc about the thickness of a stick of butter (which comes in handy). This is some legit stuff. I am not a fan of making cannabutter, nor do I need another kitchen appliance. Especially one that you only use for one thing. Purchasing this brand of cannabutter is the way of the future. 

After a long day of Martial Arts training and Cooking rabbit holes on YouTube, I was itching to try out my baking skills. The first recipe I chose was a decadent chocolate cupcake. Now I’m going, to be honest, I am no pastry chef. I have mad skills otherwise, but not so much with desserts. I haven’t made them since I was a kid with my Grandma. These cupcakes turned out delicious and potent. 

A few things to think about when cooking with cannabutter. 

1. Dosing: You want to know about how many milligrams there are of THC per tablespoon. This butter is 8-10 mg per gram. There are 14 grams in a tablespoon, so each tablespoon is at least 112 mg of THC. 

Take a look at the recipe you are wanting to make with your butter. Do the math to find out how many milligrams each treat will contain before you start cooking. Some recipes I found were so big that I would either have to use a ton of the butter on one recipe or they would be weak and I’d have to eat 4 treats to feel the THC. I don’t need 48 cupcakes, Karen on Pinterest. 

Some of the recipes I cut in half or used more butter than recommended. Keep in mind that baking is almost an exact science. You don’t want to deviate too far from the recipe or it could mean disaster. I jacked up one recipe with bad math and luckily it was still edible or I would’ve wasted 1/2 cup of butter. They were also bad enough for me to write this tip. Zzzttt! 

2. You can substitute cannabutter for some or all of the butter in a recipe, anytime. Have fun with it! I don’t use cannabutter for things like basting, where half the butter ends up in the bottom of a pan, but for baking and savory dishes like mac and cheese or grits, cannabutter is awesome. Get creative! 

3. This might be obvious but butter melts. We stored 1/2 the butter in the freezer and 1/2 the butter in the fridge to keep it solid and fresh. I cut as much butter as I needed for a recipe and left it on the counter for a few minutes to soften up before using. I used a stick of butter in the paper as a guide for measurement instead of an actual spoon, which was a pain in the ass to do if the butter isn’t melted. It wasn’t super-duper exact but I didn’t have any issues doing it this way. 

Now let’s get to the delicious part.....the recipe! 

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 
  1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 
  1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 
  1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 
  1/8 teaspoon salt
• 
  4 tablespoons softened cannabutter
• 
  1 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar 
• 
  1-1/2 eggs
• 
  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  3/4 cup milk

• 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional)

• 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Mix together all of the dry ingredients EXCEPT THE SUGAR.

• In a big mixing bowl, cream together the cannabutter and sugar until well mixed. This is super important. Creaming the butter and sugar adds air which makes your baked goods fluffier. :) Then we add the eggs one at a time, combining well each time we add, then mix in the vanilla. Pour in a bit of the dry ingredients and milk at a time; beat well in between additions. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.

• Bake for 15 to 17 minutes. A great trick for timing baked goods such as cakes or brownies, is to insert a toothpick in the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, your treat is done. If there is batter on the toothpick, bake a little longer.  Wait for the cupcakes to cool and then top with your favorite frosting. ENJOY!!!

This recipe is for 12 cupcakes. I have a 12 serving muffin tin and my dosing was 40 mg of THC per cupcake. I upped the butter to 4 tablespoons from 2 tablespoons and 3/4 teaspoons to make this happen. You can use any cupcake recipe that you like, just substitute the fun butter. Again, always do your math for your dosing before picking a recipe. 

A lot of cupcake recipes use buttermilk, which I didn’t have and I was not about to catch illness to get. Buttermilk adds moisture and another dimension of flavor but the extra fat from the added butter helped with that. 

The amazing thing about this butter is once it’s cooked, you don’t really taste it. Of course, we tried it pure. It does test a bit like flower on its own but that’s to be expected. Even the bit of cannabis that you can taste is not offensive. It adds more of a floral note than a vegetal taste. The cupcakes came out delicious and the added texture from the walnuts and chocolate chips was to die for. 

The high was warm and fuzzy. The butter does its job for sure. Strong and tasty is a good start!

Stay tuned for more delicious cannabutter ideas! 

Check out the Feed me Edibles and me I’m Pretty T-shirt