Wedding Cake Strain and Grow Guide

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Written By Rocky Horton

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The Wedding Cake Strain is a popular, Indica-dominant bud from the growers at Seed Junky Genetics. It won the prize for the Best Hybrid Flower at the SoCal High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in 2018. Sometimes listed as “Pink Cookies,” Wedding Cake is famous for its cerebral, euphoria-inducing high and its ability to relax its users into a happy stupor.

The strain is best used when its calming flavors and mentally relaxing smoke have the time to work their magic on your stress. Its dense, potent buds have the reputation of knocking out inexperienced users. Below, we go in-depth into the origins, effects, flavors, and uses of the infamous Wedding Cake so you can decide if it’s the right strain for your needs.

Where Does Wedding Cake Come From?

Wedding Cake was bred by Seed Junky Genetics, most likely from the parent strains, Girl Scout Cookies and Cherry Pie, though some believe it to be originally a clone-only phenotype of the Triangle Mints strain. Assuming it’s the former, Wedding Cake has a lush lineage that takes it back through some Indica favorites like OG Kush and Granddaddy Purple, back to the African and Thai landrace strains that originated its line.

This LA-based strain likely got its name after the growers first witnessed the white sparkle of its resinous buds and smelled its vanilla-like aroma.

When Did Wedding Cake Come Out?

The exact date that Seed Junky Genetics officially debuted the strain is unknown, but we know that it won first place at the SoCal High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in 2018 and became the Strain of the Year of the popular online cannabis information site, Leafly, in 2019. So we’re assuming that it hit the scene around the same time.

Wedding Cake is one of those strains that debuted so hard and fast that it seems like it’s always been around.

What Does Wedding Cake Look Like?

The Wedding Cake strain lives up to its name with fluffy, densely structured buds that are coated in a thick sugar of resinous crystal trichomes. It’s also accented by plentiful orange hairs that grow throughout its dense and frosty nugs, surrounded by dark green leaves.

Sometimes, the temperature that a strain is grown in can impact its final color. In the case of the Wedding Cake Strain, cooler temperatures at certain points in the growing cycle are known to bring out some purple hues from deep within its green nugs.

This only adds to the strain’s appeal, however, since the added coloring does an even better job of bringing real wedding cake to mind.

What Does Wedding Cake Taste Like?

The Wedding Cake strain’s terpenes form a varied, unique profile that includes primarily camphene, limonene, caryophyllene, valencene, and myrcene. The result has a skunky flavor like sour fuel on the inhale, with notes of sweet fruit and berries. On the exhale, the strain gives off a thick smoke that gets sweeter and smoother as you relax, turning into a cloud of sweetness that tastes like vanilla buttercream with hints of spiciness from the caryophyllene.

The strain’s combination of spicy-sweet is aromatic and immensely popular, offering users a small dose of complex skunky tones but giving them respite with the dessert-like exhale that has really helped Wedding Cake earn its name.

What Does Wedding Cake Smell Like?

Much like its enticing dessert-like flavor, Wedding Cake smells like a mix of its spicy, skunky, and sweet terpenes. The result is a complex mix of sour and diesel on the inhale and a delicious atmosphere of buttercream icing and spicy vanilla in the smoke on the exhale. Other terpenes in lesser amounts, such as pinene and linalool, add even more complexity to the strain’s aroma.

The resulting smells include herbs, pine, and an aftereffect of sweet and sour citrus that can turn the domestic sweetness of Wedding Cake closer to the outdoorsy pleasures of its predecessors like OG Kush and Girl Scout Cookies.

Is Wedding Cake an Indica or Sativa?

Wedding Cake is a slightly Indica-dominant strain, in a 60/40 proportion with its Sativa genetics. For growers, this means they can look forward to a strain that favors a denser, shorter growing structure with broad, deep leaves, and dense buds.

This green and purple-highlighted Indica also features a shiny coat of resin that makes it a great pick for growers who like harvesting their bushy Indicas for high-quality concentrates.

How Much THC is in Wedding Cake?

Wedding Cake has a THC level in the range of 23% to 27% with an average of 25%. This makes it a strain better suited to more experienced users who can handle its impactful euphoria. When used during the day, the strain is powerful enough to potentially disrupt your work and sleep schedules.

Therefore, we recommend using the Wedding Cake Strain at night to take advantage of its relaxing, sleep-inducing mental high without disrupting your daytime activities.

How Much CBD in Wedding Cake?

As you may know, cannabis strains contain chemical compounds called cannabinoids and terpenes, which dictate each strain’s medicinal benefits and effects. The most cited are THC and CBD because these are the easiest to measure as well as the most impactful in determining how a strain will behave once you’ve got it in your hands (and head).

While THC dictates how potent the strain feels, its CBD content influences how effective the strain will be at producing its intended relaxation-inducing and pain-reducing effects (this is why cannabis supplements in non-legalized states can contain CBD but not THC).

In the case of the Wedding Cake strain, CBD levels range from 0.4% to 0.68%, which is significant in helping the strain deliver its intended cerebral relaxation and inflammation-fighting properties.

What Effects Does Wedding Cake Have?

The Wedding Cake strain’s high feels relaxing, happy, and euphoric, with users reporting a boosted mood as well as a feeling of calming serenity. While under its influence, Wedding Cake users also feel more mentally stable and positive.

The result is a strain that can provide an alternative therapy for numerous mental and physical ailments when used correctly. Note that the dosing of the strain and the experience of the user will impact how well Wedding Cake can affect their condition.

What Conditions is Wedding Cake Good For?

Recommended uses for Wedding Cake include stress, depression, and other mood disorders due to its primarily head-heavy high. Its relaxing impact can also help those suffering from PTSD and other traumatic stresses.

However, the strain also has physical effects that could be useful for those with inflammation or pain-related conditions such as arthritis, chronic headaches, and even women’s health issues. Wedding Cake is both delicious as well as alleviating, which can provide those who suffer from anorexia or a loss of appetite related to a medical treatment with a way to boost their hunger and relieve digestive cramping.

What is the Wedding Cake Veg Time?

The Wedding Cake strain has a veg phase that can last from 3-16 weeks depending on the quality of the seeds and the growing conditions. Thankfully, Wedding Cake is a hardy Indica that can handle a lot, provided the grower keeps its naturally dense foliage under control with frequent pruning.

We recommend learning the SoG (or Sea of Green) growing method. This program requires regular pruning, which in the case of a strain like Wedding Cake can help prevent its naturally dense structure from denying its lower branches the light and resources they need.

What is the Wedding Cake Flowering Time?

Wedding Cake flowers in 49-63 days, with a total harvest time of 68 days.

When to Harvest Wedding Cake?

When grown outside, Wedding Cake will be ready for harvest around late September to mid-October. Indoors, growers will know when the plants are ready by observing the trichomes, which become half-milky white and half-amber in color.

As the strain continues flowering, the buds become more sedating in nature, while those harvested earlier tend to be more energizing and less sleep-inducing.

How Tall Does Wedding Cake Grow?

Indoors, Wedding Cake grows like a classic Indica, with plants that rarely grow more than 60-80 inches in height. Outdoors, however, it can stretch its branches a bit more and get up to 90 inches tall.

When to Harvest Wedding Cake?

When growing outdoors, Wedding Cake growers should prepare for harvest in the last week of September through the first two weeks of October. It’s important to wait for this window, making sure the strain has had its suggested flowering time.

Indoors, growers may need to observe Wedding Cake’s trichomes with a magnifying glass to check them for the aforementioned color distinctions that can affect how the resulting buds impact its users.

How Much Does Wedding Cake Yield?

Indoors, the strain’s yield per plant will settle around a modest 150 g/m² while outdoors it can produce as much as 300g of usable bud per plant. Many growers list this as a “mid-high” yield from their experience with Wedding Cake, noting that the outdoors really help this bud reach its full potential.

Summary

The Wedding Cake strain is a calming, euphoria-inducing bud that can help users get to sleep and dull certain types of pain. Particularly in conditions such as arthritis, where the physical pain is caused by inflammation, Wedding Cake’s spicy-sweet presence could be a helpful one. For this reason, many cancer patients turn to strong Indicas like this one to relieve symptoms of their treatment such as bodily pain and fatigue.

Even disregarding its medicinal value, users flock to Wedding Cake for its fluffy green and purple buds, resin-rich trichomes, and enticing flavors. Its complex combination of terpenes results in a skunky onset drenched in flavors of fuel and spice, which gradually transforms into a sweeter, dessert-like profile like vanilla buttercream icing with touches of lemon, pepper, and pine. The strain’s smoke is thick and smooth.

Learning how best to manage Wedding Cake crops relies on intuition and regular pruning, carefully and consistently tending its bushy structure to prevent over-crowding. For both users and growers, the Wedding Cake strain is a new favorite for a reason, boasting an award-winning flavor profile and a complex range of benefits best suited to nighttime use and for users with a little more experience, who can handle all that Wedding Cake has to offer.

If you like Wedding Cake, then be sure to check out Do-Si-Dos.

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Rocky Horton

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Rocky Horton is an experienced cannabis grower and the founder of IndoGrow. The IndoGrow editorial team has over four decades of combined growing experience. Learn more.