if you buya spore syringe...do you HAVE to shoot it in a cake...could you just find some fuckign dirt in the shade and shoot it up and water it and mushrooms pop up?
1st question: no, you don't need to use a cake. there are other ways. 2nd question: no, you wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell
dirt wouldn't be too good man, it needs to be nice and clean and sterile. check out www.shroomery.org
No you don't have to but it is the easyiest method for a beginer to folow. Most grow methods actually use cakes to spawn into bigger substrate. Good luck my freind.