So this isn’t a tutorial per se but I’m going to show you exactly how I made this adorable Unicorn Cake at home!
My soon-to-be 2-year-old daughter thinks all unicorns are horses and goes bananas when she sees one. Which is like, all. the. time. because you know, unicorns seem to be everywhere these days. I don’t happen to be crazy about unicorns myself, but she is her own person, so whatevs.
I decided to make her just a special dress for her 2nd birthday party. The plan was to just have a lowkey, no-theme birthday party. I took her with me to the fabric store and just let her pick out whatever fabric she liked best. Basically
Cute right?! So I text a photo of the dress to my grandma, whose hosting the dinner party at her home, and she takes the dress as inspiration. She picks up this totally adorable little pinata while she’s out one day! In our family, it’s not a kids’ birthday party without a pinata! 🎉
Flash forward to her actual birthday.
We happen to be in Hawaii on a family vacation at the time. Even though her party would be the next weekend, hubby and I just knew we had to get a little cake in honor of her birthday. We went to the local Safeway grocery store to pick up a run-of-the-mill birthday cake and what do we find? An actual really cute unicorn cake! For 20 BUCKS! So we picked it up knowing she would think it’s a horse and go crazy for it.
And she loved it! I like to keep cakes out on display, I think it helps people get excited about it! She could not stop pointing and oohing and neighing at the darn thing. It was adorable!
As I was cutting into the grocery store cake I had an idea. Why not save these unicorn cake toppers and make her a unicorn cake for her party? I mean, her party dress was already unicorn so they would go together anyway. I was inspired so I packed up the plastic pieces and flew them home!
For toddlers – More is More
While I thought that the grocery store cake was really cute, I felt like I could totally improve upon it. I decided to paint the eyelashes black to give it a more dramatic look. Black nail polish was used instead of black acrylic paint because I wanted a super glossy finish. 2 coats were needed for full opaque coverage.
I also decided to glitter the inside of the ears and the horn. Using a paintbrush, I applied tacky glue to the ears and horn. I then just sprinkled gold glitter on top until the looked fully covered. Allow the glitter to ‘sit’ in the glue for 20 minutes before shaking off the excess. There was a bit of glitter on the outer ear but it was easily wiped it away with a little rubbing alcohol and a q-tip. There was a lot of extra
Now for the actual cake!
Today, this unicorn cake is made from a Chantilly cake with raspberry filling and buttercream icing. I baked the cakes a week in advance and then froze them. To prep a cake for freezing, first wrap it in saran wrap, then tin foil, then a freezer bag. Cakes will last at least 3 months this way and using frozen or chilled cake makes it easier to level the cake for filling and stacking. I found this tutorial from Relish to be a super helpful reminder on how to fill, stack, and crumb coat a cake – which is essential for a beautiful professional-looking cake! http://relish.com/articles/how-to-stack-and-crumb-coat-a-layered-cake/
After crumb coating the cake I let it chill for at least 2 hours then make another batch of buttercream frosting to cover the cake. I use this recipe every time. It is absolutely delicious and always comes together perfectly and you can use the same recipe for covering the cake, decorating, and even for frosting cupcakes! If you are interested in how to frost a smooth cake, this tutorial is worth its weight in GOLD. I use this method every single time and even with a certification in baking and pastries, it was a serious game changer for me.
Let’s start decorating!
Starting with a smooth blank slate of cake, prepare the different colors of buttercream you plan to use. I am using pink, purple, blue, and green to match with the party dress.
To achieve this look I used 4 different piping tips all by Wilton. For the large pink roses, I used Tip 2D. 2D is also a great piping tip for frosting cupcakes! The purple flowers were created using Tip 1M, also another good one for cupcakes. My favorite little purple flowers were made using Wilton Tip 21. Experiment with twisting your tip while piping to make different shapes! Finally, the green dots were made using Wilton Tip 10.
Note: The pink sugar flowers were purchased in the baking section of my local craft store.
You can see in the image below how testing the piping tip beforehand helps with deciding the best style for the cake.
Before I began piping, I first placed the ears and horn in proportion to each other. I placed the eyelashes last to ensure proper alignment. Similar to arranging flowers, I started with my largest design to create the outline for the unicorn mane. In this case, first up are the pink roses. Next using the purple begin to fill in the area around the pink roses and follow the original outline. Then fill in the empty spaces with the blue frosting. Feel free to add more of any flower as you see fit. Lastly, using the green frosting, highlight anywhere there is an open space.
Easy enough and it was so much fun to make! But most importantly, my daughter loved it! I hope this inspires you to make your own unicorn cake for someone special.
So now it’s your turn! If you try this, tag me at @goldengluegun
Golden Gluegun is a DIY lifestyle blog featuring incredible DIY flips, sewing tutorials, crafts, and creative inspiration. Join me as we plan and create!
