Magically Easy Unicorn Cake 😉🦄✨

Magically Easy Unicorn Cake 😉🦄

 

So, I’m going to try to write out the steps and process I followed when making the unicorn cake for the niece and my birthday’s.

Now, don’t be detoured if you haven’t made cakes before, as this was really only my third or so, actually legitimately decorated cake and my first EVER with fondant! 😬

After pinteresting it up for the style I was going to attempt achieving, items needed were assembled🥄🍰

 

 

Magic Ingredients:

One box of confetti cake mix
(because never, EVER do I bother making a cake from scratch)

Three tubs of Betty Crocker icing
(as I was too lazy to make the homemade kind 😋)

 

**A warning about using the Betty Crocker butter cream icing, it tasted good and colored nicely but it was a little bit too runny to make nicely shaped stars and swirls come decorating time **

Icing coloring of choice.

I used bright pink ‘Color Right’ by Wilton, teal blue and purple.
The pink worked fantastically, the gel like coloring giving a super vibrant color.

Fondant

Sprinkles and embellishments of choice.

 

We had little gold stars, mini dehydrated marshmallows, bright pink sprinkles and the odd, light blue pearl.

 

Gold, food spray paint (not the official name but the most accurate description😜) was used for the horn and ears, but you could use watered down food coloring and paint on the color to the specific pieces that need it.

Icing bags and tips

Two, 6 inches wide by 3 inches deep, round cake pans 

 
 

To cast the spell :

Prepare the cake as directed on the box, diving between the two cake pans.

 

We like to cut a circle out of wax paper to line the bottom of the pans with, to help with easy removal after baking ☺️

Now… this is the part that didn’t go exactly as planned but ended up being spectacular 😂

I under-baked the one cake and didn’t know it, until checking on it a few minutes after I took it out of the oven.

The middle had completely fallen in and it looked like a giant donut… and the middle was raw.

My only option was to stick it back in the oven to try to let it finish baking and I decided to turn the hole into a happy accident and make it into a pinãta cake 😋👌🏻

(Which means that before I stacked the cakes, I filled the hole with sprinkles and mini marshmallows!

Something that can easily be done by cutting out a small hole from the centre of your bottom cake if you’d rather not attempt under-baking and re-baking 😉 )

The crazy thing of it is, that part of the cake layer, tasted amazing!
It was so moist and had a wonderfully good texture that now I’m really considering under-baking and re-baking all future cakes 😜

But back to the process…

 

 

 

As the cakes bake, you can create the horn and ears, as they need some time to dry and harden.

Cut a slice of fondant and roll it into a rope, just a bit thinner then a finger thickness.

Thinner if you have fluffy sized fingers 😜

Once it’s rolled, you can wrap it around a skewer to your desired horn shape and stand it upright to dry.

I placed mine in a cup, with tin foil wrapped to support it in the place I wanted it to dry.

**wide eyed child not required** 😜

For the ears, I used the bottom of a heart cookie cutter to get a symmetrical shape.

Cutting two large and two small.

Paint the small ones (which will be the inside parts of the ears) whatever color you want and then attach to the back piece using a dab of water.

Again, shape and place them how you want them to dry.

For the eyes I rolled little strips and eyelashes, using water to attach the pieces and then setting them aside to dry with the ears and horn.

Once your cakes have finished baking and cooled, you can trim off the tops if you need them more even.

Then spread a medium thick layer of icing on top of one cake and place the other on top, the icing should help level and secure.

Place the now, two level cake, in the fridge.

As the cake cooled in the fridge, I mixed up my three colors, put them in their icing bags and placed them in the fridge too, wanting to give the icing a chance to cool off and firm up a bit.
I used two tubs of icing for the colors and left one tub colorless for between the cakes and the pre fondant levelling.

 

 

 

I hadn’t covered a cake with fondant before, so I was leery of rolling it all out and trying to get a smooth finish 😬

I used the tutorial by Manuela from Passion For Baking and it was quick and easy to follow so I highly suggest it if you haven’t worked with fondant before!

 

Work your fondant into a well rounded circle.

Lightly covering my baking mat with icing sugar and a little on top of the icing itself, I rolled out the fondant.
Pushing evenly and turning the circle of icing with each roll to keep a uniform shape until it was about 1/4  inch thick.

Take out your chilled cake and ice the sides.

Using the icing to even out the surface and cover the cake entirely.

Carefully pick up your fondant and place it on the cake as centred as possible.

Gently smoothing it from the top, down with your hands.
Try not to use your fingertips too much as they leave indents that are hard to hide 😬
(She says from experience)

 

 

Really, just watch the fondant tutorial I mentioned!!😉

 

 

Place the horn, on its skewer, in the middle of the cake.

Using your colored icing, variate the colors of stars and swirls to create the mane.

 

 

 

The Final Flick Of The Wand:

Once it’s iced how you want, add the sprinkles and embellishments and refrigerate until you can’t wait any longer and have to cut it up and devour it 😁🍴

Unless you have really big fridge shelves, the horn will probably have to be removed for the duration it’s in there 😋

 

 

Now, I know that sounds like a big process and a tad daunting perhaps, but really, if I could do it, I have full faith in you 😎👌🏻

(Not really though because I don’t know who you are and that would be foolish of me to say something just to make you feel good 😎😂)

​​

If you dare to be magical and try it, please let me know ☺️
I’d love to hear how it went for you and see your results 🦄💕🍰