How to Make Unicorn Cupcakes

If you’re planning to host or attend a special event where unicorn cupcakes seem like the perfect addition, look no further. You’ll need some special ingredients, decorations, and a bit of patience for these magical and yummy cupcakes!

EditIngredients

EditCupcake Batter

• of all-purpose flour
• of salt
• of baking powder
• soft unsalted butter
• of sugar
• of vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• of milk
• Food coloring in the colors of pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple

EditFrosting

• of softened unsalted butter
• of vanilla extract
• of confectioner’s sugar

EditDecorations

• Fondant for your unicorn horns OR 12 small spiraled birthday candles
• Edible metallic paint in gold, silver, copper, or pearl (for edible horns)
• 12 mini marshmallows
• Small bowl of pink sugar for ears
• Rainbow sprinkles or edible glitter

EditSteps

EditMaking Your Batter

1. Preheat your oven and combine your flour, salt, and baking powder. Preheat your oven to . In a medium sized bowl, combine your flour, salt and baking powder with a spoon. Set your bowl of dry ingredients aside until you’re ready to use it.^[1]
   
   
2. Cream your butter and add sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Place your softened butter in a large mixing bowl. Starting at a low speed and gradually increasing to medium speed, cream your butter with an electric mixer until it’s pale and fluffy.
   
   
   • Add your sugar to the butter and continue mixing at medium speed. Then add your vanilla and eggs and continue beating until they’re combined in your mixture.^[2]
3. Add your dry ingredients and milk to your butter mixture. Add half of your flour mixture from the medium bowl to the butter mixture and mix at a low speed until it’s combined. Add half of your milk to the mixture and mix until it’s combined.
   
   
   • Repeat this process with the rest of your flour mixture, and the rest of your milk, until all your batter ingredients are combined.^[3]
4. Divide your batter into 6 smaller bowls and add food coloring. Take your batter and carefully pour a bit into each of your smaller bowls, until all the batter is divided evenly into 6 different bowls. Place a few drops of your pink food coloring into one bowl and mix it gently to make a bowl of pink batter.
   
   
   • Use a few drops of your orange food coloring into the second bowl and mix that one gently to make orange batter. Repeat this process with each of your colors so that you have 6 different colors of batter.^[4]

EditBaking Your Cupcakes

1. Line your muffin tin with colorful cupcake wrappers. Take your muffin tin and place a colorful wrapper into each of the muffin spaces. The recipe will make 12 cupcakes, so you will need one standard sized muffin tin and 12 cupcake wrappers.^[5]
   
   
2. Fill your cupcake wrappers with some of each color of batter. Using a tablespoon or a soup spoon, place a dollop of your pink batter into each cupcake wrapper. Use all the pink batter evenly in each cupcake wrapper until it’s gone.
   
   
   • Repeat this process with all your colors of batter, being sure to use each color evenly in each cupcake as you go.
   • Don't mix the colors together in each wrapper. Just allow each color to sit on top of the last one to create layers. The cupcakes will be rainbow when they are done baking.
   • Instead of starting with pink, you can start with a different color and use the colors in whatever order you wish.^[6]
3. Bake your cupcakes at for 15-20 minutes. Open your preheated oven and carefully place your tin of cupcakes onto a middle shelf in the oven. Set a timer for 15-20 minutes. While your cupcakes are baking, you can begin making your frosting.
   
   • After 15-20 minutes, check to make sure your cupcakes are done by gently inserting a toothpick into the center of one of them. If it comes out clean, your cupcakes are done.^[7]

EditMaking Your Frosting

1. Cream your butter and vanilla for your frosting. Place your butter into your large mixing bowl and add your vanilla. Starting at a low speed and working up to medium, cream your butter and vanilla with your electric mixer until the butter is pale and fluffy.^[8]
   
   
2. Add your confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time while mixing. Take your confectioner’s sugar and add it one cup at a time to the butter mixture. Allow each cup of sugar to combine before starting the next one.
   
   
   • When all the sugar is added, beat your frosting at a medium speed with your electric mixer for another 3-5 minutes, until the frosting is fluffy.^[9]
3. Allow your cupcakes to cool completely before starting to frost them. Your cupcakes will need about 1-2 hours to cool completely. If the cupcakes are still warm, your frosting may become runny and melt off of them.^[10]
   

EditDecorating Your Unicorn Cupcakes

1. Gather your decoration ingredients. For decorating your cupcakes, you will need a piping bag for frosting, fondant for your unicorn horns, edible metallic paint in gold, silver, copper, or pearl), a food safe paint brush, 12 mini marshmallows and a small bowl of pink sugar for ears, and rainbow sprinkles.^[11]
   
2. Use a piping bag or a knife to coat surface of each cupcake with frosting. If you would like your frosting swirled from the bottom, use your piping bag filled with frosting to squeeze frosting out in a spiral to cover each of your cooled cupcakes.
   
   
   • If you would rather your unicorns have a smooth face, use a butter knife to evenly spread a layer of frosting on each cupcake.^[12]
3. Make edible unicorn horns out of fondant and edible gold paint. Take your fondant and roll out two thin pieces about in length. Twist the two pieces together to form one spiraled horn. Pinch the end lightly with your fingers to make the top pointy, and smooth the horn by rolling it back and forth either between your hands or with an icing roller on your counter.
   
   
   • Repeat this process with your fondant until you have 12 horns.
   • Put a bit of edible gold paint (or whatever color you chose) on the end of your paint brush and smooth the paint lightly covering each unicorn horn. Allow your horns to dry.^[13]
   • If you don’t want to make edible horns, you can use small birthday cake candles as horns instead. Just make sure people take them off before eating the cupcakes!^[14]
4. Cut your mini marshmallows in half and dip in sugar to make ears. Take a mini marshmallow and cut it in half diagonally. Dip the sticky inside part into the pink sugar to make the inside ear part. Repeat this process until you have 24 small ears.^[15]
   
   
5. Arrange your horns and ears in upper center of each cupcake. Take a unicorn horn and place it down gently but firmly into the upper center of a frosted cupcake, so that it is standing straight up. Next place an ear down into the cupcake on each side of the horn. Repeat this step for all of your cupcakes.^[16]
   
   
6. Use your thin black icing gel to make eyes. Take your thin black icing gel and draw two half circles (the bottom or top half of a circle) to make closed eyes near the center of one of your cupcakes below the horns and ears. Draw a few eyelashes onto each of the closed eyes. Repeat this step for all of your cupcakes.
   
   
   • Leave some space between the horns/ears and the eyes if you want to add a unicorn mane or flower crown with frosting.^[17]
7. Use frosting to make a mane or flower crown if you want. You may have some remaining frosting leftover from frosting your cupcakes. Color the frosting with food colorings of your choice and use your piping bag to squeeze little bits of colored frosting around the horns and ears of your unicorns.
   
   
   • You can get as creative as you want with this part, using different colors of frosting to create a rainbow mane, or squeezing white or colored flower shapes around the unicorn’s head.^[18]
8. Sprinkle rainbow sprinkles or edible glitter around your unicorns' faces. Take your rainbow sprinkles or edible glitter to add a bit of sparkle to each of your unicorns. And then congratulate yourself on a job well done!^[19]
   
   

EditThings You’ll Need

• 6 small bowls, 1 medium sized mixing bowl, and 1 large mixing bowl
• Electric mixer
• Muffin tin for 12 cupcakes
• 12 cupcake wrappers
• Piping bag for frosting
• A food safe paint brush (unused or a brush you’ve used only for food)

EditSources and Citations

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