You all know how much we love unicorns and today we’ve teamed up with Faye Wightman from Pretty Fancy Cakes to show you how to make these cute unicorn cupcakes!
These showstopping cupcakes will go down a treat at any unicorn birthday party (even though they’re almost too good to eat!) and they match our We Heart Unicorn party supplies perfectly! Read on for Faye’s easy unicorn cupcake recipe and check out Pretty Fancy Cakes on Instagram for even more amazing creations!
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 225g butter/margarine
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g self-raising flour
- 4 medium eggs
- 1tsp vanilla extract or paste
For the decorations
- 1.5kg fondant icing
- 250g flower paste
- Food colouring gel in colours- pink, purple, mint green and black
- Edible glue
- White non pareils sprinkles
- Vodka or lemon juice
- Gold lustre dust
- Pink lustre dust
- Trex for softening flower paste
Tools
- Gold or pastel cupcake cases
- 12 hole cupcake tray
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
- Cooling rack
- Sharp paring knife
- Small paintbrush
- Icing smoother
- Ball tool
- Dresden tool
- Small 6’’ rolling pin
- Round cutter to match diameter of cupcake (approximately 4’’)
- Small star cutter
- Work board and non-slip mat
How to make unicorn cupcakes
1. Preheat the oven to 160C.
2. Line the cupcake tray with the cupcake cases of your choice.
3. Cream butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
4. Add eggs two at a time with the half of the flour. Mix until all combined and creamy.
5. Once the batter is smooth take two dessert spoons and start filling the cupcake cases two thirds full. If you’re using metallic cases, be careful not to over fill the cases. They heat up quicker in the oven and have a tendency to spill over!
6. Bake for 15 minutes. You’ll know they’re cooked when you insert a skewer into the middle of a cupcake and it comes out clean.
7. After 10 minutes or so, take the cupcakes out of the pan and leave to cool on a rack.
8. Before starting to decorate the cupcakes, you’ll need to make the horn and ears so that they have time to dry.
9. To make the ears, mix a little white flower paste with a small amount of pink gel colouring to create the inside of the ears. Roll it out until it’s 2mm thick and cut out a rounded triangular shape.
Then roll out some white flower paste until it’s 2mm thick and cut a slightly bigger rounded triangular shape. Glue the pink shape onto the white and use a sharp knife to make a crease down the middle.
10. To make the horn, mix 50/50 of white flower paste and white fondant icing. Then take two small balls the size of a grape and use a smoother to roll it into a tapered sausage shape that’s thinner at one end. Next pinch the two thin ends together and twist them together to create a spiral/horn shape.
Trim the larger end to tidy it up and once it’s dry, take a little vodka and gold lustre dust and brush the horn with the gold paint.
11. Once the cupcakes are cool, take 50g of fondant icing and roll it out until it’s 5mm thick.
Then take your round cutter and cut out a circle.
12. Brush your cupcake with a little edible glue and lay the icing on the top.
Use a smoother to smooth out any imperfections and use your fingers to make sure the edges are all lying flat and are glued down.
13. Next, take a small amount of flower paste and mix in a small amount of your pink gel colouring. A little goes a long way so depending on the depth of colour you want to achieve, I would advise starting off with a little. You can always add more to achieve the shade you want.
14. Roll this out until it’s 2mm thick and use the same round cutter to cut out another circle. Then place the cutter over one edge of the circle to cut out an oval with points. This is going to be the unicorns muzzle.
15. Next brush the back of the muzzle with a little edible glue and stick to one side of the iced cupcake.
16. Taking your ball tool make two nose dips on the top of the muzzle, using a small ball of white flower paste place these into the dips and press down with the ball tool to create a nostril.
17. Use the same tool to create two dips for the eyes. Then use the edge of your Dresden tool to create two little creases on each of the eyes to represent eyelashes.
18. Next, mix a little black gel colouring into a small amount of flower paste and roll two small balls for the unicorns eyes. Apply a little glue into the eye holes and insert them into the sockets. Finish the eyes by adding a small white non-pareil to the black to give the eye expression; this can also be done with a tiny ball of white flower paste.
19. Use a knife to make an insertion as wide as the ears on each side of the cupcake where you want the ears to be. Then take the ears, which should now be firm, and use a little edible glue to insert the ears into the slots.
20. Next, use the large side of your ball tool to make a small dip in the centre of the unicorn head (between the ears) for his horn.
21. Take a little edible glue and stick the horn into place.
22. For the hair, take a small amount of flower paste mixed with 50% of the fondant icing, and use the purple, pink and mint green to create three different shades.
Take a small ball of each colour and roll it out into a tapered sausage. Slightly flatten it on your work board and use the Dresden tool to mark the icing in long strokes to look like hair. Then use a small amount of glue to lay these onto the cupcake around the ears and horn to frame the face.
23. Take a small amount of white flower paste and roll out to 2mm thick, using small star cutter cut out shapes and apply these to the hair on the cupcake using a little glue.
24. Finally using a clean brush and a little edible pink shimmer create two rosy cheeks.
And voilà! Your beautiful unicorn cupcakes are ready to serve at your party (although they’re so cute, we don’t think we could bring ourselves to eat them!)
A huge thank you to Faye at Pretty Fancy Cakes for this cupcake tutorial. Don’t forget to check out our unicorn party supplies if it’s your chosen birthday party theme and for more unicorn party ideas, stay on our blog!
