Unicorn Cake

A two tier unicorn came with rainbow colored floral mane and large eyes.

5 from 1 vote

A pretty rainbow unicorn cake with cascading fondant floral mane and large sparkling eyes. Learn how to make this gorgeous cake right here!

Prep Time45

Cook Time1 40

Decorating Time4

Total Time6 25

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 2 tier cake

Calories: 22585.8kcal

Author: Priya Maha

Ingredients

Top tier cake (6 inches round marble cake)

540 g self-raising flour
540 g granulated sugar
540 g butter
9 eggs
150 ml milk
22.5 g cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅓ teaspoon salt

Bottom tier cake (9 inches round orange cake)

900 g self-raising flour
900 g butter
825 g granulated sugar
15 eggs
6 oranges grated orange rind
225 ml orange juice (freshly squeezed)
⅓ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt

Frosting and Decoration

Buttercream
Fondant
Royal Icing (to attach the ribbon to the cake)
Edible gold paint
Shortening
Food coloring (for the flowers and eyes)
Purple ribbon
CMC powder (added to the fondant to make upright standing alphabets)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Marble Cake

Preheat oven to 170 °Celsius. Grease and line three 6-inches round cake tins.
Mix cocoa powder with ¼ of the milk and leave aside.
In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar till soft and creamy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
In another separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour.
Finally, add in vanilla extract and combine well.
Transfer ⅓ of the batter into a separate bowl and add the milk-cocoa mixture to it. Mix well.
Scoop the plain batter and chocolate batter alternately into the prepared cake tins.
Bake the cakes for approximately 45 to 50 minutes until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. The cakes are done when a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out without any wet batter.
Remove cakes from the oven and let them cool completely before frosting and decorating.

Orange Cake

Preheat oven to 170 °Celsius.
Beat butter and sugar till soft and creamy.
Add eggs, two at a time, beating well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with orange juice, starting and ending with flour.
Finally, add in the grated orange rind and combine well. Pour batter into three 9-inches greased and floured round cake tins and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.
Baking time for larger cakes may be slightly longer than smaller ones. Use a skewer to check that your cakes have cooked completely. Your cakes are also done when they start to separate from the sides of the cake tins and the top of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.
Remove cakes from the oven and let them cool completely before decorating.

Decorating the Unicorn Birthday Cake

Prepare the fondant flowers and allow them to set.
Prepare the fondant unicorn horn and let it set.
Once the cakes have cooled down, level and sandwich the cake layers with buttercream.
Cover each of the 2 tiers with white fondant and stack them together. Use bubble straws for support.
Cover the cake board with white fondant.
Attached the fondant unicorn eyes on the side of top tier with shortening.
Wrap the sides of the cake board with purple ribbon. Secure it in place with some hot glue.
Using the same colored satin ribbon, wrap it around the border of each cake tier. Secure it to the cake with some royal icing.
Attached the prepared fondant unicorn horn on the top tier.
Next is the fondant flower mane. To guide the placement of the flowers, roll a long thin strip of fondant and attach it to the sides of the cake, in the way you wish to place the flowers.
Start attaching the flowers from the top tier, right at the horn. The first color is red, followed by orange, yellow, green, blue, pink and purple. And then repeat the colors in the reverse order, such that the last color at the bottom of the second cake tier is red. Attach the flowers with shortening.
Next, make and attached the unicorn ears on the top tier of the cake with some fondant glue.
Finish decorating the unicorn's floral mane by filling up the gaps in the mane with smaller fondant flowers.
For the birthday girl's name, mix CMC powder into some white fondant. Knead it well and roll and cut out the letters for the birthday girl's name.
Paint the front of each fondant letter with edible gold paint. Let the paint set.
Finally, attach the fondant letters to the cake board with fondant glue to complete the decoration for the unicorn birthday cake.

Notes

Options for the mane - If you wish to decorate the unicorn's mane in buttercream, you can replace the fondant flowers with buttercream rosettes. The buttercream rosettes can be used on a fondant covered cake as well as a buttercream covered cake.

Prepare vanilla buttercream frosting in a large bowl and then divide it into smaller separate bowls to tint the icing in rainbow colors. Fill the icing into separate piping bags and snip the pointed ends.

Fit a large star tip in a separate piping bag. To start with, insert the red buttercream filled piping bag into the star piping tip fitted piping bag. Start piping the rosettes in place of the fondant flowers, following the order of the colors as with the fondant flowers above. Once the red is done, remove the red icing filled piping bag and fit in the next different icing color. Continue to pipe rosettes in all the colors until the unicorn's mane is completed.

Options for the unicorn horn - An easy alternative for the fondant unicorn horn is a horn made out of ice cream cone.

Use the ice cream cone as the base, roll your fondant into thin strip and wrap it around the cone, starting from the pointed tip of the cone all the way to the other end. Make sure you do not leave any gaps. Paint the fondant in gold paint.

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