Unicorn Cupcakes

Does your little girl love unicorns?

Mine went through a huge unicorn phase. Which she has grown out of as far as “obsessions” go, but she still loves unicorns.

There is something about unicorns. Maybe because I always loved horses. Adored them! And unicorns have that added magic and mystery to them. You have to use your imagination to create their world, or imagine their colorful mane, or horn.

Needless to say, I think it is a fad that will stay around for a while! In fact the cupcakes in the first photo are from my daughter’s 12th birthday, two years ago. And the photos below were a special order for a first birthday party that I made this month. They are really fun to make and super sweet for a unicorn party.

I made my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe to make these adorable unicorn cupcakes and dipped them in melted frosting and then chilled them in order to have a smooth “blank canvas” for a surface to work on.

Begin by making your unicorn horns. Roll a long “snake-like” string of fondant. Paint it or spray it silver (or gold if you prefer) with edible food paint. Allow it to dry. After it is dry fold the string of fondant so that you have two rows of the same string laying parallel to one another (see photo). Begin by twisting (the attached end) of the string together, rolling it until you have reached the end of the string. Cut into pieces the lengths that you need your unicorn horn. I did about an inch. Pinch the top of the piece gently twisting it into the point of the horn. Paint another layer of food color if necessary allow to dry and harden in a cool dry place.

Next I cut out my Unicorn faces from white rolled fondant using one end of an oval cookie cutter, to make a “fat horse”-face shape. Lastly cut out your unicorn ears. I used white mini marshmallows. Cut the marshmallow diagonally in half creating two triangles from the marshmallow shape. Those are your matching ears!

Next prepare your piping bags. I made my favorite buttercream frosting recipe and used lavendar, aqua, white and light pink for the colors of the unicorns mane. It matched the party supplies the Mom had chosen, but you could also choose to do bright colors if you prefer.

Place your unicorn face fondant onto your cupcake. If you have puffed up cupcake then you place the narrow part of the “face” at the top of the cupcake, and the wider part of the face at the base by the liner, creating the shaped and height of a horse face. *Note: If you have flat cupcakes they will turn out more similar to the first photo in this post. Next draw your eyes onto your cupcake using an edible ink food marker.

Next begin piping on the mane. I made one tuft of hair that hung down onto the unicorn’s face and the rest that covered the uncovered part of the cupcake. I chose to make the actual mane appear to be white and pink, using longer strokes with the piping bag. Whereas I piped on the aqua and lavendar to appear to be flowers in the mane. But you can experiment with what you like- creating a colorful mane as well.