Unicorn Rainbow Cake

What a party weekend we had! On Saturday we celebrated my Husbands Grandpas 91st Birthday, then on Sunday was our very own daughters 5th Birthday. Our little girl was so excited for it to be her Birthday, she loves Birthday's, like a lot. To her Birthday's are just the most spectacular things ever! 

This year she wanted it to be a Unicorn Birthday theme. If you didn't hear, Unicorn everything is totally in, haha. It was pretty easy to find anything that had to do with rainbows and Unicorns, you can find that stuff in every store. I was also happy with all the ideas on Pinterest for Unicorn Birthday themed parties. What caught my eye is the Unicorn cakes, they were so cute and I just couldn't resist attempting to make one. 

Off we went to Michael's and the Bulk Barn for cake supplies, the Bulk Barn actually has an amazing selection of food colouring and they have disposable large icing bags. Micheal's had the small containers of fondant and a few other little tools I needed, like a huge coupling for my large decorating tips for icing. Between the two places we were able to get what we needed to make a magical Unicorn cake.


Unicorn Rainbow Cake:

Supplies/Ingredients:

enough white cake batter to fill 4 - 8 inch cake pans
gel food colouring, I used teal, lemon yellow, orange, rose, leaf green and violet
black sparkle edible gel
yellow sparkle edible gel
gold edible dust
white fondant
yellow fondant
3 bamboo skewers
candy pearls

for the icing:

2 pounds of butter
2 - 1 kilogram bags of icing sugar or 16 cups
4 teaspoons of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of coconut extract
2 to 4 tablespoons of milk (or more if you want it runnier)
gel food colouring, orange, teal, leaf green and rose

Directions:

Make your preferred white cake batter, separate it into 6 bowls. Add enough food colouring from each colour to make it a vibrant colour, and mix. 

Place the batter into large Ziploc bags. Grease and lightly flour your 8 inch cake pans, you can also line the bottom with parchment paper. Cut the tip off of the pink Ziploc bag and squeeze it into the cake pan to form a circle around the outside. Then repeat with the teal colour making sure to touch the pink, then finish with the yellow batter in the center.  Repeat these steps in another cake pan with the same colours.

Then take two more cake pans and do the same thing but with the green, orange and purple cake batter. 

Bake the cakes for 20 to 30 minutes at 375F in the oven. Once they are done, and a tooth pick is inserted and comes out clean, then remove them from the oven. Allow them to cool for 15 minutes before gently tipping onto a cooling rack, then gently remove the pans and allow the cake to completely cool.

Once the cakes have cooled, turn them back over so the top is facing up. Level off the top by using a large serrated knife and taking off the domed shape so you have a nice and even surface. Let your kids eat the tops, they will love you!

Using a serrated knife, cut each cake in half width wise, so you end up with 12 pieces (you will only be using 6 to 10 depending on how high you want it).

Make the icing by placing the butter into your stand mixer with a paddle attachment (if it can handle all the ingredients, if not separate it). Beat the butter on a high speed for 1 minute. Add your flavours and half of the icing sugar, on a low speed mix the icing sugar in. Add your milk and the rest of the icing sugar, mix on a low speed again until it is almost all mixed in and then turn the speed up to a higher speed. On my Kitchen Aid I do a 7 to 8 level. Then let it go and whip for 6 to 8 minutes. This allows the icing to get super fluffy and creamy. 

Separate the icing and place 1/3 to the side to make the colourful mane. 

Start decorating by placing a bit of icing on you cake stand, then take one of the cake pieces that are a bottom piece. Place it central on the cake stand where the icing is. Add some icing to the middle of the cake and spread over the surface. Rotate the colours for each layer and continue icing them and placing them one on top of the other. When you reach the height you want, the top piece needs to be a flat bottom piece. 

Once all the layers are together you want to make a crumb coat for the cake. This helps to seal in any crumbs before you do your final decorating. Place a thinner layer of the white icing all over the cake and smooth it out. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes up to 1 hour or until the icing has hardened. 

While the cake is in the fridge make the horn, ears and colour the 1/3 of the icing. To make the horn you take the yellow fondant, remove some to reserve for the ears, and roll it out like a snake, make one end fatter then the other. Take one of the bamboo skewers and wrap the fondant around to form the horn. Make it as tight as you can so there are no gaps. Also make sure the pointy end of the skewer is facing down and is not covered in fondant. 

To make the ears, take the white fondant and form it into a pointy ear shape, take the reserved yellow fondant and form it to make the center of the ear. Wet your finger tips and rub the white fondant for the ear and then place the yellow piece on to it. Take the yellow sparkle gel and line the yellow part. Take a bamboo skewer and gently secure the ear onto it, leaving the sharp end to be exposed so that it can be placed onto the cake. 

Separate the 1/3 of the icing and place it into 4 bowls. Mix the food gel into each one so you have 4 bright colours. Take a long piece of plastic wrap and forming a line place one of the colours on it. gently wrap it up and cut off excess wrap at the bottom. Repeat with each colour, then place all the tubes together and wrap together. Place in a large icing bag that is fitted with a 886 large icing tip.

Remove the cake from the fridge and start adding the outer layer of white icing. Using a large icing spatula, add a thick layer of icing and make it as smooth as possible. Once that is done, then take your colourful icing and while piping in a motion like writing an "e" make the mane by adding a few on top and then having it flow out the back and towards the bottom of the cake.

When you have finished the mane, place the horn in the center and then place the ears on the side of the horn. Take the gold sparkle dust and with a clean small craft paint brush, or a pastry brush, brush it all over the horn. 

Add the edible pearls into the center if each "e" shaped icing. With a tooth pick draw the eyes into the icing, then with the black sparkle gel fill it in and draw the eyes.

You can place it in the fridge to harden it up a bit before you cut it. or you can leave it on the counter to eat that day. 
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I know this was quite the long wordy post this time, but it was a fun cake and I wanted to tell you how I made it. It tasted so good and was bright and colourful just like my little girl wanted! I didn't get the best shots of the cake being cut, the lightening wasn't the best and well I was trying to enjoy the party!

​Check out my post that is all about some tips on decorating and filling a cake. 

Happy Monday and Happy Baking!!