Rainbow Unicorn Cake
Rainbows and unicorns are both endlessly popular on their own, and this Rainbow Unicorn cake is just adorable and sure to please!
Equipment
- Small paring knife (to cut / shape decorations)
Ingredients
Cake layers
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened (1 ½ sticks; softened)
- 3 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 1 ¼ cup buttermilk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- 6 ounces cream cheese (¾ package, softened)
- ¾ cup butter (1 ½ sticks, softened)
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- 2-3 drops blue food coloring (Save and add later!)
Decorations
- Pastel fondant pack (or 4 ounces each pink/yellow/green/blue fondant)
- 2 ounces white fondant or gum paste for the lettering & clouds
- 2 ounces red fondant
- 1 ounce black fondant
Instructions
Cake layers
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (180C). Prepare cake pans with baker's floured spray (or grease and line with parchment rounds).
- Mix together dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle (or hand mixer or whisk) until well combined. Add in bits of softened butter, mixing until no lumps of butter are visible and the mixture looks crumbly.
- Whisk together eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and beat for another 20 seconds.
- Fill the pans evenly - I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part, and each of mine weighed out to about 600g. Bake for 30-35 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool 10-15 minutes before removing cakes from pans. Allow to cool completely before decorating – set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired. (This is a great time to make your frosting!)
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla (+ 1/4 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter) and beat until well combined.
- Remove about 1/2 cup of frosting (keep this white) and color the remaining frosting light blue.
Assembly
- Once your cake layers are cool, level them (if needed). This can be done with a cake leveler or a large serrated knife and a ruler. Place a smear of frosting on your cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your first cake layer in the center of the circle.
- Spread the layer with frosting, and add your second cake layer on top. Now you're ready to crumb-coat . If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like – spreading a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake to keep crumbs out of your final layer.
- Once your crumb coat has set (this takes about 5-10 minutes in the fridge), add your final layer of frosting and smooth – I started with white, covering the cake top and about ½ inch down the side of the cake, and then covered the rest with light blue frosting. I like to use an offset spatula and bench scraper to smooth the icing on the cake.
Decorations - Unicorn
- I’ll do my best to describe making the unicorn – since I forgot to film that step. :/ (Sorry!) Start with a pink fondant rectangle (for the body) and a slightly smaller square (for the head). Cut a small arc out of the rectangle to make the feet. Using a bit of water to adhere the pieces together, adhere a small flattened green ball to the top right side of the rectangle, then add the square to make the neck / head. Add a band of yellow at the feet, and a small white tail (see photo).
- (The face details are fairly straightforward - the pieces are just a little fussy to work with since they’re so small.) I added a small half-circle to the lower portion of the face, and then very thin white and black circles to form the eyes. I cut a ‘v’ in a small red circle for the mouth, and actually used that piece to place the three dots for the nose and cheeks. Two small triangles and a tiny unicorn horn (optional) – and then leave it to dry and you’re done!
Decorations - Rainbow & Sun
- The rainbow and sun are both shown in the video! For the rainbow, roll out progressively longer strips of each successive color of fondant (I used pink, then purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, and finally red). Adhere them together with a brush of water and leave the rainbow to set and dry. Lettering is optional, but here’s a letter-cutter set similar to mine!
- I used a yellow small flattened circle and a long strip that I cut into triangles to form the sun – sticking a thin skewer into the base when I was done.
Decorating - Clouds
- I used a clip-art paper template to cut out the clouds (google will pull up about a thousand shape options), and cut these out of gum paste. Once I left them to dry for about 24 hours they stayed up great even though I only used a tiny bit of icing to adhere them to the cake, cake top, and cake circle.
- And you're done! Enjoy!
Video
Notes
(Please note nutrition information is an estimate and may not be exactly accurate.)
Nutrition
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 586kcalCarbohydrates: 76gProtein: 7gFat: 28g
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