Zombie Unicorn Cake
The endlessly-popular Unicorn Cake - re-created with a spooky season twist! This Zombie Unicorn Cake is perfect for Halloween!
Servings: 16 servings
Calories: 782kcal
Equipment
- 1 long wood skewer (or cake dowel or straw) (unless you buy a unicorn decorating kit; to hold horn on top of cake)
- 3 small piping bags + tips (linked is a set that contains all the tips I used)
- 1 large piping bag + star tip (linked is a set that contains both)
Ingredients
Zombie Unicorn Cake Layers
- 3 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (or 2 sticks, room temperature)
- 5 eggs
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk (room temperature)
- 2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3-4 large drops teal gel food color (optional; I used americolor Teal)
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting (1.5x recipe for decorating)
- 12 ounces cream cheese (1 1/2 packages, softened)
- 1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks, softened)
- 8-9 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 Tablespoons milk
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons clear vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
- 3-5 drops teal gel food coloring (save and add later)
- 1-2 drops pink gel food coloring (save and add later)
- 1-2 drops yellow gel food coloring (save and add later)
- 2-4 drops purple gel food coloring (save and add later)
- 2-4 drops black gel food coloring (save and add later)
Decorations
- 12 ounces Black fondant (for Unicorn horn, ears, and eyes - several great YouTube tutorials are available, or you can buy a packaged set like this one!)
- Rainbow or Unicorn sprinkles (Optional; I used the FancySprinkles ‘Unicorn Barf’ mix)
- Black edible decorating spray (optional)
- 3-4 Tablespoons Oreo crumbs (optional; for a bit of extra texture to the cake base)
Instructions
Zombie Unicorn Cake Layers
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare three 8 inch round pans with baker's floured spray (or grease and line with parchment rounds).
- Mix together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) in a stand mixer with a paddle (or mixing bowl with a hand mixer or whisk) until fully combined. Mix room-temperature butter into the dry mix a tablespoon at at time on a low speed. Continue to mix until no large lumps of butter remain, and the mixture looks crumbly.
- Pour in eggs and mix on low until just incorporated. Mix in the buttermilk on a low speed. Add in vanilla, oil, and gel color if desired, and mix at a low speed until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds.
- Divide batter evenly between three prepared cake pans (I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part). Bake for 34-37 minutes (or until a skewer comes out clean). Allow to cool for 10 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans. Cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.
- Once the layers have fully cooled, they can be leveled and any caramelized bits can be trimmed from the sides / top of the cake using a serrated knife if desired. Be sure the layers are completely cooled or chilled before trimming. If you try to trim the layers while they’re still warm, they will crumble apart. (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 and salt and beat until well combined.
- Remove about one third of the frosting from the bowl to use for decorating, and color the remaining frosting teal.
- Split the frosting for decorating into quarters and color one pink, one yellow, one teal, and one purple – and then steal a few tablespoons from your darkest color and color it black!
Assembly
- 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 the next layer on top. Repeat the process with your remaining cake layers.
- 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 like to use an offset spatula and bench scraper for this part. Once your cake is covered, place it into the fridge to set the frosting.
Noooow – onto the fun part!! Decorating!
- Slightly soften fondant in the microwave, and then shape into a large unicorn horn and ears. (If you’re using a pre-made decorating set, you can place the horn and ears into the cake now so you can pipe around them.) (I recommend allowing fondant decorations to set/dry until shortly before serving the cake - I had a fondant unicorn horn start to 'wilt' and tip over once when I added it to the cake too early!)
- (Optional - after the frosting had set in the fridge for a bit, I added some black 'smudges' to the frosting with some black cake spray for a messier zombie look.)
- Transfer colored frostings to piping bags fitted with piping nozzles. Use black frosting to pipe on the Unicorn 'X' eye lines. I used a large star tip for the purple frosting and a variety of mostly star-shaped tips, but you can use any piping tips you'd prefer.
- (I started with the larger piping bags and piped a large-ish rosette onto the unicorn’s ‘forehead’, and worked my way backward from there. I like being able to see the mane when looking at the cake from the front, so my unicorn had a very wide mane of frosting decorations and some Oreo crumbs around the base - but you can make it as wide or narrow as you choose.)
- Optional - add some sprinkles to the frosting for a bit of extra color!
- Also optional, but I melted my remaining black frosting and used it to add a few drips to the front of the cake and over some of the decorations for a bit more of a messy 'zombie' look.
- Step back, give yourself a high-five, and admire your cake!
Video
Notes
(Please note nutrition information is an estimate and may not be exactly accurate. Nutrition information also does not include fondant decorations.)
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 782kcal | Carbohydrates: 101g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 38g