This pastel-colored unicorn cake is 3 layers of tasty fun and magic.
Made with an upgraded boxed cake mix recipe and a whipped cream cheese frosting, this cake is as tasty as it is pretty.
Cake – 1 box Yellow Cake Mix (just the dry stuff!) – 1 cup All-Purpose Flour – 1 cup Granulated Sugar – 3/4 tsp Salt – 1 small box (3.4oz) Vanilla Flavored Instant Pudding Mix – 4 large Eggs – 1 cup Sour Cream – 1/2 cup Oil – 1 cup Milk – 1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract Filling – 1 box Vanilla Cook and Serve Pudding (Prepared) Frosting – 2 3/4 cups Heavy Whipping Cream ( – 1 cup Powdered Sugar – 8 oz Cream Cheese, softened – 1 tsp Vanilla Extract – Food Coloring in Desired Colors
– Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
– In a large mixing bowl whisk together the cake mix, flour, sugar, salt, and boxed pudding mix.
– Cut some parchment paper into circles that can fit at the bottom of your 8 inch cake pans. Spray cake pans with non-stick cooking spray and lay the parchment circles inside. Spray again with cooking spray and set aside.
– In another mixing bowl blend together the eggs, sour cream, oil, water, and vanilla.
– Add your wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix until well combined and no flour streaks remain.
– Divide the batter between small bowls and add food coloring to each one. Mix until the color is evenly distributed.
– Divide the batter evenly between your three cake pans by using the same scoop measure (I use a small cookie scoop) and adding a mixture of each color into each pan.
Each cake pan should look blotchy like it's a tie-dye of fun rainbow colors. Use a toothpick to lightly swirl the colors together if desired.
Each cake pan should look blotchy like it's a tie-dye of fun rainbow colors. Use a toothpick to lightly swirl the colors together if desired.
– Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted into the center and come out clean.
– While the cakes are in the oven, prepare the vanilla cook and serve pudding according to package instructions and cover the hot pudding with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Remove it from heat and allow it to cool until ready to use or place it in the fridge.
– Once the cakes have finished baking allow them to cool in the cake pans for about 10 minutes before flipping over onto a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
– Allow them to cool on the racks upside down and make sure to remove any parchment paper from the bottom of the cake.
– Once the cakes are completely cooled, flip them over onto a cutting board and level the tops with a large bread knife.
Prepare the frosting – In a large mixing bowl cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until just combined. Do not overmix. – In another large mixing bowl beat the heavy cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form. – Add the cream cheese mixture to the whipped cream and beat again until combined. Do not overmix. – Remove 2 cups of frosting and set aside (covered) in the fridge. This will be divided and colored later for the unicorn mane.
Prepare the frosting – In a large mixing bowl cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until just combined. Do not overmix. – In another large mixing bowl beat the heavy cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form. – Add the cream cheese mixture to the whipped cream and beat again until combined. Do not overmix. – Remove 2 cups of frosting and set aside (covered) in the fridge. This will be divided and colored later for the unicorn mane.
– Place two topless cake layers in front of you and leave the other off to the side.
– Place some frosting into a pastry bag or Ziploc baggie with a corner snipped off.
– Make a circle around the rim of the tops of them both.
– Spoon in your cold and chilled vanilla pudding. Spread it around so that it fills the circle and is pretty even looking.
– Stack the three cakes on top of each other by placing one pudding topped cake on top of the other and the one you had set aside on top of the other two. Try to get them to stand as straight as you can. If needed, place everything into the fridge to chill for one hour so it holds up better. You can also freeze the cake at this point and chill the frosting until ready to use.
– When the cakes are stacked and sturdy, pipe the white frosting around the outside where the middles are and go around the cake with a flat leveler or surface (a wooden ruler works okay in a pinch). Angle it slightly so you're pressing into the cake while removing excess frosting. This should fill in any gaps so the cake is level on the sides.
– Frost the entire cake with a nice thick layer of white frosting so that it is about 1/4 inch thick and you can't see the cake poking through. Go over it again with your flat leveler as much as needed to get it to look as desired. Don't forget to level out the top.
– Place the cake in the fridge to chill as you prepare the colored frostings.
– Remove your chilled frosting and add it to any leftover white frosting you may have (assuming it's not filled with cake crumbs).
– Divide the frosting by however many colors you want in the hair and then add food coloring to each bowl and mix until well blended.
– Place each frosting in it's own pastry bag with fitted tip. A different tip per color really helps to make things less confusing. You want to use the tips advertised as borders or stars as these look nicer than the round ones or leaves (unless you want to add leaves on purpose).
– Arrange each bag once filled and fitted to the side in the order of biggest tip to smallest. This makes it easier to grab and use.
– Bring your white frosted cake out of the fridge and set it in front of you. Plan how you want the hair to go. Do you want to cover the whole top or just a strip cascading down the side at an angle? Most unicorn cakes have bangs.
– Once you have an idea in mind, grab your largest tip and pipe large circles in the direction you want them to go. Try to keep them spaced out so other shapes can fill the gaps.
– Grab the next color and add smaller swirls or stars around the large ones in the gaps you provided, leaving space for the next colors too.
– Repeat until there is only one small frosting tip left and use it to carefully fill in any white spots in the hair.
– Add any sprinkles (if using) and place in the ears and horn. If you haven't already, add the eyes. These often come in kits with the horn and ears but if not, you can mix a little frosting with black food coloring or use melted chocolate.