We’re celebrating all things rainbow with this easy unicorn cake made from a classic strawberry cake recipe and all of the colorful sprinkles and decorations you can think of…
You may be asking yourself, “how in the world is this a unicorn cake, and why would someone make that?”.
Well, that’s a great question, and technically there’s no real reason other than the fact that it looks like unicorn food!
So naturally one should just roll with that, right? To bring it back down to earth a bit I am sharing a classic strawberry cake recipe with coconut buttercream icing to go with, so don’t judge me too much! Or do, and I’ll just eat my feelings in unicorn food in the meantime.
But seriously though, who wouldn’t love a cake with a little bit of everything on it?
I think if you made one of these bad boy’s and sat it in front of your kid for their next birthday they might actually pass out from excitement.
Plus, macarons on top are always a good idea…
Ingredients To Make An Easy Unicorn Cake
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup strawberry preserves
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 11/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup whole buttermilk
- 1/4 teaspoon liquid red food coloring Strawberry Icing
Preheat oven to 350° and spray 4 (6-inch) cake pans with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, beat butter, preserves, and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy, then add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Once the eggs are mixed, beat in strawberry extract.
In a medium bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Beat in the food coloring until well mixed, and divide batter equally among prepared pans.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean). Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove cake from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks.
Icing Ingredients for a Classic Strawberry Cake Recipe
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- ¾ cup Cream of Coconut
- ½ tsp coconut extract
- 1-2 drops of green food coloring for the mint green icing
How To Make An Easy Unicorn Cake
Beat butter until smooth. Then, add in powdered sugar and cream of coconut. (Make sure cream of coconut is well mixed first!)
Next, beat the mixture at medium speed for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add in coconut extract and green food coloring, and continue to blend until the color is even.
Once fully mixed, lightly frost in between each of the four cake layers, then covering the rest of the cake.
How To Decorate An Easy Unicorn Cake
For the toppings, we used pink ganache made with hot pink melting chocolates and heavy cream (or you can use this tutorial), poured it over the top.
Then, add multicolored meringues, macarons, star sprinkles, chocolate shards, lemon drops, and pink chocolate perils.
We created this easy unicorn cake color concoction with Monica from Paper Flour Ink, and if you’re in Houston, be sure to call her up to snag one of these beauties!
I’m about to make this cake for a friend’s bIrthday and i can’t wait! Quick question- salted or unsalted butter in your cake recipe?
We used unsalted! :)
I made this cake using 2 9inch pans, baked for about 25-30 minutes. The cake is really good and moist. I also added 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. As for the icing, I must confess I did not like it very much. I guess I am not a fan of the flavor imparted by the coconut cream in the icing. The icing also was a bit too creamy. I certainly will make cake again but instead use a cream cheese icing. I am thinking this cake is versatile in that one could replace the strawberry jam with other flavors such as apricot. Thanks for sharing this wonderful cake recipe.
Hi! Quick question- did you use salted or unsalted butter for the cake?
We used unsalted :)
Ahhhh that is so pretty!! I need to try this “unicorn cake” idea, it sounds like so much fun :)
OMG! Love, love, love!! :) So pretty and colorful!
What on earth is a “chocolate peril”? Google was stumped.
The sprinkles are diet, right?
Amaizing!
OMG this cake is EVERYTHING…Now I just need an occasion to make it! WOW… just WOW.
This is the most magical cake I think I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m pretty sure my inner child would have her jaw on the floor in amazement if you put this in front of me, so you’ll definitely get no judgment from this neck of the woods!
This is so fun! The photos are beautiful! And of course there’s macarons! :)
Christine | http://www.DimesandDonuts.com
Looks magically amazing!
Carrie
www.wearwherwell.com
This is just so stunning!! Love the colours and how magical it looks.
looks so yum, I have to it a try!!! Thanks for sharing!
xoxo, Christelle
www.lipleblog.com
Looks awesome! I love anything with “Unicorn” in it.
WOW!….cant stop staring at this as I sit here drooling
Big mistake not having Monica make the cake for Isla’s party on Saturday. BUT I am using your edible confetti cake idea, so let’s just pray it all works out :)
Those tie-dyed meringues are my favorite part of the cake! Such a great idea, thanks for sharing :)
xx Hannah // TheCheapishly.com
Oh! This looks so cute, so colourful! So delicious! I love the photos!
This is amazing! I love all of the colors :)
This is AMAZING! Pinned! Adore every detail. I love following Katherine on IG.