Who says unicorns aren’t real?
Charm the young and young-at-heart with an impressive five-layer rainbow cake masterpiece covered in fluff y buttercream and topped with an enchanting candy unicorn. It’s magical!
CAKE LAYERS
1 3/4 cups butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla bean paste
2 2/3 cups self-rising flour, sifted
1 cup milk
Yellow, green, blue, violet and red concentrated food colorings
BUTTERCREAM
2 1/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
9 cups confectioners’ sugar, from 2-3 (16 oz.) pkgs.
9 Tbs. milk 1 Tbs. vanilla extract
Pink, blue, violet and green concentrated food colorings
DECORATIONS
1/2 cup white fondant
Pink, black, red, medium blue, light blue, green and yellow concentrated food colorings
Pink and purple pearl dusts, such as Wilton
Light corn syrup
Wilton edible gold stars and gold sugar pearl sprinkles ● Cake layers: Preheat oven to 325°F. Coat 5 (8") round cake pans with cooking spray; line bottoms with parchment paper rounds, then coat with cooking spray. On medium speed, beat butter until fluffy; add granulated sugar and beat until light and pale. On medium-low, beat in eggs one at a time, then vanilla bean paste. On low, in three additions, beat in flour alternately with milk until just blended. Evenly divide batter among five bowls, about 1 1/3 cups each; tint each a different color with food colorings. Transfer each batter to a separate pan. Bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes on racks. Transfer from pans to racks; cool completely. ● Buttercream: If necessary, prepare buttercream in batches. On medium, beat butter until fluffy. On low, gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar until blended. Gradually beat in milk, then vanilla. On medium, beat until light and fluffy.
● Assembly: Place yellow cake layer on serving plate; spread top with 1/2 cup buttercream. Repeat layering remaining cake layers, spreading 1/2 cup buttercream between each layer. Spread cake top and side with 1 1/4 cups of remaining buttercream. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
● Meanwhile, transfer 1/4 cup of remaining buttercream to pastry bag fitted with star tip. Tint 1 1/4 cups of remaining buttercream pink, 1 cup light blue, 1 cup violet and 1/4 cup remaining buttercream light green. Transfer tinted frostings to separate pastry bags each fitted with coupler. Fit pink, blue and violet bags of frosting with large round tip. Fit green bag of frosting with star tip. ● Starting with light blue, then violet and pink, pipe most of buttercreams in stripes around side
of cake. Pipe some of remaining pink buttercream on top; smooth with straight-edge spatula. Reserve remaining buttercreams. Using large metal scraper or spatula, work around side of cake to smooth and lightly blend tinted stripes together at edges of each color. For smoother buttercream, warm scraper under hot water, then dry. Using spatula, level buttercream on cake top, removing excess, as shown. ● Decorations: On copy machine, enlarge pattern by 325% to make template, then enlarge template by 200%; make two copies. Cut around outline of unicorn head on one copy. On wax paper, roll out fondant to 1/8" thickness. Place cutout head on fondant; using knife, cut out head. Wrap and reserve scraps; set fondant head aside. Tint half of reserved fondant scraps light violet by kneading in food coloring. Wrap in plastic wrap; reserve. Divide remaining fondant scraps into 7 pieces, graduating in size with pink the largest amount; tint each piece a different color
(pink, black, red, medium blue, light blue, green and yellow) with food coloring. Wrap in 1 plastic when not in use. From remaining template copy, cut out individual face, horn and mane features. One at a time, roll out tinted fondants; using cutout templates, cut out features, as shown, using round cutters for 2 eye and nostril. Brush muzzle and mane pieces with pearl dusts, blending colors to add shade and highlights. Using corn syrup, attach face features to unicorn head. To add shading to unicorn, with dry, soft clean paintbrush pick up a small amount of pearl dust and work gently, slowly building up layers of 3 color, as shown. Position unicorn on cake top. Using bags of untinted and green buttercreams and reserved bags of blue, pink and violet buttercreams fitted with assorted round and star tips, decorate cake top and side, as shown. Garnish with gold stars and pearl sprinkles. Makes 24 servings.