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How to Make a Perfect Chocolate Unicorn Birthday Cake

December 29, 2021

Want to surprise your little princess with a birthday cake this Christmas season? Follow these step-by-step guides to make the yummiest and most captivating cake she’s bound to love!

With this simple recipe, you’ll also learn how to create a moist airy cake and some fluffy frosting.

Chocolate Unicorn Birthday Cake Recipe

This birthday cake is packed with delightful frostings and is the perfect party delight for a sweet-toothed birthday girl!

You can check out the food category on the Vskit short video app for other cake recipes. Download the Vskit app directly via the button below:

Ingredients for the Unicorn Themed Birthday Cake

1 ¾ cups flour
1 cup dark cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
½ cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs (room temperature)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream

Ingredients for Vanilla Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon heavy cream, or more as needed

Decorations

1 drop blue food colouring, or as needed
1 drop purple food colouring, or as needed
1 tablespoon pink sprinkles, or as needed
1 (75 ounces) tube black decorating gel
4 marshmallows, quartered
1 tablespoon pink sanding sugar, or as needed (Optional)
8 birthday candles

Directions

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees C. Grease two cake pans and line with parchment paper or dust with flour.
Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder together in a bowl.
Combine sugars and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, thoroughly mixing after each addition, then add your vanilla extract.
Mix 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well combined. Mix in 1/2 of the sour cream too. Add remaining flour mixture alternately with remaining sour cream. Do not overmix. Divide batter between the cake pans.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pans before inverting cakes onto cooling racks. Peel off the parchment paper. Cool cakes completely for about 30 minutes to 1hour.

Use the cooling time of the cake to make your frosting. Beat in the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until incorporated. Mix in vanilla extract and salt. Add heavy cream. Beat frosting on medium speed until light and fluffy. Continue mixing for about 3 minutes. Add more heavy cream if needed to ensure it goes around the cake.
Place 1/2 cup of frosting into 2 separate bowls. Add blue food colouring into one bowl and purple food colouring into the other. Place coloured frostings into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.
Place 1 cooled cake layer onto a cake plate. Top with 3/4 cup of white frosting. Place the second cake layer on top. Frost the outside and top of the cake with the remaining frosting.
Divide the cake into 8 wedges by tracing a sharp knife through the frosting on the top; do not cut all the way through. Place 2 pink sprinkles in the innermost point to make the unicorn's nostrils. Pipe the eyes and eyelashes near the upper portion of each wedge using the black decorating gel. Pipe blue and purple unicorn hair at the top of each wedge.
Stretch marshmallow quarters into ear shapes and dip into pink sugar. Attach 2 ears to the edge of each slice. Pipe more hair around the ears. Place 1 candle into the hair for the horns. Keep the cake refrigerated until ready to serve.

Hope you try this perfect birthday cake recipe!