Green Halloween Unicorn Cupcakes
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These green Halloween Unicorn Cupcakes are fun to make and are an awesome addition to your Halloween dessert table! They are double-frosted, covered in sprinkles, and the ready-made unicorn icing decorations add that little bit of magic that Halloween is all about!
I’ve got 50+ freakishly good Halloween Recipes for you to try out – right-click and open these other recipes in a new tab so that you can read them after this one!
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Halloween Unicorn Cupcakes
The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. I highly recommend reading the blog post all the way through so that you don’t miss any tips or substitution suggestions and ensure that you have all the ingredients and equipment required and understand the steps and timings involved.
Combining mystical unicorns with Halloween is meant to be – what is a more magical creature than a unicorn? And Halloween is all about the magic and the mystery!
I mean, I know they’re not typically associated with this time of the year, but these green Halloween unicorn cupcakes are too pretty not to make for the spooky season!
They start as a box of cake mix which is colored purple (obviously!) and orange – two of the most Halloween-y colors on the planet – and then topped with green frosting, sprinkles, more frosting, and unicorn cupcake decorations.
You will not be disappointed with these amazing cupcakes, and if you’re serving them at a seasonal soiree, your guests will not be disappointed either!
Ingredients & Equipment Used In This Recipe
You may have some baking ingredients in your kitchen already – the full list with measurements is found in the recipe card.
For your convenience, any specialized or notable ingredients and equipment needed to make these cupcakes have been listed below and linked to Amazon if available online.
This recipe uses American cups. They’re a handy piece of kitchen equipment to have along with a kitchen food scale. Having both in your kitchen means you’ll be able to make all of the different recipes on my blog as I use both cups and weighted measures.
- Box of French Vanilla Cake Mix – plus the ingredients to make the cake mix, usually eggs, oil, and water.
- Purple Gel Food Coloring
- Orange Food Coloring Gel
- Neon Green Gel Food Coloring
- Powdered Sugar – known as Icing Sugar in the UK
- Pure Vanilla Extract – always buy the best you can afford, it really does make a difference!
- Halloween Sprinkles
- Wilton Unicorn Icing Decorations – this is a seasonal item so you should be able to find it in craft stores, specialist cake decorating stores, Walmart, or online. If you can’t find it, check out my tips section for how you can make these yourself using fondant!
- Large Piping Bag
- Large Star Tip – for example, Wilton 1M
Halloween Unicorn Cupcakes Recipe Tips
Cupcake Making Tips
- French Vanilla cake mix is essentially vanilla cupcakes with the vanilla flavored amped up. You can use just a regular vanilla cake mix if you can’t source the French Vanilla. I mean, you could make your own cupcakes from scratch if you like and not use a cake mix at all!
- Use festive Halloween-themed cupcake liners to bake your cakes in.
- The cupcake batter is divided into two and colored with food coloring – one orange, and one purple.
- Food coloring is available in various forms. You’re most likely to find liquid coloring in your grocery store, and other types of coloring like gels, pastes, and powders in more specialised cake decorating shops. The cheapest option is liquids, but they can alter the consistency of your frosting and cake batter, so I prefer to use pastes or gels which doesn’t. A little goes a long way with food coloring gels and you can usually get a much deeper shade than you would with liquids.
- Remember you can always add more food coloring if you need to, but not take it away! So add a little at a time to achieve the color you want.
- Add alternating spoonfuls of each colored cupcake batter to the liners to get a marbled effect. Fill them about two-thirds full (or until you run out of the batter).
- The cupcakes should be ready in about 20 minutes – test their doneness by inserting a toothpick into the cakes. It should come out clean when the cupcakes are cooked through. Bake for an extra 2 minutes and check again.
- Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Cupcake Frosting Tips
- When making the frosting you want the end result to be creamy, smooth, and for it to hold a stiff peak. You may have to adjust the amount of powdered sugar and cream slightly to achieve the consistency you need.
- The frosting is colored bright green with food coloring gel – remember my tips about food coloring from above!
- Always make sure that cupcakes are completely cool before frosting them – melted frosting on cupcakes is not a good thing!
- These cupcakes are double-frosting, the first layer is flattened and rounded off a bit to create the base for lots of sprinkles, and then there is a swirl of frosting on top of that.
- Use a medium-sized ice cream scoop to add a dome of frosting to each cupcake and use a knife or angled spatula to level it off. This layer is then covered in sprinkles!
- Use a piping bag fitted with a star tip for the frosting swirl.
- If you feel like you are going to be making a lot of cakes and cupcakes in your future, I think it is worth investing in a set of piping tips so that you know you always have the right ones on hand for a recipe.
- Do not overfill the piping bag with frosting, and make sure you squeeze the frosting down the bag to expel any air bubbles.
- If you are not confident with your piping skills you can practice on some parchment paper first and scoop the frosting back into the bag to use on the cupcakes.
How To Make Unicorn Cupcake Decorations
If you can’t get the ready-made unicorn decorations you can make them yourself using fondant.
Fondant Tips
If you have never worked with fondant before, don’t panic – it is really easy to use, follow my tips and you’ll be just fine!
- Line a cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper to place the fondant pieces on to dry.
- Dust your work surface with powdered sugar so that the fondant doesn’t stick. Think of it like the way you use flour when rolling out dough.
- Rub a little powdered sugar into your hands and knead a handful of the fondant to make it more pliable before rolling, rather than using straight from the package.
- Dust your rolling pin too, and roll fondant to about ¼” thick. Some fondant rolling pins have guides you can use. You don’t want it too thick as it will take ages to dry, and you don’t want it too thin as it will become more tricky to work with.
- If there is excess powdered sugar on the pieces, you can gently brush away with a pastry brush, or an unused, clean paintbrush.
- Alternatively, you can use a vodka spray. Pour some vodka into a mini spray bottle and gently mist the fondant wings. Vodka dries quicker than water which is why it is usually used when handling fondant.
- Always make extra pieces – that way if some break or you have another mishap, you have got backups that you can use.
- Leave the cut fondant pieces to harden in a cool, dry place – do not place in the fridge.
- The fondant pieces should be solid enough to handle and insert into the cupcakes after 3 – 6 hours. I personally leave fondant pieces to dry for around 24 hours. How long this takes, however, is based on the size and thickness of the fondant, and how humid your house is, so judge best if they will hold up as they need to in the cupcakes.
- When making cakes or cupcakes that use fondant decorations I like to make them a few days ahead of time which allows for drying without the stress. Fondant that isn’t dry enough can mean disappointing end results.
- After using fondant the surface will be super sticky (it always is in my experience!) so you will probably have to wipe away the sugar first, then give it a soapy hot wash over and then another clean over! You can always by a fondant rolling mat for easier cleanup!
Unicorn Ears
- The ears are made with two small (different sized) circles of fondant
- Each ear has one large white fondant circle and one small gold fondant circle.
- The circles can be cut using the wide ends of two different size piping tips.
- Alternatively use plunger cutters to cut the circles out.
- Carefully pinch the bottoms together to form the ears
- Make extra ears just in case any break!
Unicorn Horns
- For the unicorn horns, use a silicone mold and press fondant into the cavity. Pop horn out and leave to dry.
- When they are completely dry you can use gold edible spray to color the horns.
More Halloween Cupcake Recipes
Looking for more Halloween cupcakes to make? Check these recipes out next:
- Jack Skellington Cupcakes
- Creepy Chocolate Spider Web Cupcakes
- Severed Finger Cupcakes The Creepiest Grossest Cupcake Ever!
How Do I Make Halloween Unicorn Cupcakes?
Just check out the recipe card below with full ingredients, and instructions. You can print the card out too (don’t worry, the pics don’t print to save your ink!).
Green Halloween Unicorn Cupcakes
These green Halloween Unicorn Cupcakes are fun and easy to make and are an awesome addition to your Halloween dessert table!
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 1 box French Vanilla cake mix + ingredients to make
- Purple gel food coloring
- Orange gel food coloring
For the Frosting
- 3 cups unsalted butter, softened
- 6 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- 6 Tbsp heavy whipping cream (double cream)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- Neon green gel food coloring
For the Decoration
- Halloween sprinkles
- Wilton Unicorn Icing Decorations
Instructions
- Preheat oven to temperature on cake mix box and line cupcake pan with 24 cupcake liners.
- Make cake mix according to box instructions and divide it into two bowls.
- Add purple food coloring to one of the bowls and stir to combine to the desired shade.
- Add orange food coloring to one of the bowls and stir to combine to the desired shade.
- Alternating between each color of cupcake batter, spoon one tablespoon into the cupcake liners until about two-thirds full.
- Bake for the instructed time on the box (around 20 minutes). A toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes should come out clean when they are done.
- Remove from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, use an electric stand or handheld mixer and add the butter, powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla to the bowl.
- Beat on medium speed until creamy and smooth and stiff peaks form.
- Add the neon green food coloring to the bowl of frosting and mix to the desired shade.
- Scoop two cups of the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star tip
- Use a medium ice cream scoop to place a scoop of frosting onto each cooled cupcake.
- Using a mini angled spatula or butter knife, lightly spread and smooth evenly into a thick mound of frosting.
- Pour the Halloween sprinkles into a bowl and dip the cupcake into the sprinkles to coat the frosting mound.
- Using the piping bag, pipe swirls of green frosting on top of each frosted cupcake.
- Place the unicorn horn in the center of the frosting swirl and the unicorn ears on either side. Enjoy and Happy Halloween!
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Wilton Halloween Pumpkin Sprinkles Mix
- Halloween Pumpkin Sprinkles
- Halloween Cupcake Liners
- Disposable Piping Bags -100 Pack
- Wilton Cupcake Decorating Icing Tips, 12-Piece Set
- ROSANNA PANSINO by Wilton Unicorn Cupcake Decorating Kit
- 24 Pack Unicorn Horn Cupcake Toppers
- Gold Unicorn Horn Shaped Sprinkles
- Wilton 402-2110 1M Open Star Piping Tip
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 544Total Fat: 36gSaturated Fat: 21gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 111mgSodium: 368mgCarbohydrates: 55gFiber: 0gSugar: 45gProtein: 3g
This site uses Nutritionix to provide estimated nutrition. Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.
Make It A Meal!
You’ve made the dessert, but what about the rest of the courses?
Here are additional recipes to make a full meal!
- Appetizer: Halloween Quesadillas
- Soup: One-Pot Easy Beer Cheese Soup Recipe
- Main Dish: Toxic Mac ‘n’ Cheese Recipe for Halloween!
- Side Dish: Loaded Baked Potatoes {with Cheese & Bacon}
- Beverage: Sparkling Apple Ginger Punch – A Refreshing Fall Mocktail!
- Another Dessert: Yummy Pumpkin Mousse Recipe with Maple Whipped Cream Topping
There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy – please feel free to check them out too!
The post is part of the Crafty October series on The Purple Pumpkin Blog. Check out Crafty October from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012 for awesome Halloween ideas and inspiration; including recipes, printables, crafts, and more!