Lucky Unicorn Cupcakes
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These Lucky Unicorn Cupcakes are super cute and would be awesome to make for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, or even for a magical unicorn-themed party!
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Lucky Unicorn Cupcakes
These adorable cupcakes look awesome and are so easy to make!
The cupcakes are made using a vanilla box mix, but of course, you could make cupcakes from scratch if you like. Check out my best vanilla cupcake recipe.
Some of the cupcake batter is colored with green food coloring to give the cupcakes a marbled effect.
A simple two-tone buttercream is swirled on top of the cupcakes and decorated using a cupcake decorating kit which contains the unicorn horn, ears, and eyes.
The final lucky flourish are some shamrock/clover cupcake sprinkles!
Ingredients used in this recipe
The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, but here is a brief outline so you know what to expect from the recipe.
I highly recommend always reading a recipe all the way through before starting.
Alongside regular baking ingredients like butter, sugar, etc., you will need some more specialized ingredients which I’ve linked below to Amazon for your convenience.
- 1 (15.25oz/432g) box French vanilla cake mix + ingredients to make – usually oil, water, and eggs.
- Gel Food Coloring in the following color – green
- unsalted sweet cream butter – in the UK, sweet cream butter is our regular butter – buy unsalted. Read A Guide to Different Butters on Great British Chefs.
- Heavy Whipping Cream (Double Cream)
- Vanilla Extract
- St. Patrick’s Day Sprinkles – or if you can’t find them, you could create your own sprinkle mix using Shamrock (or lucky clover) Sprinkles, as well as other green and gold-colored cupcake sprinkles.
- Wilton Unicorn Cupcake Kit – in the US you may find it in Walmart or Michael’s.
If you are unable to source the unicorn cupcake kit there are ways around it.
Check out my Unicorn Reindeer Cupcakes which demonstrates how you can make the unicorn’s horn and ears. For the closed eye sprinkles which come with the kit, you could use a black decorating tube of icing instead to pipe eyes on.
Equipment used in this recipe
You are likely to have most standard cooking tools in your kitchen but I’ve added some Amazon links for your convenience should you need something more specific for this recipe.
- Cupcake pan
- Cupcake liners
- Piping Bag
- Large Star Tip – Wilton 1M
- Wire Cooling Rack
- Electric Mixer – stand or handheld
Lucky Unicorn Cupcakes Recipe Tips
Cupcakes & Frosting
- French vanilla cake is also a vanilla cake, but with a more distinct flavor. If you can’t find a French vanilla cake mix, a box of the regular vanilla will be fine to use.
- Make the cupcakes according to the package instructions.
- Split the batter into two bowls and color one with green food coloring gel.
- Food Coloring Tips: Use good quality food coloring gel or paste as the color will be more vibrant. Do not use liquid color as this will change the consistency of the cake batter, and really won’t taste good!
- Remember that you can always add more color, but not take it away. Add a little to start with and add more to get the shade required.
- Alternate with 1 tablespoon of each batter into the cupcake liners until about two-thirds full to create a sort of marbled effect.
- Frosting the cupcakes: These unicorn cupcakes are topped with a two-color frosting. You can do this in two different ways: Scoop half the side of the piping bag with white frosting and the other half with green, then squeeze some frosting out until the two colors mix together.
- Or, use the double piping bag by putting a piping bag of each color into another piping bag fitted with the tip and frosting as usual. Wilton has a great demonstration video on YouTube that I highly recommend.
- 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 – just make sure you practice with ONE color and not the two mixed together!
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: Leek & Potato Soup
- Main Dish: Corned Beef and Cabbage
- Side Dish: Soda Bread
- Beverage: Luck of The Irish Cocktail
There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy! Please feel free to check them out too.
More Recipes Using Box Cake Mix
Want to make more cakes using a box mix? Check these ones out next:
More Cupcake Recipes
Need some more party cupcake ideas? Take a look at these recipes next:
- Star Wars Cupcakes – Princess Leia & Chewbacca!
- Pearl Oyster Cupcakes for Mermaid or Under the Sea Parties!
- Scary-Cute Monster Cupcakes!
I’ve got lots of fun and easy Cupcake Recipes for Parties and celebrations (and for everyday treats!) 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!
Lucky Unicorn Cupcakes
These Lucky Unicorn Cupcakes are super cute and would be awesome to make for St. Patrick's Day!
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 1 (box) French Vanilla cake mix + ingredients to make them, usually water, oil, and eggs
- Green gel food coloring
For the Frosting
- 3 C unsalted sweet cream butter, softened
- 6 C powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- 5-7 Tbsp heavy whipping cream (double cream)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Green gel food coloring
- St Patrick's Day sprinkles
- Wilton Unicorn Cupcake Kit (horn, ears, eyes)
Instructions
- Preheat oven as per directions on the box and place 24 cupcake liners in cupcake pans. Set aside.
- Make the cupcakes according to the box instructions.
- Divide the batter into two bowls and mix green food coloring into one of the bowls. Remember you can always add more coloring but not take it away!
- Alternate between the green batter and the plain one and place about one tablespoon of each batter into the cupcake liners until two-thirds full.
- Cook for as long as directed or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, use an electric mixer to combine the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream, and vanilla on medium speed until combined and smooth, stiff peaks form.
- Scoop out one-quarter cup of frosting into a small bowl and color with green food coloring gel to get a light green shade. Remember you can always add more coloring, but not take it away!
- Scoop green frosting into one half of a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip, then scoop the remaining frosting into the other half. Squeeze out some frosting to make sure colors have combined, then pipe swirls onto the cooled cupcakes.
- Place the unicorn horn icing decoration in the top center of the frosting and place an ear on either side of the horn. Add the closed eye sprinkles just below the ears.
- Add some St. Patrick's Day sprinkles around the horn and ears of the cupcakes to finish off.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 496Total Fat: 33gSaturated Fat: 20gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 94mgSodium: 362mgCarbohydrates: 50gFiber: 0gSugar: 40gProtein: 2g
This site uses Nutritionix to provide estimated nutrition. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations. Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes.
There is also a slideshow video over on my YouTube channel that you can watch and save to your Playlists for future reference. (Don’t forget to subscribe while you are there!)