How to Make a Unicorn Horn Cake Topper {Video Tutorial}

With all of the Unicorn Cakes that have taken the cake world by storm, I thought this would be a useful video for you: How to Make a Unicorn Horn Cake Topper.

I don’t have a full tutorial or the step-by-step pics of this process but hopefully the video will give you all the details you need. If not, I’ll add some written instructions along with a list of the supplies I use!

Here’s the video:

How to Make a Unicorn Horn Cake Topper

So here’s what you’ll need:

• Gum Paste : at least 5 oz. of gum paste. I started with 9 oz. but if I remember correctly, by the time I cut off excess, I was down to around 4-5 oz for the unicorn horn  It never hurts to have extra to start though.
• Shortening and mat to roll on
• Bamboo Skewer (or other skinny dowel rod or lollipop stick). I like bamboo skewers because they’re long and super skinny – perfect for this application.
• Styrofoam cake dummy – to dry the horn.
• Lemon Extract
• Gold Luster Dust
• Small Paint Brush & Small Bowl

For almost all of my unicorn cakes. I’ve made the horns around 6″ tall.  I’ve seen them much taller but they look disproportionate on the cakes (in my opinion).

So… here’s the general outline of how to make a unicorn horn cake topper:

1. Knead 5-9 oz of gum paste until soft.
2. Lightly coat a mat with shortening, then begin rolling the gum paste out into a long rope – tapered from small on one end to around 1/2″ on the other end.
3. Starting with the thick end, begin in the middle of a skewer and wrap it around all the way to the top. You may have to slide the gum paste up or down on the skewer to get it placed properly.  I pinch the end off and use the last bit to cover the top of the skewer so it’s not seen.
4. Stand the horn up on a styro block to dry. I had to add an extra loop of gum paste on the bottom so the horn wouldn’t slide down when drying.
5. When it’s hardened (at least overnight), mix luster dust and lemon extract into a thick paint.
6. Paint the horn until it’s well covered and allow to dry again (this usually only takes 20-30 minutes).
7. It’s ready to go!

More details on the Unicorn Cake…

The bottom tier was three 8″ layers of vanilla cake and the top tier was two 5″ layers of vanilla cake.  The cakes were baked in my favorite Magic Line pans.  It was filled and frosted with vanilla buttercream.

For the bottom tier, I normally would’ve used homemade marshmallow fondant but I had some extra Baby Blue Satin Ice from another project so I decided to use it. The top tier was homemade marshmallow fondant.

All of the decorations were a mix of Satin Ice fondant and homemade marshmallow fondant, depending on the color. I used gold paint made from Lemon Extract and Gold Luster Dust to do the ears, eyes and horn (as mentioned above).

Unlike most unicorn cakes these days, this design did not have buttercream roses for the mane. Instead, I used ribbon roses!

You can see a tutorial here on how I made the ribbon roses used for the unicorn’s mane and accents on the bottom of each tier.   Also, I used this First Impressions pearl mold for the pearl border! That’s one of my most used and loved “tools”. A pearl border is almost always a great finish to a cake!

For the board – I covered it in pink glitter paper, then wrapped with a fitting rainbow ribbon. I have a tutorial here for how I do it!

And last but not least, I have these cookie cutters that I use for clouds!  They’re the perfect size for so many designs and I’ve used them countless times!

OOoh, I almost forgot.

The Buttercream Ruffles Smash Cake!

This was a little 5″ round cake that I torted and filled with vanilla buttercream. Then I piped on the ruffles with a #104 tip and added matching ribbon roses to coordinate it with the Unicorn Cake!

Alrighty – that’s all I’ve got for you. Be sure to check out this post for lots of other unicorn cakes I’ve done (scroll to the bottom!)!

Have questions? Leave me a comment or shoot me an email!

Happy Caking!

Rose