Unicorn Birthday Party part one - Nutella buttercream unicorn cake

Being a mom hurtles you through time at a speed that is impossible to put into words. Here I sit, writing a blog post about my now three year old's birthday party. How did this happen!?

Juliet made it clear in no uncertain terms that she wanted a unicorn party. I actually tried many times to change her mind to a Teddy Bear Picnic party (so cute right?! She said no. So guess what her sister's birthday theme will be!)

Luckily for Juliet, unicorns are pretty trendy right now. There was no shortage of unicorn ideas on the internet to get our creative juices flowing. I'll break down a few of my favorite unicorn ideas we used for her party over the next few days.

First, the cake.

Unicorn cakes are everywhere. These cakes look daunting, but are actually extremely easy to make.With a few simple tricks I promise you, you can make a great looking unicorn cake too!

Unicorn cakes need to be tall. This means several layers of cake, so invite all of your neighbors over when you attempt one. I tried to find 7" baking pans to keep the size smaller, but I swear they don't exist anywhere. I found a 6" but it was way too small. I ended up using an 8" pan which was fine, but it still took 3 boxes of cake mix to get the cake tall enough (5 layers.)

Before baking the layers, I separated the mix into 4 bowls and dyed three of them (pink, blue and purple). I swirled the colors together with the white mix, to get a cute marbled effect that I of course forgot to take pictures of upon cutting the cake. 

Have you ever built a layered cake before? If not, the main trick is to let your cakes cool completely, then slice the tops off flat so they don't make a dome when they are stacked. That being said, I am in no way qualified to explain this whole process to you. Google is your friend. 

Aren't the swirls pretty?! It looked even cuter when the cake was cut. 

In between each later I slathered on buttercream, then when the cake was fully built, I did a crumb coat. 

Let's talk about the icing for a second - Nutella buttercream. Can you even?! It was so good. And SO easy if you're into being lazy. Here's how to make it:

• drive to bulk barn
• buy a container of buttercream
• drive home
• using a hand mixer, mix in a big scoop of nutella
• taste it. If it needs more Nutella, add more. 

Guys. SO good.

After the crumb coat sits for 30 minutes, slather on more icing until the cake is smooth. 

Now all that's left to do is make a horn and ears, and add in some flowers. Some fancy people make flowers using icing or fondant, but I just grabbed a bunch from Dollarama and stuck them in. #win

The horn was made using fondant. It's a skewer with two snakes of fondant wrapped around it. When making the snakes, have them get skinnier on one end. Then the skinny ends will become the top of the horn!

The ears were fondant rolled flat then cut into triangle ear shapes. The pink inner ear was attached to the white outer ear using a dab of water, and stuck into the cake using skewers. Once you've stuck in the horn and ears, use an icing pen to draw on some eyes, and you're done!

My daughter LOVED the cake. I kind of can't believe how simple it was to make, especially since the payoff was so great. If you're on the fence about making one, I really recommend giving it a shot. And if you find a 6" pan anywhere, hit a girl up, because this cake was huge.

I'll be back soon with more of the unicorn projects we did for her party!

Have you tried this project? If so, let me know in the comments!