How to Make Unicorn Cookies
As a guy, I have no problem proudly proclaiming that unicorns are awesome. I mean, who can deny a unicorn's appeal when their blood can keep men alive and their farts unleash rainbows and happiness. Probably no one.
Because of this admiration of mine, I've wanted to make unicorn cookies for a while, but I couldn't find the right cookie cutter to do the job. A typical unicorn cookie can be susceptible breakage due to the unicorn's long, thin appendages. Its long neck, legs, tail and horn can be frail areas to be cautious of when handling. I felt it was time to design a unicorn that would be sturdy enough handle but still had all its magical charm.
Unicorn Cookie Cutter
I just posted this new unicorn cookie cutter in my shop.
My design for this cutter was to keep it sturdy by keeping it stocky. All four of the legs were kept together and shorten for strength. (The short legs also added to the cute factor.) The tail was attached to the body along its full length. The neck was thickened and shortened, and the horn was reinforced with hair from its mane.
To decorate this unicorn cookie cutter shape, I detailed each decorating step below.
Unicorn Cookies Template
Because the unicorn's hair strands and body detail design could be a bit complicated to do freehand, I wanted to provide a template to help guide you during the decorating process.
You can download the unicorn cookies template HERE.
If you have a Kopykake or Pico projector, just print it out (or pull it up on your mobile device) and you are good to go. For those without a projector, follow the suggested steps below by cutting out the template and tracing the design onto the cookie with an edible food marker.
Decorating Process
Unicorns and rainbows typically go hand-in-hand. Therefore, I went with a rainbow color scheme involving six different colors. Feel free to use as many or as little colors you desire.
You will need the following suggested colors:
- Red medium royal icing (I used Rainbow Dust Progel Strawberry.)
- Green medium icing (I used Americolor Electric Green.)
- Blue medium icing (I mixed Americolor Teal and Sky Blue.)
- Yellow medium icing (I mixed Americolor Lemon Yellow.)
- Purple medium icing (I mixed Rainbow Dust Progel Purple and Americolor Electric Purple.)
- White piping and flood icing
TIP: Preventing Icing Craters
Because this design involves filling small sections with flood icing, there's a high chance of craters forming during the drying process. To prevent craters from forming, I highly recommend using thicker consistency flood icing and placing the wet cookie in front of a table top fan to speed up the dry time.
Step 1
Using the template as a guide, begin by marking the body section of the airplane with a food-safe marker. If you’re using a projector, feel free to skip this step.
Step 2
With white icing, outline and fill the body section. Leave this icing to set (about 30 minutes).
Step 3
Once the white icing had time to set, add the red strands of hair. Let that icing set and crust over (about 15 minutes), then add the green strands of hair. Let the green icing set, as well.
Step 4
Next, add the remaining hair strands with blue icing.
Also, fill in two alternating hooves with purple icing. For the horn, add the top and bottom ends with yellow icing. Filling in non-touching sections like this will give the cookie nice dimension. Leave this icing to set for 15 minutes.
Next, fill the remaining hooves and the middle section of the horn.
Step 5
Lastly, outline the body details with purple icing. I like to first outline around the body and the ears.
Then go in for the inner details of the legs and the face, as shown below.
Video Tutorial
The steps above are summarized in this time-lapsed video I put together.
The finished unicorn cookie should look something like the one below.
A rainbow color palette is pretty rad, but I can understand how tedious it is to mix all those colors. Mixing colors is the worse part of decorating cookies for me. To help ease the pain, I suggest reducing the number of colors used for the unicorn's mane. As shown below, even with just one or two colors for the hair, the unicorn cookies still come out pretty charming!
To complete the set, I had to include rainbows and party hearts with bunting (because it's always a party when unicorns are involved). The rainbow was made from a Wilton rainbow cookie cutter. (Bummer, I couldn't find a link to it. I do remember it was part of a 3-piece St. Patrick's Day set.) The double heart cutter was from this Betty Crocker collection.
I hope everyone has a day full of rainbows and happiness! (i.e. unicorn farts.)
