Decorating Unicorn Cupcakes

Make pretty unicorn cupcakes in a few simple steps with our handy 'how to' guide to cake decorating. Perfect for birthday parties and baby showers; these cute little cakes are guaranteed to appeal to children and adults alike!

Ingredients

• 12 pre-baked cupcakes
• 500g icing sugar
• 250g butter at room temperature
• 1tsp vanilla extract or other flavouring
• 4 gel icing colours
• 100g Sugarpaste icing
• 1/2 tsp Tylose powder
• Edible lustre dust

Method

• Knead the Tylose powder into the sugarpaste icing until combined, then take a 10g piece of sugarpaste and roll it into a long, thin sausage of about 4cm that is tapered at each end. Gently pull the ends together and wrap them around each other to create a twist that comes together in one fine point (see images below). Cut the non-pointed end off using a sharp knife to create a 'horn. Repeat until you have 12 horns and then leave to harden slightly.
• Roll out a small piece of sugarpaste and then use a small heart cutter to cut 24 individual hearts. Turn each heart upside down and pinch the bottom together to form an ear shape and set aside to harden slightly.
• Using a fine brush, dust the inside of each ear and the outside of each horn with the edible lustre.
• Use a hand or stand mixer to combine the icing sugar, butter and flavouring into a smooth butter icing and then split into 4 separate batches. Colour each batch with a different gel colour.
• Add each colour icing to a separate piping bag and then snip the bottom centimetre off the point of each bag. Lay out a sheet of clingfilm and pipe the four different colours next to each other in a long line.
• Carefully pull the sides of the clingfilm together to hold all four colours together in one long sausage of icing. Place it in a piping bag containing a large star nozzle with and open end facing down into the nozzle.
• Starting at the outer edge of each cupcake, pipe the icing onto the top of the cupcake in one continuous swirl, finishing at a peak in the centre.
• Insert a horn into the centre peak of each cupcake and then add an ear on either side.