Unicorn Ice Cream Cake
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If you have a little girl in the family than you know how popular Unicorn themed cakes and parties are these days.
Wouldn't a Unicorn Ice Cream Cake be the perfect surprise for a special little girl?
Enter for a chance to win a $500 Gift Card for the Ultimate Ice Cream Cake Party from I Love Ice Cream Cakes. Find the details below.
Celebrate National Ice Cream Month with Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes
July is National Ice Cream Month and I can't think of a better way to celebrate ice cream than to enjoy a fun and delicious Carvel® Ice Cream Cake.
Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes are a perfect way to celebrate any event whether big or small.
Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes are our favorite birthday cake when one of the kids have a birthday. But did you know Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes are not just for birthday parties?
Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes are perfect for all those little celebrations we have too.
Just think how excited the kids would be when you surprise them with a Carvel® Ice Cream Cake just because or to let them know how proud you are when they do a great job, get awesome grades or meet a special milestone.
Where To Find Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes
I picked up two Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes at my local Publix grocery store.
I found a big freezer case in the bakery department but also saw some in the frozen food aisle.
Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes are available in grocery stores nationwide. You can find Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes in the bakery area or in the frozen food aisle so be sure to check both areas at your grocery store.
You can check the I Love Ice Cream Cakes store locator to find which stores near you have Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes.
Easy Unicorn Ice Cream Cake
It is easy to make a beautiful Unicorn Ice Cream Cake when you start out with a couple of Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes as the base.
The cute Unicorn Ice Cream Cake I made starts out by layering an 8-inch round Carvel® Happy Birthday Ice Cream Cake on top of the rectangular Party size Carvel® Ice Cream Cake With Confetti.
All you need to do is decorate the Carvel Ice Cream Cakes with pretty colored frosting and some colorful candy to make a beautiful Unicorn Ice Cream Cake that will put a big grin on the face of the birthday girl.
Have fun by matching the unicorn cake frosting to the party them as you decorate the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake with homemade whipped cream frosting flowers.
You'll also need a unicorn horn and unicorn ears which you could make yourself, or buy a cake face decorating kit like I did.
You might even be able to buy the unicorn horn and ears from the Publix bakery when you're buying the Carvel Ice Cream Cakes. Ask one of the very helpful cake decorators at your local Publix.
No Unicorn lovers in your family? Check out the Carvel I love Ice Cream Cakes! website for more Ice Cream Cake decorating ideas and party tips.
Unicorn Birthday Party Ideas
If your little girl loves all things unicorn and you are looking for some ideas for a unicorn birthday party check out my other unicorn theme party ideas.
I make this Unicorn Slime Birthday Party favors for my granddaughters birthday party.
These Unicorn Rainbow Ice Pops are perfect for a summer Unicorn Birthday Party.
How To Make a Unicorn Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients
- Carvel® Happy Birthday Ice Cream Cake – 8″ Round
- Carvel® Ice Cream Cake With Confetti – Party Size
- 4 batches of Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting made with gelatin (3 colored and 1 uncolored)
- bright pink gel food coloring
- teal gel food coloring
- violet gel food coloring
- candy decorations (I used pastel-colored Sixlets)
- Pink sparkling sugar
- cotton candy
- large rectangle cardboard cake board
Directions
- Purchase the Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes and place in the freezer until ready to decorate. You will need to decorate the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake in steps to keep the cake from melting.
- Prepare 4 batches of Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting made with gelatin. Make one batch at a time following the instructions here and color 3 of the frosting batches with your choice of gel food coloring as you make them. (I used teal, electric pink and violet). Leave one batch uncolored (white) to use to cover the unicorn ears and to patch up any of the white cake frosting on the ice cream cake if needed. As you make each individual batch of frosting immediately put it in a 12-inch frosting decorating bag fitted with a coupler and piping tip. Once the bag is filled and closed securely with a rubberband place it in the refrigerator. Repeat with each batch of frosting.
- For each batch of Stabilized Whipped Cream frosting, you will need a 12-inch frosting decorator bag, a coupler, and a large open star decorator tip. (See Notes below on options for cake decorating with multiple colors of frostings).
- While the colored frosting is chilling in the refrigerator use the white frosting to cover the front of the unicorn ears. Use a small offset spatula or a knife to smooth the frosting on the earpieces. If desired you can use pink sparkling sugar to fill in the center of the unicorn ears. Place both frosted unicorn ears on a plate in the freezer until you plan on inserting them into the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake.
- If you have the space in your freezer that will allow for the height of the unicorn horn insert the horn towards the front center edge of the round cake. If you don't have room in the freezer slightly push the horn in where you want it to go to mark the spot before you start piping the frosting flowers. This way you will not pipe flowers in that area because when you do insert the horn it will smash the frosting flowers and possible ruin the front of the unicorn cake.
- Begin by piping some flowers along the front of the unicorn head and along the back side bringing them down the front corn of the lower cake. Be sure to leave some space between the flowers so you can pipe the next color frosting. Carefully put the ice cream cake back into the freezer for 30 to 60 minutes to keep it frozen.
- After 30 to 60 minutes take the ice cream cake out of the freezer and pipe the second color of whipped cream frosting flowers next to the ones you have already piped. Return the cake to the freezer again for 30 to 60 minutes. Repeat with the third color of frosting until you are happy with the way it looks, filling in any gaps with frosting flowers. Freeze the cake overnight.
- Decorate the cake with a border of the pastel color Sixletts or sprinkles if desired.
- To serve the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake place the cardboard rectangle cake board on the table where you plan on serving and cutting the cake. Arrange the pastel colored cotton candy around the edge of the cake not touching the cake frosting (the cotton candy will melt). Insert the unicorn horn if you haven't already.
- Cut and serve the cake. Return the cake to the freezer once you have served all your guests to prevent the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake from melting.
- Will serve 20+ depending on how large you cut the pieces.
Helpful Tips for Making a Unicorn Ice Cream Cake
- You will need a large area of freezer space to keep the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake frozen as you decorate it and until you serve it. Keep this in mind when you decided which size Carvel Ice Cream Cakes you are going to use and the height of your freezer space.
- If you do not have enough headspace in your freezer to accommodate the height of the unicorn horn and ears you can add the unicorn horn and unicorn ears to the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake right before you are serving the cake.
- Preparing the Frosting: You have two options when filling your frosting decorator bags. You can fit each 12-inch decorator bag with a coupler and a large open star tip. To use this method you will need four 12-inch decorator bags, 4 couplers, and 4 large open star tips. Or you can use four 12 inch decorator bags for each color of frosting and use a 14 or 16-inch decorating bag fitted with a large coupler and one large open star decorator tip. You will then pipe each color of frosting by placing the 12-inch filled decorator bag with each frosting color, cut a hole in the tip of the 12-inch bag and slide it into the larger decorator bag fitted with the star tip. Once your done decorating with the first color remove the smaller decorator bag from the larger decorator bag, wash to remove any colored frosting from inside the star tip and slide the next bag of colored frosting into the larger bag and decorate the cake with that color. Repeat until you have used all three colors of frosting to decorate the Unicorn Cake.
- The Carvel Happy Birthday Ice Cream Cake – 8″ Round cake had Happy Birthday piped onto it. I scraped it off with a spatula. You could also use some of the white whipped cream frosting to cover it. Either way is fine. I knew I would be piping flowers over the area where I scraped off the piping gel so I didn't add more frosting to cover the smears.
Helpful tools needed to make Unicorn Ice Cream Cake
(affiliate links)
- handheld mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment
- offset spatulas
- 4 twelve inch frosting decorating bags
- 4 strong rubber bands to close the top of the decorating bags.
- frosting decorating tips (I used a large open star tip)
- coupler for the decorating tip (optional, depending on the method you will use. see helpful tips above)
- a plastic unicorn horn and plastic unicorn ears (I used an (affiliate link) cake face decorating kit that came with both)
- a large rectangle cake board (optional)
Print the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake Directions below
Unicorn Ice Cream Cake
Equipment
- large rectangle cardboard cake board
- teal gel food coloring
- violet gel food coloring
- bright pink gel food coloring
Ingredients
- 1 Carvel® Happy Birthday Ice Cream Cake – 8″ Round
- 1 Carvel® Ice Cream Cake With Confetti – Party Size
- 4 batches of Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting made with gelatin 3 colored and 1 uncolored
- 1 bottle candy decorations I used pastel-colored Sixlets
- 1 bottle Pink sparkling sugar
- 1 bottle cotton candy
Instructions
- Purchase the Carvel® Ice Cream Cakes and place in the freezer until ready to decorate. You will need to decorate the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake in steps to keep the cake from melting.
- Prepare 4 batches of Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting and color 3 of the frosting batches with your choice of gel food coloring as you make them. (I used teal, electric pink and violet). Leave one batch uncolored (white) to use to cover the unicorn ears and to patch up any of the white cake frosting on the ice cream cake if needed. As you make each individual batch of frosting immediately put it in a 12-inch frosting decorating bag fitted with a coupler and piping tip. Once the bag is filled and closed securely with a rubberband place it in the refrigerator. Repeat with each batch of frosting.
- For each batch of Stabilized Whipped Cream frosting, you will need a 12-inch frosting decorator bag, a coupler, and a large open star decorator tip. (See Notes below on options for cake decorating with multiple colors of frostings).
- While the colored frosting is chilling in the refrigerator use the white frosting to cover the front of the unicorn ears. Use a small offset spatula or a knife to smooth the frosting on the earpieces. If desired you can use pink sparkling sugar to fill in the center of the unicorn ears. Place both frosted unicorn ears on a plate in the freezer until you plan on inserting them into the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake.
- If you have the space in your freezer that will allow for the height of the unicorn horn insert the horn towards the front center edge of the round cake. If you don't have room in the freezer slightly push the horn in where you want it to go to mark the spot before you start piping the frosting flowers. This way you will not pipe flowers in that area because when you do insert the horn it will smash the frosting flowers and possible ruin the front of the unicorn cake.
- Begin by piping some flowers along the front of the unicorn head and along the back side bringing them down the front corn of the lower cake. Be sure to leave some space between the flowers so you can pipe the next color frosting. Carefully put the ice cream cake back into the freezer for 30 to 60 minutes to keep it frozen.
- After 30 to 60 minutes take the ice cream cake out of the freezer and pipe the second color of whipped cream frosting flowers next to the ones you have already piped. Return the cake to the freezer again for 30 to 60 minutes. Repeat with the third color of frosting until you are happy with the way it looks, filling in any gaps with frosting flowers. Freeze the cake overnight.
- Decorate the cake with a border of the pastel color Sixletts or sprinkles if desired.
- To serve the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake place the cardboard rectangle cake board on the table where you plan on serving and cutting the cake. Arrange the pastel colored cotton candy around the edge of the cake not touching the cake frosting (the cotton candy will melt). Insert the unicorn horn if you haven't already.
- Cut and serve the cake. Return the cake to the freezer once you have served all your guests to prevent the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake from melting.
Notes
- You will need a large area of freezer space to keep the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake frozen as you decorate it and until you serve it. Keep this in mind when you decided which size Carvel Ice Cream Cakes you are going to use and the height of your freezer space.
- If you do not have enough headspace in your freezer to accommodate the height of the unicorn horn and ears you can add the unicorn horn and unicorn ears to the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake right before you are serving the cake.
- Preparing the Frosting: You have two options when filling your frosting decorator bags. You can fit each 12-inch decorator bag with a coupler and a large open star tip. To use this method you will need four 12-inch decorator bags, 4 couplers, and 4 large open star tips. Or you can use four 12 inch decorator bags for each color of frosting and use a 14 or 16-inch decorating bag fitted with a large coupler and one large open star decorator tip. You will then pipe each color of frosting by placing the 12-inch filled decorator bag with each frosting color, cut a hole in the tip of the 12-inch bag and slide it into the larger decorator bag fitted with the star tip. Once your done decorating with the first color remove the smaller decorator bag from the larger decorator bag, wash to remove any colored frosting from inside the star tip and slide the next bag of colored frosting into the larger bag and decorate the cake with that color. Repeat until you have used all three colors of frosting to decorate the Unicorn Cake.
- The Carvel Happy Birthday Ice Cream Cake – 8″ Round cake had Happy Birthday piped onto it. I scraped it off with a spatula. You could also use some of the white whipped cream frosting to cover it. Either way is fine. I knew I would be piping flowers over the area where I scraped off the piping gel so I didn't add more frosting to cover the smears.
- handheld or stand mixer with the whisk attachment
- small offset spatula
- large offset spatula
- 4 twelve inch frosting decorating bags
- 4 strong rubber bands to close the top of the decorating bags.
- frosting decorating tips (I used a large open star tip)
- coupler for the decorating tip (optional, depending on the method you will use. see helpful tips above)
- a plastic unicorn horn and plastic unicorn ears (I used a cake face decorating kit that came with both)
- a large rectangle cake board (optional)
