DIY Edible Glitter Unicorn Cupcakes

I am so excited about my daughter's birthday party next weekend! In fact I am just excited that I have a daughter who loves Unicorns, Mermaids and Rainbows as much as I do!

In preparation for the party I wanted to make these Glitter Unicorn Horns for the top of the cupcakes, but couldn't find edible glitter anywhere in my town, so I said hey "I will make it myself! DIY style!"

DIY Edible Glitter, super easy to make and when you do it yourself you can make whatever color you want. For my daughter's Unicorn horn I went with Pink, Blue and Purple, her favorite colors.

Stay till the end and I will tell you what other Unicorn Party Ideas we will be doing :)

Supplies

Edible Glitter:

Food safe colors

Sanding Sugar, Course Sugar or Light Brown Sugar

Baking Sheet

Parchment Paper

Edible Glue:

Powdered Sugar (Confectioner's Sugar)

Milk

Waffle Ice Cream Cones

Cupcakes

Step 1: Colors and Sugars

I tried out 2 different types of food colors, liquid and gel, both worked fine, but the gel food coloring left some larger colored chunks (see the last picture)

Using the liquid colors makes it easier to mix your own colors, this is how I made the Purple color.

Sugars, if you can find Sanding Sugar use that it has more sparkles, what you don't want to use is your normal refined granulated sugar, that is too fine.

Course sugar can also be used (in Greece we call it fat sugar, hehehe, χοντρή ζάχαρη)

I used Light Brown Sugar, and this worked fine, although you don't want to cook it very long or it will go back to being brownish in color (don't ask me how I know that)

Step 2: Let's Color Some Sugar!

The Pink and Blue colors were easy to make, just a little red food coloring to make pink and blue food color to make blue glitter, the purple was "a little more difficult" lol, not really, I used 3 drops of red liquid food color and 2 drops of blue.

Swirl the liquid food coloring around your bowl, so it doesn't clump up in one spot, sprinkle 1/4 cup of the sugar you are using on top and mix together.

Spread out evenly onto a parchment lined sheet pan

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes, keep a watch on it, you do not want the sugar to burn or melt.

Step 3: Edible Glitter!

After baking allow the "glitter" to cool

To make my glitter a more finer texture I pushed it through a metal strainer, this step was especially important for the sugar that I colored with the blue gel food coloring, not as important for the liquid colored sugar, but I wanted a finer sugar for the ice cream cones, so I did all 3 colors through a fine mesh strainer.

Place the glitter in an enclosed container, I used some old spice bottles I had cleaned out, this also makes it easier to pour/sprinkle over the cone, and it will keep for 6 months to 1 year.

Step 4: Edible Glue

Now for our Edible Glue:

Powdered Sugar (Confectioner's Sugar)

and Milk, can't get easier than that!

for 12 cones use 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, then 1 Tbs. of Milk, you want it like runny glue, so if 1 Tbs. of milk isn't enough add a little bit more.

Step 5: Make the Horn

I purchased my Waffle Ice-Cream cones from a local Ice-Cream shop, they make them fresh daily, but you can also find them in a Grocery Store or if you have the equipment make them at home.

Have a parchment paper ready, drizzle the top of the cone with your edible glue, over a bowl, allow them to dry a little....

Now it is Glitter Time! For each glitter color you are going to use, get out a clean bowl, sprinkle each color in a row over it's own individual bowl, (see pictures)

Allow the Glitter Horn to dry completely standing upright on a parchment paper for easy cleaning.

Step 6: Making the Cupcake

Make your favorite cupcake recipe, for the party I will be making vanilla cupcakes, but this time around I just did a box cupcake mix.

All Unicorns hold a surprise inside, dig a little hole out and add some edible glitter and small chocolate candies, cover it up with frosting, I'm not going to re-invent the wheel here, check out this other awesome Instructable recipe Unicorn Poop cupcakes for detailed instructions on how to make the frosting. I made this frosting in the colors that my daughter loves, pink, blue and purple.

Step 7: Glitter Horn on Top

Put your Glitter Horn on top of the cupcake and get ready to PARTY!

I would suggest to put the horn on just before the party starts, it will soak up some liquid from the frosting if you leave it on too long, (ask me how I know that). Not that anything is wrong with it, it still taste delicious.

Another Note: I didn't really like how the paper cupcake liner's looked, so I was able to purchase Ice-cream cups from the same shop I bought the Ice-Cream Cones from and they turned out perfect, see picture below. You could also take paper cups and cut them down to size ;)

Step 8: More Unicorn Party Ideas!

So in the picture above I show just plain Vanilla Ice-Cream in the cone, but for the party I will be making RAINBOW ICE-CREAM!

*Note: Rainbow Ice Cream was a success, it is really sweet and when paired with the glitter cones it is like to die over sweet, so we did plain cones for the girl's who wanted Rainbow Ice-cream and Glitter Cones for the one's who wanted Vanilla Ice-Cream

We will also be eating some of these awesome recipes from other Instructable peeps:

Rainbow Unicorn Chocolate Bark

*Note: The girl's loved this rainbow chocolate bark, I will be adding more white marshmallows than what I did this time for the next time, cause it gives the chocolate a different texture, also if you make it in the summer be sure to leave in the fridge till the last minute, I had it on the table for 30 minutes but it was about 100 degrees outside and it looked great on the plate, but when the girl's went to eat it it just dissolved in their hands and mouths, but was a HUGE hit!

Rainbow Fruit Stick

*Note: I did not "make these" but I did have fruit in bowls and skewers ready and the girl's and they picked out what fruit they wanted to eat and made their own fruit stick's. This was suggested by my daughter and ended up being a good idea, since I was pleasantly surprised at how many of them loved Honeydew since my daughter doesn't eat it :)

along with Chicken Nuggets and French Fries

The girl's will be going home with a little goodie bag, using this Unicorn tag and inside some of the Rainbow Unicorn Chocolate Bark

During the party we will have a Unicorn coloring page for the girl's to color as everyone arrives, and I haven't decided if we will have the girl's make Unicorn Fizzy Bath Salts or sew a Felt Unicorn

I will show more pictures of the actual Party after it happens, stay tuned and I hope you enjoy making Edible Glitter, what will you put it on?

Step 9: