You will need the following components: cocktail sticks, kebab skewer, small piping bags, palette knife, larger open star nozzle and a straight nozze.
Set oven to 180C (fan) or 200C (conventional electric) or gas mark 6.
Grease and line 4, 8 inch cake tins.
Place the butter, sugar and Vanilla Extract into a mixing bowl and combine until mixed, then turn up the speed to high and beat until the mixture is very pale, soft and fluffy and the granules of sugar have disappeared.
Add the beaten egg, about a quarter at a time. Mix this in slowly at each addition until all combined.
Mix together the flour and Baking Powder and add gradually, a quarter at a time, mixing gently on slow until the dry flour has mostly mixed in. Do not mix or beat vigorously or your sponge will turn tough.
Divide the mixture between 4 tins and bake for 20-30 minutes. Once cooked, turn out of the tins onto a cooling rack and allow to cool.
Trim the domed top of each layer away to give you flat layers.
Stick the bottom cake layer onto the 8” round cake card with a little buttercream. Spread a layer of buttercream over the first layer, add the second sponge, and repeat with all 4 layers.
Using a palette knife, spread buttercream all around the sides of the cake. Make sure to fill in the gaps and smooth over. Once covered, spread a layer over the top, and sweep all around the cake with a firm pressure, keeping it straight to smooth off the excess and make as flat as you can.
Put in the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes and repeat a second time.
Divide the fondant into 5, 50g balls and colour each ball of fondant by kneading in the Gel Food Colour. You want a pink, purple, orange, yellow and blue ball of fondant.
Using 100g of white fondant make a horn shape. Insert a kebab skewer into the base of the horn and cover with buttercream.
Roll each coloured ball into a long sausage shape about 1/2 cm thickness. Wrap the coloured fondant around the white fondant horn, winding all the way up the horn to cover and twist to a point. Then leave to set for a few hours (ideally overnight).
For a simpler design you can use one or two colours of fondant to make the unicorn horn.
Roll out approx. 100g white fondant to approx. 5mm thickness and cut two ear shapes using a knife.
Colour the excess fondant by kneading in a Pink Food Gel Colour to make a pale pink. Roll out slightly thinner than the white, and cut two smaller inner ear shapes, stick these onto the white parts using a touch of water.
3. Pinch the bottoms together and add a couple of cocktail sticks into the bottom of each ear. Leave to set for a few hours or overnight before using.
Stick the horn on top of the cake with some rainbow buttercream and place the ears either side.
Pipe on the mane detail with buttercream to give the multi rainbow tone effect. Pipe swirls round the cake in little circles starting from the middle. Pipe in a circular motion to create the rosettes covering over the top, sides and down the back of the cake, you can also pipe blobs of icing to create the smaller piping effects.
To finish, use the black buttercream with the straight nozzle to pipe little eyes and eyelashes on the front of the cake to make the features.
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