Sometimes in life you just want to look at a freaking cute picture of a rainbow caticorn cake, you know? Yes, that’s right. A majestic unicorn and a very cute chill cat got together one extra-sparkly afternoon and decided to make a baby. I’m not even going to say who was the male and who was the female. I’m hoping the cat was the male. Let’s go with that, based on animal size and general hopefulness. I guess what happened was, the union between cat and ‘corn was just SO MAGIC that the baby turned out to have rainbow buttercream fur. That is ok by me. I am also very into this idea of cross-breeding, it’s like the inter-racial dating of the animal kingdom. Thumbs up over here.
JK, JK! Sorry I’m so weird. I made a rainbow caticorn cake for my good friend Miko‘s daughter’s birthday!! I’ve had so much love for this rainbow caticorn cake that I am going to add some tips on how to make this for you lovelies out there who have asked. So here ya go!
To pipe this rainbow kitty-corn with its glorious fur, you will need my favourite fur piping tip – Wilton 234 multi-opening tip, mostly used to “pipe grass” – but a magic piping tip when it comes to emulating furry fun. It normally isn’t as large as one’s head, just in this pic. :P
You will need about 5 cups of your favourite vanilla buttercream. Fill and crumb-coat your cake with the buttercream, then divide the remaining buttercream into three medium bowls, tinting each bowl a different complementary colour. A complementary colour is one that melds nicely with the colour beside it – for instance, pink, blue and yellow. We’re not trying to make poo-brown here. Fill your piping bag vertically as shown above – or, you can try the “plastic wrap log” method for rainbow buttercream if you wish! Go logs go!
Squeeze the piping bag so the colours flow together, then get pipin’, sister (or mister)!! For shorter fur, squeeze the piping bag in short spurts. For longer fur, squeeze the buttercream out a touch more to form longer strands. The facial features and ears are all made from fondant. I always buy my fondant already pre-coloured because colouring black fondant can be HELL ON EARTH. Satin Ice makes these cute little 4 ounce party packs of black fondant, perfect for a project like this. Use a small round cookie cutter or the round opening edge of piping tips to cut out eyes and cheeks. The horn is very simple to make – form two small logs of pink fondant and white fondant, twist together, form a point and attach to a wooden skewer!! I AM SO HELPFUL RIGHT NOW!! Oh, the ears are made with fondant too and held up with wooden BBQ skewers! Dinkly little toothpicks won’t do the job here. You need the power of wooden BBQ skewer aka MADE TO HOLD BIG OLD PIECES OF BEEF.
How to make a rainbow caticorn cake: THE VIDEO!
I finally made a video!!! I hope this will answer all of your questions on how to make this cake! :)
SOOOOO… back to the birthday girl … this cake was a real hit, and Saya loved it, and there will be an adorable picture of her with the cake if you scroll down just a scooch more…
Happy birthday sweet Saya! PS if you make this cake, please credit me properly for the design with a link back to this post. Please don’t make a YouTube video out of this and claim it as your own without giving proper credit, k? I am a mostly posi-core person but nothing irks me more than the rampant stealing of other creative people’s ideas and hard work! Stay cool, internet!! Stay chill, me!! PEACE! xo Lyndsay
Shannon @loveatfirstbento
Oh my gosh, this is just the cutest cake ever! Love all the colors. I wish I had this cake for my birthday (it’s tomorrow, hehe, but I’ll probably just be getting an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen)! And LOL your posts always crack me up (in the best kind of way), and then I find myself staring for minutes on end at the amazing photos and just… yea, I love your blog :-D
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Aw thanks Shannon! Wishing you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! ^__^
jo
hey hoping to make this for an adorable 6 year old, can you tell me what size cake this is? did you just layer 3 colours of icing in the piping bag to get that effect?
thanks so much all the way from NZ
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Joanne! The cake is an 8 inch round, 3 layers of cake – yes, I put three colours in the piping bag, inserted each colour “vertically” if that makes sense! Have fun! xo
toni
Hi what tip did you use for this? i have to make this for my daughter shes OBSESSED with caticorns! And this cake is super adorable!!
Thank you
Toni
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Toni! It’s a large multi-opening grass tip! :) I’d love to see your version – please email me a pic! Have fun!
Danella
i might be in some trouble. i showed my daughter this cake and she is begging me to make it next month. Any tips please?
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Danella! I’ll send you an email! :P
Elisa
Hi Lyndsay
My daughter saw a pic of this on my phone and is desperate for it for her cat-themed 3rd birthday party (no unicorn horn required!) I have been known to fail with a packaged cake mix, so any tips would be life saving!
Thanks :)
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Elisa! I’m thinking I’ll do an updated post, thank you and stay tuned!! I’ll send you an email too.
Raven
My 14 yo niece requested this cake and I have to say, barring the insane amount of times I had to go to the store, it came out really good. Would love you share a pic with you
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
PLEASE send me a pic! to lyndsay (at) cococakeland (dot) com! ^__^
Lindsay
Thank you so much for the inspiration. This was the perfect idea to for my daughter’s 6th birthday cake.
I’ll email a picture of it to you!
Glo
Hola Lyndsay :-)
Guess what I’m going to be making?!! Yes, THIS cake! It will be a surprise cake for my goddaughter. Any suggestions you can give me will be greatly appreciated :-). Gracias xoxo
Maggie Romanovich
Thank you for the inspiration!! I just finished the cake for my daughter’s 10th and she’s so excited!!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
That’s wonderful to hear! Please send me a pic! :P
Rebecca | Let's Eat Cake
This cake is so cute! I love how you did the swirled frosting for his fur :) I really to make this caticorn cake this spring as a way to test and improve on my cake baking skills!
Laurie
Hi! I stumbled across your page as I was looking for tutorials for my soon to be 5 year old daughter’s birthday. I am a creative person but a complete beginner when it comes to baking. I have zero equipment but I’m gonna get everything I need and follow the tutorial and say a little prayer, and hopefully my daughter (Chloe) will love the rainbow caticorn cake. Any tips would be much appreciated! Love your cakes, they’re adorable!!
Tania
LOVE! LOVE this cake! Question – the ears – are they pieces of cake that have been cut and included on top? thank you!
Laurie
Hi! I made the rainbow caticorn for my daughter’s birthday and she loved it. I don’t know how to attach a pic here. I DoD have a little trouble with icing the fur. When I put the tip to the cake it all just kind of mushed together. Any tips? I was thinking either the icing for piping or on the cake wasn’t cold enough, or the tip was clogging??? Thank you!!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Laurie! I think it depends on your buttercream or frosting recipe! I also always sift my icing sugar when I’m using that piping tip in case there’s any random clumps of icing sugar that sneak through in the buttercream making! Was your cake completely cooled before you started frosting? Definitely start on a totally cooled cake, and buttercream should be able to hold its shape – if it warms up in your hands while piping, put in fridge to firm up for 5 minutes. :)
Linda
I do not have the large tip (grass tip) only the regular size. Will that work?
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
It sure will! It will just take a little longer to cover the whole cake.
serene
So cute! A refreshing change from unicorn cakes! I will love to try making this cute caticorn cake! Thanks so much for sharing!
Lauren
I made this for a friend’s daughter and it turned out adorable! Thanks for the tutorial.
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
So happy to hear, Lauren! ^__^
Wendy
Just out of curiosity…how many layers did you make this cake? And what size pan?
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Three 8 x 2 inch round layers! :)
Madison
I love this cake and my 5 year old freaked out when she saw it. I would love to buy one for her but we’re in the middle of job transitioning so I don’t think I can afford to. It seems a bit daunting with the frosting, but it does look so fun! Do you have any additional tips? Also, 3 layers of 8-10 in should be enough for 20-30 people, you think if we are able to do cookies too? Thank you!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Madison, I sent you an email! Thanks!
Lisa
Hi Lyndsay,
I want to make this cake for my daughter. All of your cakes are so cool and creative. Can you please email me any helpful hints? Thank you.
Lisa
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Lisa, thank you! There is lots of info in this very post which I hope was helpful for you! You can also check out my cake book Coco Cake Land: Cute and Pretty Party Cakes to Bake and Decorate! Many libraries carry it, and it’s often on sale online. Thank you!
Hannah
Hi Lyndsay! I love this idea! Do you think you’d get the same effect with a Swiss or Italian meringue buttercream, or should I stick to a simple butter + icing sugar mix? Thank you!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Hannah! Yes, you can definitely use SMBC or IMB to pipe! Just make sure you’re in an air conditioned or cool area :P Have fun!
Jodi Armstrong
So my daughter JUST came up with the idea that she wants a caticorn birthday cake THIS WEEKEND!! of course now it’s too late to buy the proper tip online and i’m having a tough time finding it locally in stores. Do you recommend any other tips that might work?? I have quite the selection but of course not the perfect tip to make “fur”. Thanks!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
HI Jodi, apologies I didn’t see your message in time! For the future you can always use any drop star tip to pipe and you’ll still get the “animal” vibe!! I’ve used 1M or 4B before with fun success.
Sian
Hi! Random question – did you put frosting on the back of the ears or just the sides?
I definitely want to give this cake a go :D
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi! I frost the back of the ears, too! Not a random question at all! :)
Laura
Hi Lyndsay,
I would LOVE to make this cake for my daughter’s birthday. Is there a step by step recipe you can share? She is obsessed with cats and unicorns!
Rachael
Thanks for the inspo. Too chicken to try the icing so I did sprinkles instead but it still came up very nicely :-)
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Oh I’m so glad it turned out!! For piping, as long as your buttercream is not too loose and holds shape, you’ll do great with the piping! :)
Leigh
I’m going to try it for my granddaughters 6th birthday.
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Amazing! Let me know how it turns out!
Dee
OMG, thank you for the hints! My friend’s granddaughter found a photo of your cake on Pinterest, at which point I was sent forth! I thought it would be a grass tip, but it’s always good to get confirmation. I’ll post a photo to my Insta once it’s made, and will definitely tag you! Thanks again!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hooray! Wow I’m so glad you found me through the maze of Pinterest links … hope it all works out, can’t wait to see it! Lyndsay :)
Debbie
Hi Lyndsay
My daughter just asked me for a Caticorn cake for her 7th birthday and I came across your post, which seems to be the PERFECT one! Can I make this in advance and if so, what’s the best way to store the decorated cake before the party?
Thank you!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Debbie! I hope this response isn’t too late, I’m so happy you’re making this for your daughter! You can store the cake frosted with the “furry” buttercream covered in the fridge away from any strong smells. Bring the cake back to room temperature a few hours before the party, then add the fondant decorations. let me know how it goes!!
Bev
Live this unikitty! Our design wasn’t quite the same but my daughter was still thrilled anyway! Thank you for the creative nudge!
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Bev, I’m so happy you made it! My pleasure, I’m so happy to hear your daughter was thrilled – love to hear it! :)
Susan
My two granddaughters requested a rainbow bitty (their kitty’s name) cake for their birthdays. This will be perfect! Thank you.
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Susan! I’m so pumped you’re making this! Please let me know how it goes! :)
charcat
It was a little bit confusing-the website as when i clicked on the sight evrything was white and there is a lot of blank space
Samantha
Hi Coco! I want to make the Caticorn cake but unfortunately I can not find the recipe for the vanilla cake and the swiss meringue buttercream ( only the vegan one but i want the normal one ;) Could you please send me the links maybe?
Also what kind of spatula do you use? This is going to be my first time making a cake haha.
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Hi Samantha! So sorry for the late reply~ check out my Blank Space cake for a vanilla cake and simple vanilla buttercream recipe! https://cococakeland.com/blank-space-cake-no-balloon/
-also – I just use a small offset spatula to frost the cake! Don’t worry too much about the frosting as you’ll be piping the entire cake with “fur.” Hope that helps!
Megan
It took me 7 hours (don’t ask why) but I finished this tonight for my daughters first birthday. Turned out fantastic! A little darker than yours but I was really happy with the end result and very proud of myself. Thanks for the tutorial.
Lyndsay // Coco Cake Land
Oh my gosh, love to hear it!! I’m so happy it turned out! :) Happy 1st birthday to your daughter :)