These brightly colored unicorn bars are a chewy sugar cookie layer topped with a smooth and creamy buttercream. You can customize the frosting and sprinkles to your favorite colors!
Everywhere you look, unicorns are everywhere. They are on clothing, school supplies, footwear, and just about everything in between. I remember liking unicorns as a child (My Little Pony, anyone?), but I don’t remember it quite blowing up like this.
My daughter is no exception. She has entire outfits dedicated to unicorns – from the printed leggings to headbands with a horn. It’s no surprise that we’ve had unicorns taking over our house, so it was time that I made something unicorn-themed for my little girl.
This bar dessert is essentially a frosted cookie, but in fun unicorn colors. You can add your favorite sprinkle variety to the cookie base and to the frosting. I made purple colored frosting because it made me happy that day. You can choose to make whatever color frosting makes you smile.
Addie enjoyed making these with me. They came together really quickly, too. We had the cookie dough layer done in about 10 minutes, and I made the frosting as soon as the bars went in the oven. We had only 20 minutes before her online school started, so we felt rushed for time. Thankfully, I was in and out of the kitchen pretty quickly so the stand mixer wouldn’t disturb her learning.
While we enjoyed these bars, we agreed that they could use some tweaking. I thought that the bars were a bit on the cakey end, and my husband said that the dessert was too sweet. Regardless, they were fun to eat, and they were super cute!
Husband’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 4 out of 5
Unicorn bars
Ingredients
Cookie base
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter melted
- 1 and ½ cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sprinkles of choice
Frosting
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 Tablespoons milk of choice
- food coloring I used purple gel coloring
- sprinkles of choice
Instructions
Bake the cookie layer
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease or line a standard 9"x13" baking pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the melted butter and sugar until it is uniform (you can do this by hand - no mixer required). Add in the eggs, vanilla and salt and mix well.
- Fold in the flour until there are no dry streaks. Fold in the sprinkles carefully (do not over mix or else the sprinkles will start to melt and bleed into your batter). Transfer this to your prepared baking pan and smooth out the top with a spatula.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. The side will start to turn golden. If the bars look underdone, that is OK. They will continue to firm up as they cool. Allow the bars to cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, whisk the butter on medium high speed until pale and fluffy. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the powdered sugar until it is smooth.
- Add the milk and continue to mix until the frosting is smooth and creamy. Add your food coloring if you are using it (start off with 1-2 drops, then add more until you achieve the color you want). Fold in the sprinkles.
- Evenly spread the frosting on top of the cooled bars. I find that using an offset spatula is easiest. Add more sprinkles on top if desired.
- Slice and serve.
Eva! All these calorie dense baked goods–you must have a resting metabolism like a humming bird! I look but don’t touch!
Author
Hi George – my strategy is to share them with others. I’m usually satisfied with a taste or a serving. The rest I give away!