These colorful Unicorn Bars are such a fun and yummy dessert! They’re made with a light, buttery funfetti base and sweet homemade frosting.
Rainbows! Sprinkles! Unicorn Bars! Let’s all smile together now.
If ever there was a recipe designed to make you happy, this is it. These are Unicorn Bars and they are buttery, sprinkle filled joy.
It’s the middle of January and I need a little magic. The days right now are gray and cold and I’m craving a rainbow and some sunshine. In a major way.
Cold weather makes we want to cozy up, watch Netflix, top foods with excess cheese and of course, bake. I see that people on Instagram are still drinking their green resolution juices and cleansing themselves and I just think it’s precious. I’m sure they think it’s equally as precious that I only fit into my sweatpants right now.
I feel like I have maybe 3 1/2 more weeks of disorderly eating before I really need to start thinking about fitting into my shorts once again. I am basically an expert in diet-procrastination math.
Anyhow, last week I needed a little extra happy to go with my day so I decided to pull out my giant jar of sprinkles.
All the dreary January vibes don’t stand a chance against this many sprinkles.
The inspo for these bars is one of my most favorite cupcakes in all the land, the Unicorn and Rainbows cupcake from Baked and Wired in Washington DC. Those cupcakes are so everything, and if you’re in DC you have to stop and get one. But since I’m sitting here in New Jersey in my sweats I took a little artistic liberty and created these buttery, sprinkle filled bars in their honor.
They come together in a pinch…no mixer required.
How to Make Unicorn Bars
I used melted butter in the dough, so all you need is a bowl and a spoon!
And LOTS of sprinkles.
Just spread the magic into a 9×13…
And they bake up pretty perfect.
There is no baking soda or powder in this recipe, so the bars don’t rise too much…but that also means they bake perfectly even.
Once they’re cooked you can totally eat them on their own. They’re soft and chewy sugar cookie bars that everyone will love.
BUT let’s all pretend buttercream has no calories and top it with beautiful blue clouds of frosting.
And more sprinkles too. I recommend using a heavy hand.
They slice up like a dream and will be gone in a flash.
Your January suddenly got more magical.
Print
Unicorn Bars
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 36 bars 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These colorful Unicorn Bars are such a fun and yummy dessert! They’re made with a light, buttery funfetti base and sweet homemade frosting.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sprinkles
Frosting
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2–3 tablespoons milk
- blue food coloring
- sprinkles for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 9×13 pan with foil and coat with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the butter and sugar. Add in the vanilla, eggs and salt and whisk until smooth. Using a rubber spatula stir in the flour until just combined. Finally stir in the sprinkles.
- Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until the edges are set. The bars might seen underdone, but allow them to cool completely.
Frosting
- In the bowl of the stand mixer beat the butter for 1-2 minutes until it’s smooth. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the powdered sugar. Next add in 2 tablespoons of milk and mix on medium speed until it’s creamy, scraping the sides as necessary. If the frosting is too stiff add in 1 more tablespoon of milk until the desired consistency is reached. Finally add in 1-2 drops of blue fool coloring and mix until a pale blue color is reached and evenly mixed.
- Pipe or spread the frosting on top of the bars.
- Garnish with more sprinkles if desired.
Notes
If you pipe on the frosting as shown in the pictures you will need to double the amount of frosting. It always uses more frosting when you pipe versus spreading it on.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 205
- Sugar: 19.4 g
- Sodium: 40.2 mg
- Fat: 10.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 24.9 g
- Protein: 1.4 g
- Cholesterol: 42.6 mg
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CAN’T STOP OBSESSING.
So, where’d you get the tons o’ adorb sprinkles?!? and your wit, Shelly, is as funny as your recipes are beautiful! Makes me want your soon-to-be-published cookbook! You are a delight!
aww! thank you so much…and you should get my book! preorder today 🙂 lol
Anyway I order a bunch of different sprinkles in bulk and mix them all together to create my own sprinkle mix!!
umm amazing!
Beautiful, nice desert to make with the young chefs in the family.
Thanks!!! I need it! I’m making these today! I’m sure they will not look not as cute as yours! Mine will look like p**p! Lol!!
What fun bars those look like! Love the sprinkles you used, such a cool blend of colors and shapes 🙂
Completely obsessing over these. So so cute. And that sprinkle jar!! I need!!
Sometimes I really worry about myself,when I seen this on my Facebook feed and after reading what the recipe was called…… Please don’t take this as a insult, Please!!!!!! First thing that can to my sick and demented mind was…… “oh look,Shelly did the frosting so it looks like unicorn poop”!!!! WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME? Sorry! I really think they look cute and delicious! Please send help! I don’t blame you if you just delete this and pretend like it never happened,really I won’t tell!
HAHA! I’ll send help 🙂
Me too! Don’t get me wrong, they look yummy and I’ll make them but I thought of the Squatty Potty commercial!
I can’t even! These are gorgeous! Those sprinkles are just beautiful. Pinned!
I am totally with you about the green juice – seeing it all over my twitter makes me want cookies…
Love these bars – been going through a sprinkles phase lately!