These colorful unicorn bars are soft, buttery funfetti sugar cookie bars loaded with sprinkles and topped with swirls of creamy homemade frosting. All you need is one bowl and a spoon.
Colder weather is my excuse to comfort bake: Fun, easy baking recipes that are guaranteed to brighten my day. And if there was ever a dessert designed for happiness and parties, it’s these buttery, sprinkle-filled unicorn bars. The base is my sugar cookie bars crossed with confetti cake. They’re decorated with fluffy blue clouds of creamy frosting and more sprinkles (I recommend a heavy hand).
Why unicorns? The Unicorn and Rainbows cupcake from Baked and Wired in Washington, DC inspired this recipe. It’s their version of confetti cupcakes, and one of my favorites ever. Definitely get one if you find yourself in DC! In the meantime, I’ll show you how to recreate the funfetti flavors in these homemade unicorn cookie bars.
These would be perfect for a unicorn-themed party or birthday dessert. And let’s be honest. There’s no better treat to enjoy with a mug of unicorn hot chocolate!
What Makes These Unicorn Cookie Bars a Must-Bake
- Melted butter in the dough makes it easy to bring together with or without a mixer.
- No baking soda keeps the cookie bars dense and chewy. They bake nice and even.
- Enjoy them frosted or unfrosted. Everyone loves these soft and chewy funfetti cookie bars, and they’re delicious on their own. But, as always, everything is better with frosting!
- They slice like a dream and will be gone in a flash. And if you do have leftovers, these frosted unicorn bars store well for days.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Here are the ingredients needed to make these magical unicorn bars from scratch. See the recipe card for the exact measurements and recipe details.
- Butter – I use salted butter, but you can use unsalted if you’d like. This recipe will also work with shortening to make the bars dairy-free.
- Sugar – Granulated sugar is best, or light brown sugar.
- Vanilla – These funfetti unicorn bars are one of my only exceptions to using pure vanilla extract. While the flavor is always better with real vanilla, these turn out great with artificial vanilla for that old-fashioned “birthday cake” flavor, too.
- Eggs – Bringing these to room temperature makes them easier to combine with the dough.
- Flour – I recommend all-purpose as I haven’t tested this recipe with alternative flours. Spoon and level the flour or measure using a kitchen scale. If you scoop directly from the bag, you’ll end up with too much.
- Sprinkles – The best sprinkles for baking are rainbow jimmies (rods) or quins (small flat shapes). Non-pareils, the tiny round balls, tend to bleed their color into the dough.
- Frosting – You can use your favorite homemade or store-bought frosting here. I use an adaptation of my vanilla frosting made with room-temperature butter, powdered sugar, and milk (or heavy cream). I skip the vanilla in this version and leave the sweet flavor as-is.
- Food Coloring – I opted to color my frosting light blue, but any color goes! Gel food colors offer the best, brightest colors without watering down the frosting like liquid food dyes tend to do. A little goes a long way. Top your unicorn bars with additional sprinkles, too. I include more decorating ideas below.
How to Make Unicorn Bars
Whenever I find myself craving sunshine and rainbows, I pull the giant jar of sprinkles from my pantry and make unicorn bars. (Doesn’t everyone have an emergency sprinkle stash in their cupboard?) It’s a huge bonus that the steps to make these are very easy:
- Mix the dough. Start by creaming the butter and sugar together, then add the vanilla, eggs, and salt. Mix until smooth. Next, fold in the flour, followed by the sprinkles. Try not to overmix.
- Bake. Spread the dough into a greased and lined 9×13 pan. Then, bake the bars at 350ºF for 25-30 minutes, until they’re just set at the edges. The bars will look underdone when they come out of the oven, but don’t worry. They set up as they cool.
Frosting the Bars
- Make the frosting. Meanwhile, beat the butter, then slowly add the powdered sugar and milk to make the frosting. Once the frosting is smooth and creamy, mix in 1-2 drops of your choice of food coloring.
- Decorate the bars. Lastly, pipe or spread the frosting evenly over your cooled funfetti bars. Decorate with extra sprinkles if you’d like, and enjoy!
Tips for Decorating Your Unicorn Bars
- Adjust the frosting consistency. If your frosting is too stiff, add more milk, one spoonful at a time, until you reach your desired consistency. If it’s too loose, you can add a little more powdered sugar.
- Use piping tips. These unicorn bars are irresistible smothered with frosting, but piping the frosting creates a fancier finish. I use a large round 1A tip from Wilton.
- Double the frosting. If you plan on piping frosting swirls as you see in the photos, you may need to increase or double the amount of frosting in the recipe. Piping always uses more frosting than if you were to simply spread it over the bars.
- Funfetti frosting. For even more rainbow sprinkle magic, fold extra sprinkles into your frosting or make party frosting instead.
- Different flavors. Top your bars with pretty pink strawberry frosting, meringue-style marshmallow frosting, or even chocolate frosting.
Recipe FAQ
The number one cause of dense, tough sugar cookie bars is overmixing. Take care that you don’t mix too much after adding the flour.
Dry, crumbly cookie bars are likely the result of overbaking. These are meant to be soft-baked, so they should be just set at the edges. If your bars are brown all over, they’re overbaked.
If you double the recipe, you can bake these bars in a 11×17½-inch cookie sheet.
Storage
- Keep them airtight. I store these unicorn bars airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days, but you could store them in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Freeze. I recommend freezing these bars without the icing whenever possible. Double-wrap the cooled, unfrosted cookie bars in plastic wrap and freeze them for up to 2 months. Thaw them fully to room temperature before you frost them.
More Sprinkle Dessert Recipes
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
Unicorn bars are such a fun, easy dessert! They’re buttery, soft-baked sugar cookie bars loaded with funfetti sprinkles and frosted with colorful, creamy icing. No mixer needed.
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 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 seem 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 2 tablespoons of milk and mix on medium speed until creamy, scraping down 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 food 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 may 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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Where did you find those fantastic sprinkles???
do you have to use sprinkles? Can I just take little pieces of the mix and color them? Because I don’t have sprinkles.
you don’t have to use sprinkles!
I thought these were too sweet for my taste
Do you have to use kosher salt?
you don’t have to, especially if you use salted butter 🙂
Can I use applesauce instead of butter?
I’ve never done that, so I can’t say if it will work.
Can’t wait to make these! Should I use salted or unsalted butter?
I use salted, but you can use unsalted if you prefer!
Noted with much thanks, Shelly! Greatly appreciate the reply and promptness.. and the recipe! ❤
These turned out amazing- great recipe for my 13 year old daughter to work on her baking skills and she was in once she heard “unicorn and sprinkles.” Just curious- how do you store them? On the counter or in the fridge?
I store them airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days, but you could store them in the fridge for up to 5 days!
i LOVED this recipe! during quarentine it seems like the only thing keeping me sane is baking! and my birthday is tomorrow so i made these for myself haha. they are so good!
Happy Birthday!
Would it be possible to substitute shortening for the butter? I wanted to make something like this for my daughters class but we have a girl in the class with a dairy allergy 🙁
Yes, you can sub out the butter for shortening!
Hi, can these be frozen? If so, freeze with or without icing?
I would freeze them without the icing, especially if you’re doing swirls 🙂
Thanks! What about icing them and storing in the fridge overnight? I doubled the recipe and made it in a 11×17.5 cookie sheet and then 8×8 for the overflow.. I’ll probably make another batch and pour it all in the cookie sheet for thicker bars
Yes that would work!