This Unicorn Nice Cream is a scoop of vegan magic with pink, purple, and blue swirls, sweet squishy marshmallows, and sugar stars twinkling on top!
Unicorn Nice Cream. Try to say that out loud without smiling and feeling five-year-old glee for a least an instant.
If this recipe doesn’t make you happy then… This recipe will make you happy. While blending bananas and berries into two tones of cold creaminess–happy. While stirring butterfly pea blue into fluffy clouds of coconut–happy. While chopping up full-sized vegan marshmallows into makeshift minis–still happy. And scattering on the final touch, sugar stars of every shade–that’s the happiest moment of all!
I’m pretty sure this unicorn-everything craze started with unicorn hot chocolate. The first I heard of it was in this vegan version of the enchanted beverage. And then this enchanted bark. And then these enchanted doughnuts. And by now you can’t even go near Instagram without being bombarded by unicorn themed EVERYTHING. While I do find the whole concept just as obscure as you probably do, I couldn’t resist a movement that is pretty much pure colorful joy in edible form. So since the magical trend continues but the weather is changing, this is my seasonal summery spin…
This ice cream is nice cream, so that means fruit-based and healthier. But there will be sugar. Because to make it unicorn magical requires marshmallows and to make marshmallows requires sugar. The same logic applies for the twinkly sprinkles.
Pink. The most important color when unicorn-ing it seems. To create this dainty shade of pastel pink, I simply blended up strawberry nice cream. Bananas + strawberries. For a hot pink unicorn you could go with beets or pitaya instead. Or for a medium pink raspberries would work too.
Purple. There are obviously no unicorn rules, but purple seems to be an optional color in the world of unicorn treat-making. But I personally love purple food so I opted to include it in the form of blueberry nice cream. Don’t add too many berries though, you want to keep the colors light and lovely.
Blue. The trickiest of the unicorn color trio, but there are a few different options. You can make natural blue food coloring from red cabbage following my tutorial -> HERE. You can steep butterfly pea flowers in hot water like I personally did in this recipe. Or you can order blue matcha powder, which seems to be making the rounds on Instagram right now. The blue color doesn’t come through very well in nice cream, coconut cream or Cocowhip is best for this part. Plus it makes for a yummy swirl of a slightly different texture.
Marshmallows. My favorite part of the entire frozen magical feast. Minis are the best option, full-sized marshmallows make scooping a bit tricky. If you are vegan, then Dandies minis are perfect. I couldn’t find those at any store nearby and I didn’t want to wait for shipping, so I just took the full-sized Dandies and chopped them (scissors work best, I promise the sticky comes off!) into 4 homemade minis each. A little bit funky in shape maybe, but delicious just the same.
Sprinkles. An absolute must–like the fairy dust finishing touch. And I don’t think you can have too many different shapes and sizes really. I was originally envisioning hearts, but the grocery store had other ideas. These little stars ended up being perfect though, like sweet rainbow twinkles on top. Use whatever you like/have–hearts or stars or glitter or pearls or flowers or the classic jimmies or all of the above. Or these coconut sprinkles for healthier homemade option!
I try to refrain from using emojis in my posts in general, but ???. It was called for.
Unicorn Nice Cream
- Prep Time: 90 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 people 1x
Description
This Unicorn Nice Cream is a scoop of vegan magic with pink, purple, and blue swirls, sweet squishy marshmallows, and sugar stars twinkling on top!
Ingredients
Pink Nice Cream
- 3 frozen bananas
- 1/2 cup frozen strawberries or raspberries
Purple Nice Cream
- 3 frozen bananas
- 1/4 cup frozen blueberries
Blue Swirl
- 1/2 cup Cocowhip ((or coconut whipped cream))
- 2–3 tbsp natural blue food coloring of choice ((*see notes for options))
Extras
- Mini marshmallows
- Rainbow sprinkles ((**see notes for homemade sugar-free option))
Instructions
- In a small bowl, stir the blue food coloring one tablespoon at a time into the cocowhip until you reach your desired shade of blue. If it is a bit too green, you can add a few drops of lemon juice. Set aside.
- Blend all the ingredients for the pink nice cream. Spoon into a shallow container or loaf pan in a few large dollops. Freeze while you blend the purple nice cream. Dollop the purple in between the pink and swirl gently but don’t over mix.
- Add spoonfuls of the blue coconut cream on top and gently swirl.
- Add the mini marshmallows and sprinkles.
- Eat immediately or freeze for 1-2 hours for a scoop-able consistency. It is best to eat it the day you make it as it will be very hard and icy the next day.
Notes
*Homemade blue food coloring from red cabbage (tutorial HERE) OR a small handful of butterfly pea flowers steeped in 1/4 cup boiling water OR blue matcha powder
**You can use homemade coconut sprinkles instead, recipe HERE
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Nope, impossible!!!! I MUST feel gleeful when saying/looking at/drooling over/staring longingly at this feat of unicorn greatness. ? So I’m looking at the photo with the two spoons, and I KNOW one of those is for me… right? #bestieprivileges Obscure or not, just one look at these unicorn scoops of magic have me believing in… well, magic again. <– I guess that should have seemed pretty obvious from the get go. 😉 Now for marshmallows, sprinkles, oh my!! You know I love the healthier option of your amazing homemade coconut sprinkles. So… ya know, when I head over for our inevitable epic pajama party filled with all sweet things FoF+BB, we've got to have a gallon-sized bucket of those on hand… 😉 Love this! xoxo P.S. ?? ? x ∞
When I was scooping up that second dish of course I was thinking of you and only you my dear! Unicorn nice cream is magical, but unicorn nice cream with friends is extra super spectacularly magical? I’ve always thought marshmallows had to be magic anyways, I mean just. so. fluffy!!! And we all know sprinkles are magic in a jar. I got a little lazy with the homemade sprinkles? but I will definitely get to work on that bucket-load of them for our epic partay! Hehe best math equation EVER!!! xoxo
oh my goodness this looks aaamaaazzzziiiinnnngggg!! The colours!! Wow! Such a beautiful nice cream Natalie! I love the star sprinkles and marshmallows on top too! Pinned <3
★★★★★
Thank you Harriet! Not gonna lie it was pretty fun just to go all out cutesy crazy while decorating this one 😀
My heart/brain/eyes are EXPLODING with joy in every way possible. This is officially my new favorite thing ever and skyrocketed (unicorn hopped?) to #1 on my “to try” list. I’m a total sucker for anything bright colored, sprinkles, and add nice cream to that? You don’t have to twist my arm. Seriously though Natalie this is GENIUS and I am in love with the idea of health-ifying the crazy fun, cute unicorn concept. Of course, you’ve done it absolutely perfectly and beautifully!!! I can’t stop looking at the photos!
Lol “unicorn hopped”? I can just imagine that awkward move now! I am a sucker for all things marshmallow/sprinkle topped too, some things you just never grow out of, right??
This TOTALLY made me happy! How delicious Natalie 🙂
Hehe well then mission accomplished 🙂
Wooooooooooooooaaaauuuuuuwww! *heart shaped eyes*
I seriously love everything you make. It’s always either genius or magical. Often both, such as this!
You were way ahead of me on this unicorn trend, but I just had to join in nice cream style–too fun not too 🙂
This is literally STUNNING. No other words!!
Hehe enough said 🙂 Thanks lovely!
You just made my day by this recipe and my dreams come true!
The marshmallow/sprinkle/swirly-colorful happiness is infectious isn’t it!??
I think this might be the best unicorn treat I’ve seen yet!! Seriously magical, Natalie! Such a fun recipe. I’m usually pretty meh about crazy food trends – but unicorn is one I can get down with, it’s just so whimsical and makes my heart happy.
Also, butterfly pea flowers are a gamechanger – a definite need in my life <3 <3
You magical kitchen witch youuuuu <3
Whimsical–YES!! That is the perfect word for it, makes me happy too?
Happiness overload! This is so insanely magical, Natalie! ?✨?? From the gorgeous colors to the marshmallows AND star sprinkles! This is seriously every kid’s dream…and kid at heart. I about died when you went in for the scoop. SO. CREAMY!!! The natural blue color is a trip – I haven’t even heard of blue matcha powder! I will absolutely look into getting that or the butterfly pea flower because that color is seriously amazing. What a fun and genius recipe!! I had to laugh at the use of “unicorning” ? love it! XO
The scoop shot might be my favorite of the whole video! It’s hard to catch nice cream at just that right point of frozen but not a brick, and I can’t say I haven’t in the past microwaved it for like ten seconds to make it scoop more smoothly? The Bournemouth matcha powder is new to me too, I don’t really understand it because as far as I know there is no blue matcha plant? But it certainly looks cool! lol anything can be a verb, right? Thank you my dear?
Oh my heavens girl!! Olivia is going to DIE when I show her this!!! She is a SUCKER for sprinkles and marshmallows, haha and would go nuts for this. Not to mention, all those perfectly pretty fun colors. I have kind of a rule in our house that marshmallows are a very RARE treat since they are so terribly unhealthy and reserved only for special desserts….well, THIS IS IT!! This is like the perfect nice cream too. She loves bananas in ice cream, but I usually make a chocolate version for her. If she saw these sprinkles she wouldn’t care at all that it isn’t chocolate, lol. Love how easy, simple and fruity and healthy it is. I really, really love that blue color too. It is just too pretty and magical looking. This post truly did make me happy!!
If I hadn’t completely destroyed the whole pan trying to scoop and re-scoop and take pics I would’ve brought it to my neighbors across the street who have two little girls, it just has little girl written all over it doesn’t it?! Ha I have the same rule for myself, me + Dandies are a dangerous combo (the rest of the bag is long gone!). I was actually thinking afterwards that vegan white chocolate chunks would be a good, slightly less straight sugar marshmallow alternative too. Still magical 🙂 Thanks Brandi, happy it could make you happy!
This is such a crazy recipe – I love it!
I’m deeply fascinated by all of the galaxy / unicorn recipes that are floating around the web 😀
So similar to the galaxy trend, right!? In fact it’s pretty much identical I think someone just decided to change the name lol?
OMG I love this! So does my pet unicorn, Sprinkle.
Hehe love it?
I have almost all ingredients (just waiting on blue matcha)! But how much cream do I mix in with the food coloring???😱
I used about 1/2 cup of the Cocowhip for the blue part, but honestly it doesn’t have to be exact at all. A few big spoonfuls will work and just add more/less food coloring until you get the shade you are after 🙂
Thanks!!!!!
Will cocowhip yogurt alternative work?
For the blue swirl I am guessing? Yes yogurt would work there, although it may freeze a bit more solid/icy.
Thank you for your utterly magical contribution my Fairy Tea Party Roundup. The fairies wanted me to tell that you are welcome to visit them any time as you are obviously a magical creature to have created such a playground of flavors and colors.
★★★★★
Well that sounds like the most fun party/roundup ever! Thank you for organizing and including this one in it Hanne 🙂
I haven’t tried eating this yet, but I just put it in the freezer, and it looks pretty cool so far. I used “whipped topping” instead of coconut whipped cream because I’m not vegan, and prefer actual dairy. I used raspberries, and I didn’t freeze my bananas all the way because I was impatient. What I have tasted has tasted good so far. Yay!
★★★★★
I had almost forgotten about this one, but its so sweet and fun I’m happy you tried it🤗 Hope it turns out perfect!