My kids and I made these simple unicorn jars for some friends and neighbours earlier this week. We filled them with our favourite treats including candy cane brownies and unicorn bark and they were a huge hit.
Read on for step-by-step instructions!
STEP 1:
Gather your supplies. We found almost everything we needed at Dollarama including:
- Glass jars – make sure they’re big enough to hold all your goodies
- Pom Poms
- Clay for the unicorn horn
- Ribbon for the tail
- Felt for the ears
- Glue gun inserts
- Food colouring
- Parchment paper
We picked up our baking supplies at the grocery store and found crushed candy cane at Bulk Barn. We already had our own glue gun.
STEP 2:
We started with the unicorn horn because that’s the only tricky part of the whole project. Fortunately my kids aren’t too fussy about how things look, so I just breathed into a paper bag the entire time they were working on this piece.
For the horn, take two colours and twist them together. Our clay needed to be worked with for a minute or so first, to warm it up and make it more malleable. But once we did that we just twisted the pieces together and molded the top into a pointed horn and the bottom into a wider base.
Then glue it on the top of the jar.
STEP 3:
Surround the base of the horn with pom poms to make it more colourful and cover any imperfections.
STEP 4:
Next, cut out felt triangles for the ears. You can get as creative with colour and size as you want! I wish we’d made ours a little bigger and embellished all of them with little jewels for extra sparkle but you can customize them to your preference.
Be sure to leave a little extra material at the bottom because you’ll be putting a thin layer of glue on the backside to attach the ears to the top of the jar.
Once your horn, pom poms and ears are glue to the top of the jar, it will look something like this:
STEP 5:
Next, screw the top of the jar onto the glass bottom so you know where the front and back are.
On the front, take a Sharpie and draw eyes (with long lashes, of course) on the glass. You could also use googly eyes or other material here but we decided we liked the long-lashed Sharpie look the best.
Keep in mind that if you use Sharpie, once the jar is filled with treats the eyes will be tough to see so make them as big and bold as you can.
The first time we did this I didn’t put the top of the jar on the before marking out the eyes and tail and things didn’t line up, which was not a good look.
When you’re done with the eyes, turn the jar around and affix one of the ribbons as the tail.
Your unicorn is now ready to be filled with delicious treats!
STEP 6:
For the brownies, use your favourite recipe or boxed mix. Follow the instructions but when I’m gifting brownies I always line the pan with parchment so I can lift the whole thing out easily instead of risking some squares falling apart when they’re removed individually.
Once the brownies have cooled, apply a thick layer of chocolate icing and generously sprinkle crushed candy cane on top. (Do yourself a favourite and buy crushed candy cane instead of trying to break it up yourself. Trust me on this. It’s worth a trip to Bulk Barn).
STEP 7:
Bark is another great choice because it’s delicious, quick, no-bake and can be customized to your heart’s content.
We stayed with the unicorn theme and after melting the white chocolate, we separated it into three bowls and added food colouring to make blue, pink and purple.
On a parchment or foil lined baking sheet, pour each bowl out and swirl the colours together with a knife. This is the fun part!
Be sure to spread it thin. Thick bark can be difficult to eat and result in lost teeth, especially if it’s stored in the fridge!
Then add your toppings on top. We opted for a simple mix of colourful sprinkles but you could go with more crushed candy cane, nuts, dried berries, mini M & Ms, etc. The sky’s the limit with chocolate bark!
Once you’ve added the toppings, stick the bark in the fridge to harden. When it’s solid, break it up carefully into chunks, trying not to handle it too much so it doesn’t melt on your fingers.
The last step is simply adding your treats to the jar. And then you’re done! Your unicorn jars are now ready to spread Christmas joy and deliciousness far and wide.
Here’s a full list of supplies and ingredients:
FOR THE JARS YOU WILL NEED:
- The jars themselves – make sure they’re big enough to hold all your goodies
- Pom Poms
- Clay for the unicorn horn
- Ribbon for the tail
- Felt for the ears
- Glue gun inserts
- Glue gun
- Extra embellishments for the felt ears if desired.
FOR THE BROWNIES YOU WILL NEED:
- Your favourite brownie recipe or mix
- Icing
- Crushed candy cane (if desired)
- An 8×8 inch pan
- Parchment paper
FOR THE BARK YOU WILL NEED:
- Melting chocolate (white, dark, milk or a mixture of all three depending on preference)
- Toppings (sprinkles, dried fruit, nuts, candy, crushed candy cane, etc.)
- Bowls for separating and colouring melted white chocolate (if desired)
- Food colouring (if desired)
- Parchment paper
- A baking sheet
