Candied popcorn is one of the easiest foods to theme for any birthday party. Not only does it look cute on a table, everyone gobbles it up. In fact, I make it so often my kids’ friends know to ask for it. For my daughter’s unicorn first birthday party I made unicorn popcorn, and as usual it was a hit.
Unicorn Popcorn Recipe
I make candied popcorn for every birthday party. I change up the colors and the candies to fit the theme of the party, and there are never any leftovers. In fact, some of my daughter’s friends have started asking for it before I can serve it. I also like to make some for my kids just because using their favorite colors.
Candied popcorn is the ultimate sweet and salty snack because you can be creative and add anything you want to customize it. Last fall, I made emoji popcorn for my older daughter’s emoji birthday party.
Ingredients
- Popcorn
- Pink candy melts
- Purple candy melts
- Blue candy melts
- Pink Sixlets*
- Purple Sixlets*
- Blue Sixlets*
*You can buy Sixlets in individual colors, but for the unicorn popcorn the shimmer spring mix has all of the right colors. You will need to pick out the green, yellow and white ones, but it is defiantly the less expensive way to go. Plus I prefer the shimmer to the flat colors. Save the other colors for candied popcorn on a rainy day.
Directions
You can use any plain popcorn you want, but I prefer to use fresh popcorn. I got this popcorn air popper for Christmas a couple of years ago, and it is my favorite. We make popcorn all of the time, and I really think air-popped popcorn tastes the best. So light and fresh. Eat it plain or dress it up, it’s a great investment.
Pop a large bowl of popcorn into an extra-large bowl. Note – do not use your serving bowl for mixing because it will be a mess.
Melt the candy melts according to package directions. While you are melting each color you can add the previous color to your popcorn.
Drizzle melted candy on top of the popcorn, then stir the mixture well. (This is why you need a giant bowl, so you have room to stir.)
Once popcorn is mixed well, transfer to another bowl for serving.
Once popcorn is cooled, top unicorn popcorn with pink, purple and blue Sixlets candies.
Grab the printable recipe below.
Planning a Unicorn Birthday party? Check out all of the details from my Unicorn Birthday Party Ideas post for even more unicorn food, unicorn decorations and unicorn printables.
Jessica says
Can this be made night before birthday party with microwave popcorn?
jen says
Yes, microwave popcorn would work just fine (I recommend plain, not buttered), and it should be fine overnight as long as it is sealed in an airtight container. My kids often eat our leftovers the next day. Enjoy!
Meagan says
How much of the candy melts do you use? The entire bag?
jen says
This recipe is very much “to taste.” For a giant bowl of popcorn, I would probably use half of a bag. Candy melts work best in small batches, so I tend to melt some, cover popcorn and melt some more if needed. A whole bag of candy melts would probably be overkill, but it depends on how much candy to popcorn you want.