What Is The Best Way To Make "sand" For A Beach Th
Decorating By GenLK Updated 28 Aug 2016 , 5:18am by Dar917
I am new to cake decorating. I was asked to make a wedding cake with an elegant beach theme - I have an idea but before I commit to the cake, I'd like to cover all my bases. To make "sand" do you just use graham cracker crumbs? If I wanted to have some stuck to the sides of the cake, what should I use? I usually use Vodka to attach my fondant embellishments - would this work?
Thanks for any ideas! 
2 ways..You can crush up graham wafer cookies/crumbs or use brown sugar.Both very realistic...
I just used light brown sugar and it looked great! I think vodka would work fine to attach it to the side of the cake....
I agree with all of these suggestions.. i've done many of them before..
Another idea is to take the cake tops after you've leveled a layer, and let them dry out, then put them in a food processor to grind them to a fine consistency!
Personally, I like to grind up vanilla wafers in the food processor. The color and texture look great. If think biting into a cake with ground vanilla wafers would taste good alot better than biting into a coating of of pure sugar. Just my opinion 
You could also use graham crackers if you want the sand a bit darker.
I have a small hand held Braun (I think that is the brand) mixer thing that attaches to a small blender thing.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.braun-handblender.com/images/braun%2520hand%2520blender%2520image.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.braun-handblender.com/&usg=__pnzc4FYsuSccI68z6m_EpS5O1zk=&h=160&w=160&sz=5&hl=en&start=6&zoom=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=olRmh6SjqzrKSM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=98&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbraun%2Bhand%2Bblender%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1231%26bih%3D868%26tbm%3Disch&ei=xJjeTaa0OMStgQeu3bzbCg
I put vanilla wafers and brown sugar in the container and then run the blender. It crushes the wafers nicely. I have tried crushing them by hand but the chunks are to big and it doesn't look like sand.
I've used both wafers and light brown sugar. I really like the look of the brown sugar better than the wafers personally. Here is a beach themed cake I made for a bridal shower.
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2009801
I use graham crackers and if I need to stick sand on the sides I use clear piping gel. Works great!
my favorite is nutter butters. i throw them in my food processor and it makes a nice look. plus if they like the taste, even better.
My fav is brownulated sugar. It smells like brown sugar and tastes like it, but it's not gritty at all. Also, the little grains are round, like real sand.
Domino makes it and it's by the brown sugar.
Jennifer
The thing I worry about with brown sugar is if it does get mixed into the cake part, it's will be like chomping down on sand (grit). With the brownulated, you don't get that. It's really cool stuff. They have it in the grocery stores here in Michigan.
Jen
My fav is brownulated sugar. It smells like brown sugar and tastes like it, but it's not gritty at all. Also, the little grains are round, like real sand.
Domino makes it and it's by the brown sugar.
Jennifer
I don't think I've ever seen this product in Canada. Something to look for the next time I go to the States! I think I'll play with a few of these suggestions to see which I like best and I'll let you all know how it turns out. Thanks again!
Since sand is not all one texture - for super-realistic sand I've used a combination of:
toasted cake crumbs
coarse sanding sugar tinted a sandy color
crushed graham cracker crumbs
and a sprinkling of ground coffee
If the ground coffee sounds weird to you (its a very small proportion and hey, people eat chocolate covered coffee beans) you can sub ground chocolate wafer cookies.
There is some debate about whether or not to use sugar in your sand especially if it will be applied to buttercream since it will absorb a little bit of the moisture and turn a bit crunchy. That's a judgement call. But if you're just covering the board, its not really an issue.
I used a combination of graham cracker crumbs and granulated brown sugar on my beach cake.
i am making one this weekend and i used the sugar rock recipe at bottom of this page http://www.earlenescakes.com/icings.htm it's super easy and gorgeous. with no coloring they are white and i swirled a bit of pink in. you can break it up to rocks, pebbles or sand size. I'm very very happy with what i got.
I need to make sand too, anyone ever try cinnamon toast crunch? To me, this sounds like it would be tastiest but I haven't seen it done. With whatever I do, so I need to add a little melted butter so it's just a bit clumpy so it doesn't all fall off when moving the cake around? I'm just adding it to the top of my cake for a beach ball to sit on...
I think light brown sugar looks the most like sand but I wouldn't want to eat it on my cake. I've used toasted ground up cookies and graham crackers separately, but the idea of mixing cookies, graham crackers and brown sugar sounds like it would be fantastic! Cinnamon Toast Crunch sounds like it could be a winner as well. Thanks all for the ideas!
[postimage id="4983" thumb="900"]
[postimage id="4984" thumb="900"]I have only ever made one beach theme cake, but I used the Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. The cake was a cinnamon cake with cream cheese frosting, so we thought the cereal really went well with the cake flavors.
Pretty similar to everyone else, I use biscuits (shortbread sorts of ones) blitzed in the food processor. I chuck one or two chocolate (not choc coated, but a choc shortbread sort of thing) biscuits in the mix as well to give it that varied colour like real sand but none of the icky grit of biting into sugar.
Crushed Nila Wafers are great. With the darker outer surface, and the light cookie inside, they make a great sand that is great to eat with a wonderful vanilla flavor. They are easy to crush, too. you don't need a food processor. I used a heavy glass that is the same diameter, a bottle will also work, and rolled it over the cookies. They crumbled evenly as you can see in the pic below.
[postimage id="4988" thumb="900"]I used smashed graham crackers for mine!
Check for nut allergies before using Pecan Sandies 
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