I'm doing a beach scene retirement cake on Friday, and I just wanted to know what you all thought was the best thing to use for beach sand. So far, I've seen brown sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and crushed nilla wafers--I just don't know what looks/works best as I'm only looking at pictures and have never seen a cake with sand in person.

What do you think???
Denise

I have used a combination of brown and granulated sugars and I thought it looked really good!

Amber

I used crushed vanilla wafers for my beach wedding cake and I have used raw sugar and I like the way the wafers looked best just because they were lighter in color and more like sand to me!

I'm partial to the vanilla wafers, they look good, plus they taste good on the cake.

dodibug... did you use a food processor or did you just crush them by hand?

sweetamber.... did you use like a 50/50 mix?

Whatever ideas I get today, I'm gonna try tonite in small amounts.

Thanx for the help so far!!
Denise

Ground Pecan Sandies-hands down this is the BEST! Great taste, realistic look-this was a tip I got on this site.

Food processor-I'm all about making things easy!

Pecan sandies is a good idea too!

I liked using the cookies better just because I didn't want to really add any extra sweetness with sugar.

I love beach cakes so can't wait to see yours!

You so funny!

What they showed on the Surprise Birthday challenge on the Food Network, one guy took some left over cake crumbs and put them into the oven and slightly over cooked them. Can't remember what he did after that.

I used crushed graham crackers. I had them on hand and brown sugar just seemed like a lot of sweet for whom ever got those pieces of cake. The nilla wafer sand in the galleries look better IMHO.
Just my 2.5 scents.

I am so glad you asked this question!!! I too am doing a beach them cake this month, it is a wedding cake and I was going to use graham cracker crumbs, however, I am going with the pecan sandies now, what a great idea, and I absolutely love the taste, one of my favorite cookies!!!! I just love this site!!!!!

I would go with the cookies, the brown sugar looks great but the icing is so sweet you can not eat it (IMO) I did the brown sugar and it was wayyy too sweet, I then used vanilla sandwich cookies processed really fine- much better tasting and looked great!
Tracy

thank you all for the ideas.... so far I really like the nilla wafer look.... but, I'm going to the store to buy pecan sandies now to try that out.

I was a little worried about the brown sugar being too sweet.

The worst part is that I can't buy just a few cookies... I have to buy a whole package.... oh darn..... what will I ever do with all those extra cookies????

Denise

Here is one I did using ground Pecan Sandies for the sand.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=coppermine&file=displayimage&meta=allby&uname=ShirleyW&cat=0&pos=109

I totally love pecan sandies. I never thought of them for sand. Great idea And I am with redpanda make sure everyone knows about the nuts. I am not allergic to nuts but have aproblem with coconut. I was given a plate of goodies for Christamas. And guess what there was coconut in some of them. I tried not to eat the ones with it in them. But I took a piece of peanut brittle and my mouth got kind of funny feeling and my throat started to swell. And that was because they were on the same plate with the coconut So make sure to tell them But the sandies is a great idea though.

I was out of cookies one day so I used cinnamon toast crunch cereal and put in the processor, it came out really good and besides it had a very light hint of cinnamon which always goes good with chocolate cake. It made great sand!

I love vanilla oreo cookies for sand. I did a little dessert cup in the gallery using crushed vanilla oreos, put some choc, sandals on top with a mini beach umbella. I like to use them because the cream between the oreos gives the sand a great taste and a really nice texture. give it a try

I love the toasted cake crumbs it makes great sand AND you don't waste any leftover cake!!! AND its delicious!

brown sugar looks like real sand, too!

Can you use grahm crackers for sand?

I only had cinnamon graham crackers once. gives an excellent taste "surprise" to either white or chocolate cake.

I always use Turbino sugar. It's maybe not the most realistic, but it has a sparkle to it.
I have done a few cakes with it.

I have used crushed animal crackers and nilla wafers. Both create a variation in color, looks realistic.