I want to do the attached photo as a fondant cake, but don't know how/what I would do the rough/sandy texture on fondant.

Any ideas??

at my local bakery supply shop they have texture mats (woodgrain, stars, snowflakes etc) maybe you could check one of those places? if you have one near

Could it be brown sugar? Golden grahams crumbled up? Just sprinkled over the tan fondant? Just a thought. Hope you figure it out!

I did a beach not long ago, used some piping gel and graham cracker crumbs... looks very sililar to that design.

Could they have sponged the brown icing onto the cake?

It looks to me like tan colored fondant with footprints imprinted in it. Then RI sponged on for the texture.

I am by no means very good at this yet but I have an idea that may or may not work.

What if you rolled out your fondant and have it ready to go over the cake. Put a good coating of brown sugar on your work surface, and then put the fondant on top of it. Roll the fondant again really hard to press the brown sugar into the underside and then flip it up onto the cake? You may try wetting the fondant slightly before you put it onto the brown sugar to make it stick better. It may be a pain to get the fondant onto the cake smooth though but then again the sugar would probably cover any mess-ups. Just a thought.

Let us know how it goes!

Upon enlarging it a little, I have another thought... You know those drop ceiling flouorescent light covers? It looks like that was used to texture the fondant. Then the foot imprints - likely a doll? Then Royal and/or lustre dust sponged on.

Looks pebbly like this: http://www.malcolite.com/index.php?id=9,4,0,0,1,0 i'm sure you could find at any Home Depot or Lowes.

I totally agree with you. Go to your nearest hardware store and get a piece of that acrylic they use to cover the fluorescent lights on buildings. then footprints, ivory or butterscotch colored R/I sponged all over. Before the R/I dries flatten the "picks" created by the R/I application with the sponge.

By golly! I think they ^^^^^ are on to something
That's what I would try.

They sell stuff in the window/door section of Home Depot/Lowe's that comes in a roll like wall paper. It's plastic sheeting that you adhere to your windows to block the view (Like on those little panes next to your front door, and keep people from being able to see in.) You can get it in floral designs, etc. I have the clear version and it has a bumpy texture that is very similar and works well. I just lay in on my fondant and roll over it with my roller. Works great.

To me it looks like the texture is embossed into the fondant (like some of the previous posters mentioned), but then it looks like they pearlized it. Not a solid pearl, just brushed it over the top of the design so that it was highlighted. You can see it pretty clearly on the arm of the cross on the right side. Good luck. It's a very pretty cake!

I can't see the picture you posted but from your description it's sounds like something we did in a class I recently took with Nicholas Lodge. We made a kind of gritty looking ground cover around the base of our cake. We built up around the edges with uneven bits of fondant and then took a piece of broken styrofoam (not the kind with the little balls in it but more like the kind you would use to stick artificial flowers in) and smushed it around on top of the fondant to give a rough texture and then used the dry brush method of putting our color on. Sorry I'm at work and don't have the picture here to show you the effect.

This looks like it could be silver airbrushing (somehow coming out thickly like stucco) across the cake. I say that because you can see that none of the toes have silver/white in them and the foot itself does. so, either the toes are deeper, or they were done from a flat angle, which is kinda what you'd do if you were airbrushing, or flicking RI or something on from the angle of the upper right maybe? I imagine you could do this in BC, and then the airbrusher would get more texture to it. Just make sure to imprint the doll feet after the icing has set and before you try to spray it with whatever you decide it may be. Good luck. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.