At the end of this month I am making a Sandcastle wedding cake for a close family friend. She wants it to look like a simple sandcastle that you make at the beach. I know how I am going to put it together and I will cover it in BC not fondant, but I am not sure if I should cover it with crushed graham crackers, brown sugar or something else. She wants the "sand" look, but I am afraid that whatever I use will take away from the taste of the cake. The cake itself will be white with raspberry filling and white with chocolate filling.

Any suggestions?? Thank you!!

I usually use a mixture of vanilla wafers and granulated sugar. Yum!

What about making your own sugar cookies or shortbread? You could add a little brown food coloring and crumble that up.

Whatever cookie or cracker you use for the "sand", try adding some gold or yellow sanding sugar for sparkle.
I tried to post the picture of my sandcastle cake, and inadvertently deleted it. And now I can't upload it again. I didn't completely cover the cake in crumbs and sugar--I just sprinkled a little here and there for a sandy, sparkly effect. I do not like crunchy crumbs in my buttercream--it's like real sand in food.

I think the vanilla wafer/sugar combo (as suggested by DianeLM) would be the least invasive (or won't clash as much) with the cakes that you'll be making for it. Like with fondant, if for some reason they don't want to eat the 'sand', they can either scrape it off or eat from the inside out.

Maybe it won't take away from the taste of the cake but accent it...

I used nilla wafers crushed up but agree adding some sugar or aprkle would add also to the realness. A shop I worked at used to dry out vanilla cake crumbs and use that

Thank you all for your input. I think I will color my BC to a light tan/sand color and then use the nilla wafer/sugar combo. Personally I would like to only sprinkle it in some places, but that isn't what my friend wants. She literally wants it to look like sand all over the cake. I am excited to make the cake since it is my first "sand castle" cake.

Thanks again!!

Yeah, but not like a mouthful (although, I wouldn't have a problem with a mouthful of cake 'sand')...regardless of what is used, it's going to get into everything (hey! just like real sand!)

I just thought the flavor of the vanilla wafers would not be as much of a contrast against the flavor of the cake as other cookies might (like gingersnaps...nice color for sand (depending on which beach, right?) but would be more noticeable on white cake (assuming it's vanilla and/or almond) than it would be on a gingerbread cake)

How 'bout a Wagner and blow thinned out buttercream and glitter on it?