How Do I Apply Ground Nuts Or Sanding Sugar
Decorating By Babs1964 Updated 24 Dec 2013 , 2:54am by mballen60
I saw Alton Brown do this once on one of his shows. He had his cake on a cake circle the same size as his cake layers and had his chopped nuts in a large bowl. He held his left hand under the cake over the bowl of nuts and with his right hand scooped up the nuts and gently pressed to the sides of the cake. The nuts that didn't stick fell back in the bowl. He turned the cake with his left hand as he pressed the nuts around the sides of the cake.
I hope this makes sense.
I've wondered the same thing myself, but here's a thread with some pretty good advice:
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-638211-.html&sid=423d7d245bd660f153859a1f63b3fa6f
I use crusting buttercream and I like to brush a bit of water down piping gel and then grab it with my hands and just place it on the sides. You will have a lot of falling pieces so put tome parchment paper or anything else that can help you get what falls down and reuse it again.
Hope this helps!
Edna 
sure--place your cake on a 14" board--
set your cake on a pedestal turntable or on an upside down 8" cake pan set on a flat turntable--
place a sheet pan underneath to catch the drips--
just tilt your handful of sanding sugar into the side of the cake, the drips fall on the pan, keep turning the turntable--
set your cake on it's regular board--
i don't know maybe--i always wanna be careful to not let my fondant smoother get scratched up--i wouldn't wanna smush it on sanding sugar but i guess there's no real reason not to except for me being a little over careful with mine--
besides, mashing the s sugar onto the sides of the cake with your hand will smooth it out too--
you want it real smooth before you start--
i would not plan to smooth it afterwards--but if i did i'd use a dough cutter or a big spatula
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