Hubby is an avid San Dune rider (quads, sand buggy, etc) and would like a *realistic* sand dune cake - He is hoping for realistic ripples & "bowls"...something like this:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.socalfunplaces.com/images/pic_sanddunes.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.socalfunplaces.com/topic_sanddunes.htm&usg=__pLUsJq7aRdbNn3PL3qJmlUwqAdI=&h=183&w=270&sz=13&hl=en&start=43&zoom=1&tbnid=Xfx6in0Bbv81iM:&tbnh=134&tbnw=168&ei=x5ZITbuVO42CsQPakKXiAQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsand%2Bdunes%2Bglamis%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D589%26tbs%3Disch:1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=149&vpy=228&dur=1243&hovh=146&hovw=216&tx=78&ty=72&oei=lpZITc2kLJPWtQO5pPHrAQ&esq=3&page=3&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:43

Any ideas??

Sculpt your cake for the dunes and low spots, making sure cake is very cold. After icing it, use nilla wafers or even graham crackers, after you grind them up, sift them to make sand. After you put the sand on the cake, use a knife to put the drift lines on. Hope this helps,
Amy

I always use brown sugar for sand. With it being moist, i can "shape it" or draw in it. HTH!!

You can also crumble leftover yellow cake from leveling your cake onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 until it is the color you want and use that for edible sand.

@ joycesdaughter111 ~ cool tip!!

@ keonicakes ~ never thought of nilla wafers!!!

This is why I LOVE this site.....learn something new everyday!!!!

You can crush the Vanilla Wafers or graham crackers in a Ziplock bag using your rolling pin, but brown sugar is so much easier!

When I do my beach cakes I use ball pan halves for dunes...I shape them a little so they don't look exactly the same...then I frost them and sprinkle them with organic sugar in the raw..it's the closest thing to sand I've come across...Good luck! Oh and if you need sea oats I use wafer batter and pipe them on parchment paper...bake them for a couple of minutes and stick 'em in the dunes