Hello all,

My neighbor/friend wants me to do her wedding cake and showed me a photo of a cake she liked. She wants to beachy/shell cake, and this one appears to have coarse granulated sugar coating the outside of the cake, as if it had been applied to the buttercream while it was still moist. It gives it a sand effect, but not sand as though you had used crushed cookies or crakers, more subtle than that.
Has anyone ever used this effect? I've never heard it mentioned. It looks like it might be as easy, but I'm wondering if there are any tricks and if a special kind of sugar needs to be used.

thanks!
Laura

I have used granulated brown sugar before. Some of it will tend to stick and some will be loose depending on how thick you put it on top. some will also look wet as it absorbs moisture from the icing, which in my opion only makes it look more life like. As far as on the sides I have never been to good at them. I did a small cake once and put the sugar in my hand and leaned the cake over and pressed the hand ful of sand into the side. Very messy... Not sure how to do a larger cake that could not be tilted...I guess the same only much more messy.
Hope this helps.


Mel,

Here is a post on sand and one person used large granulated cane sugar, although it wasn't actually on the cake just around it but it looked great. Sorry don't know if this is any help or not
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=318403&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0

Hi,

After buying "sugar in the raw" (too brown) and white granulated sugar (too fine), I called Beryl at www.beryls.com, a site recommended in one of the books I have from the libary, and she said she sells "sanding sugar" for this exact purpose! It comes in lots of colors, I ordered white as that's what the bride wants.
I will post a photo when I'm done with the cake!
thanks for your replies
Laura

I can't wait to see your cake. It sounds beautiful.

http://www.countrykitchensa.com/catalog/product.aspx?T=1&productId=625033

Agree on the sanding sugar. I used crushed graham crackers for the sand and sprinkled this sanding sugar over it for the glittery look of the sun shining on the sand. (way cheaper, too).