I am making cupcakes with a sand look on top and a chocolate seashell on top of that.. I was going to just crush Nilla wafers to get the sand look, but when I was researching beachy cakes, a lot of people mentioned mixing the nilla's with brown sugar for the sand look..
Should I mix them or will it be ok with just the Nilla cookies?? I'd love opinions on it.. I'm making yellow cupcakes stuffed with chocolate mousse...
Thanks
Wendy
whatever floats your taste buds!
other options include:
crushed graham crackers
crushed snickerdoodles
adding clear sanding sugar
adding cake glitter
mixing up combos of the above
even crushed oreos (centers eaten -- opps "removed") for the black sand beaches of Hawaii
i use 2 parts graham crackers + 2 parts vanilla wafers + 1 part dark brown sugar whirled in food processor until a nice sand texture. Sometimes after it's on the cake will also hit w/ cake glitter for more sparkle.
hmmmm.....crushed snickerdoodles!!!! that sounds sooo good!!! anyway....as Dough mentioned...all of the above are great!
i used just graham crackers for my sand castle cake that was for a little girls 2nd b-day
if i were doing it i would mix crushed graham crackers and a little brown sugar. i like the look of all sugar but omg the taste would be sooo gross. i mean sweet. but gross. 
I have a cake in my photo where I used Raw Sugar and you can see what it looks like. It wouldn't be a fine as brown sugar but it does have the "sparkle". It isn't a rich as brown sugar.
I have a beach type pic on here and for the border I used tan colored buttercream then cruched nilla wafers on top of that. I had a lot of compliments on it and it tasted good too.
I mainly use graham crackers, sometimes nillas. IMO, brown sugar is too much, especially with the BC being so sweet!
Brown sugar has worked well for me as "sand" but I've only used it on areas of cake where it's not going to be consumed. I think on top of cupcakes I would probably mix the sugar with something else so the taste wouldn't be so over-powering. All of the above suggestions sound great! Good luck!
Sarah
... and it's awesome with bc... 
I've used pecan sandies for family. Be careful though, people may have nut allergies.
I've used tan buttercream and rice krispies. Doesn't affect the flavor much...see my retirement cake in my photos.
what i did for last months TD cake... i used the mini nilla waffers and mixed it with wiltons sugar crystals (the clear ones) and it tasted just fine...
Thanks for all the ideas!! I"m going to have a taste test with the real critics - my children! I also found vanilla oreos at the supermarket yesterday! I crushed one up and my hubby liked it.. so I'll do a few and pick the best one.. Thanks so much!!!
Wendy 
I used brown sugar on my son's Lightning McQueen cake. It looked real. Tasted good too!
I added in a few gingersnaps to the vanilla cookies for the beach cake in my gallery
Julie
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