Hey guys!
I have a sea shell wedding cake this weekend and I don't want to use graham crackers on the cake for the appearance of sand. What else can I use that will give me the same effect? Thanks all!

I saw an episode of Cake Boss where they used brown sugar for sand. It looked great!

Thanks!

I've used crushed vanilla wafers (Nilla wafers) mixed with regular granulated sugar or brown sugar depending on if I want lighter sand or not. That on Indydebi's icing is soooo good. Actually tastes like Vienna finger cookies. (can you see I looove cookies? )

Sounds Yummy! Darn I just used all my vanilla wafers on bannana pudding sunday! lol

Actually any cookie ground up will do, I've used NFSC (undecorated) and it tasted great and looked really natural

Actually any cookie ground up will do, I've used NFSC (undecorated) and it tasted great and looked really nautural

i use crushed pecan sandies

I agree with any light cookie (vanilla Oreo's would work well too), the sugar idea looks great but I think it just ends up way to sweet to eat that part of the frosting. Add some (very little) luster dust or coarse sugar sprinkles to give it a little sparkle!
Tracy

I dont know if you can get these where you live, but we have a cookie called "digestives" and they come in a red box. (they are not digestive cookies theyre just called that i dont know why). Once I discovered them I stopped using graham crackers. People actually PREFERRED my cakes and pies when I switched to the digestives for some reason. And Ihave ground them up and they can pass for sand.

I use light brown sugar

Nilla wafers work good....

I used brown sugar once but I refrigerate my cakes and the sugar can melt with condensation.

I just made a pirate cake this weekend and used graham crackers, but they were the cinnamon sugar version. It came out the perfect color.
I didn't want people (especially children) biting into pure sugar
Everyone loved the cake. I will upload pics tonight. HTH

It really depends on the color of "sand" that you want. I've used some dark Oreos crushed with the nilla wafers just to add a bit of color, and it looked good.

I too have seen vanilla waffers mixed w/ brown sugar, also adding in some gold and (some clear) glitter to make it sparkle; like the sand in this sun.

baby biter biscuits (cookies) ground up

You can also toast cake scraps. Just crumble the trimmings, spread them on a cookie sheet, and toast. You can then put them in a blender or food processor for finer crumbs. These are great for pie crusts, too, instead of graham cracker crumbs. I use chocolate for dirt and lighter color for sand.

I used light brown sugar on this cake and I think it looked pretty good....

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1405299

I used demerara (or turbinado) sugar on my baseball diamond for sand - it's in my photos. I got the demerara sugar @ Walmart.

brown sugar mixed w/nilla wafers works well and is rather tasty hth

I have used crushed grahams, nilla wafers, pecan sandies, brown sugar, turbinado sugar a.k.a. sugar in the raw and combinations of above. They all work great.
Once, at a wedding I was working, I saw a decorator use a medium that was very realistic called "brownulated sugar". I am trying that next time.

For the sand trap on my golf cake (in my photos), I used some homemade chocolate chip cookies that I had in the freezer.

I broke off pieces of the cookie, avoiding the chips, and crushed them with a rolling pin. Guess who got to eat all of those leftover chocolate chips?

I just made some sand a couple weekends ago for my daughter's birthday cake (blue cake in my pics). I crushed up nilla wafers, graham crackers and added some brown sugar. Everyone said it tasted soooo yummy. I used just brown sugar before on my Beach Ball cake and I didn't like how it looked....

brown sugar is great, esp if you're trying to shape it because if you mist it lightly (very very lightly!) with water and let it sit it will harden. Ideal for transporting it!

Before using any types of nuts (pecans etc) check for peanut/tree nut allergies! My son went to an event and he didn't know nuts was in the cake and we ended up in the ER b/c he's severely allergic & Benadryl didn't work.

I've used a mixture of white granulated sugar and brown sugar