Edible Sand for Cakes and Cookies
This post may contain affiliate links to products I recommend. I receive a small commission at no cost to you if you make a purchase using my link.
This tutorial will show you how to make edible sand for cakes.
Edible sand is a fun way to decorate all kinds of beach, mermaid or sea-themed cakes and cookies. Even better, it’s an easy recipe to make!
There are many different ways of making edible sand for cakes and over the years I’ve probably tried them all. This one is my favourite.
It uses crushed-up cookies, which means it’s nice to eat, and a bit of added brown and white sugars give it that crystal-y sand look.
For mermaid or under-the-sea cakes, adding in a little edible glitter can also be nice, to give it a little sparkle.
I have used this edible sand recipe to decorate cakes and cookies of many themes, including a mermaid cake, pirate cake, shipwreck cake and this surfing themed cake for my niece, where one cake was fully covered in “sand”.
It would also be perfect for covering a sand castle cake.
I also used it to make these cookies, which I’ll show you how to make below.
But first, let’s talk about how to make the edible sand.
Ingredients
- Vanilla cookies – Any kind of crunchy plain or vanilla cookies (biscuits, for many of us outside the USA). I have used gluten free shortbread here because that’s what I always have in the cupboard and I think they give a nice golden sand colour, but graham crackers or any other sand-coloured cookie will do the trick. In a pinch, you could probably use something like Ritz crackers. You could also use almond meal, although I tend to avoid adding nuts to party foods in case someone has an allergy.
- Brown sugar – I use light brown sugar, dark brown would probably be fine too. You could use other raw, unrefined sugar for a coarser sand look.
- White sugar – I use regular white granulated sugar, but a coarser sugar would also work. I wouldn’t use superfine/caster sugar, as that’s too fine.
- Edible glitter (optional) – This gives the edible sand a sparkly, underwater effect. You can use a white/holographic glitter or a gold/yellow. Make sure you buy glitter that is labelled edible. Some are only labelled non-toxic, and those aren’t designed to be eaten. The ones pictured here are from Colour Mill.
How to make edible sand for Cakes and Cookies
When I say this edible sand is easy to make, I’m not kidding.
First, finely crush the cookies. You can do this in a small food processor, pop them into a ziplock bag and crush them with a rolling pin. I just crushed these in a bowl with the end of a rolling pin.
Then stir in the sugars (and edible glitter, if you’re using it), breaking up any lumps of brown sugar with the back of a spoon or your fingers.
How Long Does Edible Sand Last?
This edible sand can be stored in an airtight container until the best-before date of your cookies.
You can keep the sand for more decorating, or if you’re done with that then it’s also delicious served over ice cream, or you can use it for the crumb portion of a cheesecake.
How to attach edible sand to cakes and cookies
You have a few options to attach edible sand to cakes and cookies, and what you should use will depend on how you’re decorating (and what you have on hand).
Royal icing
Royal icing is a great option to stick edible sand to cookies, or onto a cake board. The reason I like using it on cake boards is because it sets hard, which makes it easier to handle the cake board later. Royal icing is also great for anywhere that you want the sand to have a more textured or “wet” look, because you can mix some of the edible sand mixture into the royal icing.
The royal icing should be of a reasonably stiff consistency (also known as outline consistency). When you spread it, it needs to hold its shape and not run all over the place.
It’s best to tint the royal icing a sand colour, and for that, I like to use a ‘gold’ or golden yellow gel colour. If you don’t have gold, though, you can use a tiny bit of yellow and a tiny bit of brown.
The following instructions and photos show how I used royal icing to attach the edible sand to these fondant cookies, but the same technique can be used on cakes, and the steps are similar when using other types of icing or piping gel to stick the sand on, and I will talk more about those other options below.
I started by covering sugar cookies with fondant in a pale blue shade and letting it dry overnight. I then painted the Happy Birthday with edible paint (tutorial coming soon!) and let that dry. Now let’s add the sand!
Start by spreading a thin layer of the royal icing onto the cookie. You can make it smooth, or leave it rough for some nice texture.
Attach any other decorations that you want to have on the sand. It’s much easier to attach them now, as they won’t stick to the loose surface on top of the sand.
Sprinkle on the edible sand. I just used this tiny spoon, but you can also sprinkle it with your fingers if you prefer. At this stage, you can add a little bit more edible glitter if you want.
Tilt the cookie to let any excess sand fall off, then you can use a soft paintbrush to brush off any remaining bits from the rest of the surface. Allow the royal icing to dry.
Melted white chocolate
This is better for smaller areas, as the chocolate can often start to set before you have finished applying the sand to larger areas.
You can tint the chocolate as above, however, you will need to use oil-based candy colouring or powdered colour, as regular gel colouring will cause the chocolate to seize. You can see some examples of oil-based colouring in my How to Colour Ganache tutorial.
White Chocolate Ganache
Using white chocolate ganache gives you more working time than white chocolate as ganache doesn’t set as quickly. You can tint it with gel colouring or candy colouring.
You can use ganache to stick the edible sand to the outside of a cake. Make sure the cake is at room temperature – if the cake has been chilled then the ganache will set too quickly.
Piping gel
Piping gel is a good option if you want to cover an entire cake in edible sand. You can easily brush the gel over the whole cake and then use your hands to press the sand onto the cake.
It’s a good idea to use sand-coloured fondant or ganache under the edible sand, so that if any of the icing shows through it won’t be so obvious. But you can also spot-fill any gaps by using a small paintbrush to add more piping gel and press more sand into the gap.
Buttercream
You can attach the edible sand to a buttercream-covered cake. If you use a crusting (American) buttercream, you’ll need to make sure you press the sand on before the buttercream crusts. Meringue-based buttercream doesn’t crust and tends to stay slightly tacky, so you’ll have more time to work.
Keep in mind that if you refrigerate your cakes, the sugar in the edible sand can start to dissolve with the moisture in the fridge. You may want to reduce or remove the sugar and just use crushed cookies.
Edible glue
Edible glue is good for attaching the sand to smaller areas. It can be kind of gummy to eat and doesn’t always have the nicest flavour, depending on what kind of glue you use, so I prefer to only use it for small areas.
More Tutorials You May Like
How to Colour Ganache
How to Wrap a Cake With Fondant
A Guide to Edible Glue
Edible Sand for Cakes and Cookies
Ingredients
- 100 g vanilla cookies (about ¾ cup once crushed, firmly packed)
- 25 g brown sugar (2 Tablespoons, firmly packed)
- 25 g granulated white sugar (2 Tablespoons)
- edible glitter optional
Instructions
- Finely crush the cookies. You can do this in a food processor or place the cookies into a resealable plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
- Put the cookie crumbs, granulated sugar and brown sugar into a bowl, and stir to combine well.
- If you're using edible glitter, sprinkle some into the sand mixture and stir, adding more if needed. The amount you need will depend on the type of glitter and the effect you're going for.
- You can adjust the colour and texture of the sand – if the colour is too dark you can add more white sugar. If it's not sparkly enough, add sugar and/or more glitter (or sprinkle extra glitter on the top once you have added the sand to your cake or cookies).
- Store the edible sand in an airtight container or jar until ready to use.
- The edible sand can be attached to cakes and cookies using royal icing, white chocolate, white chocolate ganache, piping gel or edible glue. See the full blog post for more details.
