How To: Make a Sandcastle Cake

Tomorrow my friends are throwing a mermaid party for their daughter's 4th birthday. To go with the theme, they asked me to make a sandcastle cake complete with chocolate sea shells. Of course I said yes, and I've looked forward to making this cake for a while now. This was my first time making a tiered cake, and it was also my biggest cake I've ever made. Thankfully everything went smoothly and turned out great. Let me just tell you this now: this cake is TIME CONSUMING! However, its well worth it :)

First, you're going to make your butter cream frosting then set aside. 

Next, grab your sea shell candy mold and whatever color chocolate candy melts you choose. For my cake, we used pink and blue candy melts. 

Don't worry about how the back of them looks; you wont see them.

Next, bake your cakes. For the bottom tier I did chocolate cake, and for the top tier I did strawberry cake. (This picture is half of the cakes; each tier had 3 layers to it). Set aside and let cool completely.

Next, while the cakes are cooling (and you need to make sure they are COMPLETELY cold to the touch before you start icing and stacking them), you'll make your "sand" --which starts with toasting your coconut. 

Nice and evenly toasted!

Once the coconut is cooled, you'll place it into your food processor (I used my magic bullet) along with the graham crackers and grind them up until it is all a sand-like texture. 

Once the coconut and graham crackers are ground, you'll toss them into a big bowl and add white and brown sugar until you reach your desired color. 

Now, I forgot to take a picture of the step before this one, so I'll just tell you what I did. Stack your cake putting a thick amount of frosting in between the layers. Once all of the layers are stacked, you're going to measure your dowels out and cut according to how tall your cake is. Pierce them through your cake so that once you put your "plate" (I have no idea what that thing is called) on top, it'll rest nicely on the dowels and hold the weight of the top tier of the cake.  

Next step: stack them up! Doing just like the step above, put a thick amount of frosting in between the layers. Its always better to have too much frosting instead of too little. Don't worry too much about how the frosting looks; it'll be covered by the sand. 

Now the fun part! Turn your cake into a sand castle! This step is MESSY--but that's okay because you can clean it up later. Be prepared to get your hands dirty. I literally felt like I was building a sand castle when I was pressing the "sand" onto the sides of the cake. Add as little or as much sand as you want, just make sure the whole cake is evenly coated. 

Add your seashells that you made earlier, and viola! You have a beautiful sand castle cake! Now go drink a margarita--you deserve it! 

BUTTER CREAM FROSTING:
Ingredients:
9 cups of powdered sugar
6 sticks of butter
1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla
water

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together. Add small amounts of water until you reach desired consistency.

"SAND" MIXTURE:
Ingredients:
Coconut
Graham crackers
Brown sugar
White sugar

Directions:
Toast your coconut by spreading out on a baking sheet and baking at 350*F for 10-12 minutes.

Once cooled, place your coconut and graham crackers in a food processor (I used my magic bullet) and pulsate until everything is evenly ground.

Place in a large bowl and add white and brown sugar until desired color is achieved.

SEA SHELL CHOCOLATES:
Ingredients:
Wilton candy melts in color of your choice
Wilton candy mold in seashell assortment

Directions:
Place candy melts into microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Stir, then microwave in 30-second increments until all chocolate is melted.

Spoon into candy molds being sure to reach every nook and cranny.