Summer Sand Pudding

I want to start by saying that it isn't really sand.  I don't care how much it looks like sand, it isn't sand. It turns out that a box of vanilla wafers and a few Oreos can make very realistic looking  and edible "sand". I recently took this to a party and it won an award.  The mission was to bring the outside to the inside with either an appetizer or a dessert. I figured that a bucket of sand would be perfect. I got a Trader Joe's gift card and a Pepper Mill.

For starters, you're going to need a good food processor. I have a 13 cup Kitchen Aid Food Processor and it worked beautifully for this.  I didn't need nearly that capacity so a smaller processor should handle this job fine. If you're worried about this, you can crush them in two different batches. You will be surprised at how amazing this smells.  I couldn't believe that just vanilla wafers and Oreos could smell that wonderful.

Anytime you're mixing something with cream cheese or butter, make sure it is super soft.  This requires planning a little. I usually put the butter and cream cheese out on the counter in the morning when I know I'm going to make something like this. If I'm making a cake, I'll get the eggs out as well. They will fluff much better at room temperature. In this recipe, I put the cream cheese and butter into the mixer with the paddle attachment and creamed them along with the powdered sugar.  Make sure the cream cheese and butter are completely smooth before you add any other ingredients. Otherwise, you'll have clumps of cream cheese instead of a smooth texture with the flavor of cream cheese.

The recipe didn't say to refrigerate the French Vanilla pudding before you added it to the cream cheese mixture, but I highly recommend it.  It helps with the overall texture by letting the pudding thicken a little before you add it to the mixer. I would say that the flavor of this pudding is much like banana pudding, but without the banana part. If you wanted to add bananas, you certainly could do that, but it doesn't need them. 

Layer the pudding in your dollar store sand bucket that you've thoroughly cleaned. I did three layers. Make sure you smooth the pudding out before you add sand to that layer.

Just before you add the finishing layer of sand, clean up the edges around the bucket. It's much easier to do this before you add that last bit of sand.

When you're finishing off the sand, don't over do the smoothing effect.  I think that leaving it somewhat messy makes it look more like actual sand and less like a crumb topping. A friend suggested building a small sandcastle on top. If you do that, please send pictures.

Summer Sand Pudding

1 package Vanilla Wafers

3 or 4 Oreos (it only takes a few)

8 oz cream cheese, softened

¼ cup butter, softened

2/3 cup powdered sugar

2 small packages French Vanilla pudding mix

2 ¾ cup milk

12 oz Cool Whip

Crush Oreos and Vanilla Wafers in a food processor.  They should be the consistency of sand.

In a separate bowl, cream together softened 8 oz cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. In another bowl, mix pudding with milk.  Add to cream cheese mixture. 

Fold in cool whip.  Layer into buckets with sand, pudding, sand etc. Serve with sand shovel.

Enjoy your award winning Summer Sand Pudding. Beware, you'll probably have to reassure people that they aren't about to eat sand. It looks that real. Remember to comment, share and enjoy!! Have fun!