This Sand Pudding Recipe has been a family favorite for many years.
Kids and adults absolutely love this recipe any time that I make it and I’m sure you’re family will too!
It’s similar to the traditional dirt cake or dirt pudding that so many have made and loved over the years, but this one is a little less chocolatey and a lot more vanilla-y.
Sand Pudding tastes delicious and is so realistic looking that it is the perfect dessert for any backyard barbecue, beach or pool party or just because.
This is a recipe I shared here with you last summer, but it was such a treat with my family, so I am sharing it again today and making up a batch for my family!
The ingredients were simple as were the instructions to create this dessert that will have people wondering if it is REALLY sand or not.
I brought it to our family reunion and it was gobbled up quickly!
My daughter asked if I would make it again the next day.
I’m pretty sure she ate half the pail herself 😉
Seriously though, this was a very quick & easy dessert to whisk together with a LOT of wow factor included.
I just make mine and put it in a large sand pail, it’s the perfect size.
Sand Pudding Cups
If you prefer to make individual sand pudding cups, it’s easy to do. Just make it the same as you would for a large sand pail, but layer it into plastic cups or little individual mini sand pails like these ones instead.
Sand Pudding Ingredients
- Vanilla Wafers
- Oreo Cookies
- Cream Cheese
- Butter
- Powdered sugar
- French Vanilla instant pudding mix
- Milk
- Cool Whip
How to Make Sand Pudding
Before starting, gather up all the ingredients needed!
Step 1: Add Vanilla Wafers and 2 Oreos to your food processor and crush until they resemble sand.
Expert Tip
If you don’t have a food processor, you can use a blender. You’ll need a blender that is able to really blend up the cookies into a fine “sand” like substance.
Step 2: In a small bowl, cream together softened 8 oz cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar until smooth.
Step 3: In a larger separate bowl, mix vanilla pudding with cold milk and then add the instant vanilla pudding mixture to the cream cheese mixture and mix together.
Step 4: Fold in all of the Cool Whip.
Step 5: Layer into sand bucket in this order: sand, pudding, sand, pudding, sand…
Step 6: Allow to chill in refrigerator for at least one hour before serving.
Notes: I know some people like to line the sand pail with wax paper before filling.
I guarantee if you take this to your next barbecue party it will be a hit!
Looking for more fun summer desserts?
If you love this dessert recipe, you’ll love these ones too!
- Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches – SO EASY to make! This recipe includes a homemade sugar cookie filled with delicious ice cream and sprinkles.
- Easy Watermelon Popsicles Recipe – Made from fresh fruit and no added sugars, you’ll love knowing that the ingredients to make them are pretty healthy and inexpensive too.
- Banana Pudding in a Jar Recipe – I made this Banana Pudding in a Jar for a family party and they were a hit! They tasted great, but also because obviously putting any kind of dessert in a jar makes it SO much more fun!
- No Fail Banana Pineapple Dessert Recipe – I have been making this Banana Pineapple dessert for years!
- Chocolate Eclair Icebox Cake Recipe – Looking for a dessert that will cool your taste buds and your cravings? This Eclair Icebox Cake is about to become your new tasty best friend.
Sand Pudding Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pkg Vanilla Wafers
- 2 Oreos
- 8 oz Cream Cheese
- 1/4 C Butter
- 2/3 C powdered sugar
- 2 small pkgs French Vanilla instant pudding mix
- 2 3/4 C Milk
- 12 oz Cool Whip
Instructions
- Add Vanilla Wafers and 2 Oreos to your food processor and crush until they resemble sand.
- In a small bowl, cream together softened 8 oz cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar until smooth.
- In another larger bowl, mix pudding with milk and then add the pudding mixture to the cream cheese mixture and mix together.
- Fold in all of the Cool Whip.
- Layer into bucket in this order: sand, pudding, sand, pudding, sand
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated with ingredients and serving size and may not be accurate. Please always double check with your own nutritional apps as well.
Hi! awesome recipe, i just really need to know how many servings this would make as I am wanting to recreate it in my classroom. Let me know! Thanks.
It makes a sand bucket full. Sorry, I’ve never figured out servings, but I bet one pail would be enough for everyone to have a small amount. I would probably double this recipe if it were me, because it is so good everyone will want a little more.
good
Made this for a neighbor to ‘Welcome Summer.’ She initially didn’t believe it wasn’t actually sand! It tasted amazing! Thank you!
I love hearing this <3
I wrote this recipe down. My grand & great grand kids will love it!! We have tried the dirt cake but this one looks so much more yummy!!!Cant wait to make it !!!
What size bucket do I need for this?
Just a regular sized sand pail.
How many servings does this make?
I am making them in 8oz glasses for a class.
How many servings does this make?
I accidently used cook and serve pudding! Can I still follow the recipe or should I do something different?
I would still try to make it using that and see what happens 🙂
My daughter really wants this for her quinceanera coming up in a couple of months. I am wondering approximately how many this serves since I will need to make enough for 100-150 people. Thanks!
Make this all the time grandchildren love it!!!!
The plastic of a beach sand pail is not food grade is this safe to use? Maybe it should be lined with something (plastic wrap, parchment paper) before putting in the pudding?
You are correct. It is easy to line the pail with plastic wrap or cling wrap.
Can I make it the night before or should I the day of?
I have made it several time both ways and it turns out great!
Do you make the pudding first then combine with more milk, etc or does it mean combine the pudding MIX? Thanks!
I mean to combine with the pudding mix.
I’ve been making this for years! Thought I had invented it, as I was using the old dirt pudding recipe, substituting vanilla wafers for the Oreos. You can decorate the top with teddy grahams lying on fruit tape “beach towels” under coctail umbrellas.
Cute ideas, thanks!
Can the recipe be changed to say instant pudding. I purchased regular because I figured it would say ” instant” if that were the case.
It works with regular but you have to make the pudding first and then cool before mixing with other ingredients.
I have just updated the post. Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
The wafers will get mushy, I would think you could make it a day ahead of time as long as you save some of the “sand” to put on top just before eating it so it will stay looking like sand.
Hi, do you use cook and serve or instant pudding ? Thanks
I use instant pudding.
I made it for the 4th and it was a hit. Thanks 🙂
Looks YUMMY!! is this instant or regular cooking pudding?
This is made with instant pudding.
I don’t have a food processor – would a blender work? If not, what alternative would work? About how many people does this feed? Having a beach wedding on Thursday, and I’m thinking of possibly trying this!
I have not tried a blender, but I imagine it could work as long as it could grind the cookies up to a fine consistency. Please let me know how it goes.
I used my blender and it worked fine but just need to crumble the cookies by hand while putting them in and not out whole cookies in unless you do a couple at a time and mix them then add more and mix etc etc but they both came out exactly like yours! Thank you!
Thanks for the update Shannon <3
Jamie, did your blender work for the wafers/oreos? I don’t have a food processor either and need to make this for a party this weekend.
Hi, I’m in Australia and we don’t have cool whip. Can you please tell me what the equivalent would be?
Thanks:)
Hey Dannette! Cool Whip is the same as whipped cream. I have a Homemade recipe you could use here https://savingdollarsandsense.com/homemade-whipped-cream/
Pretty sure that plastic pail and shovel, while they make a cute presentation, aren’t food safe.
how many people will this feed ?
would i be able to just use pudding by its self instead of using everything else with it?
Sure.
can this be made the day before it’s served? Daughter’s party is tomorrow but wanted to do lots of preparing today. Wanted to make sure it will still be the same! Thanks!
I’ve made it the day before and it was fine.
I made this today, I made a few changes and this novelty dessert turned out delicious. It doesn’t say to mix the milk and pudding for 2 minutes to thicken it a bit, before mixing it with the cream cheese/butter/powdered sugar mixture. Also, I didn’t know what to do with the leftover Oreo cookies, so I took out about 2+ cups of the “sand” mixture, then I crushed the rest of the Oreos and added to the rest of the “sand” mixture. I layered that mixture on the lower layers, then put the “sand” mixture on top. So the bottom layers were more of a dirt pudding and the top layer looked like sand. I think next time I will try chocolate wafers instead of Oreos, because the Oreos were kinda mushy when they were crushed. I recommend giving this desert a try.
Great tips, thanks!
I love this! My kids are wild about Nilla wafers. Definitely going on my must do list!
I Love this. This will be perfect for my sons pool party coming up in 2 weeks!
Yes, a whole box.
How big of a pail do I need?
I just used a regular kids sand pail.
medium size
When I see 2 oreos does that only 2 oreos or 2 pkgs of oreos
It is just 2 Oreos. They help to make the Nilla wafers look more realistic like sand.
HOLY COW!!! That so crazy that it just might work. My family will get a kick out of it at the picnic this weekend!
yeah, we’re gonna have to make this. Looks like so much fun!
Is the butter melted or softened too? I’m making this today!
Can people give the nutritional value of this dessert? I am a diabetic and must count cabs so I need to know
Made this to take to my daughters daycare and the kids loved it!!
Here is a simple homemade recipe (much healthier) for cool whip http://lynnskitchenadventures.com/lra/homemade-cool-whip/
You could probably just leave it out and it would taste fine. All it does is make the pudding part a bit lighter and creamier
Sounds good except for the Cool Whip! What’s a good sub except real whipped cream?
I used to make this all the time, looks like its time to bring it back 🙂
I love this going to make it for my son’s 10th birthday pool party! PS I’m following on Pinterest now:)
Yum, looks fun and sounds delicious.
That looks awesome! I’ll have to try it!
Yum! That looks so fun and tasty. It would be perfect at a kids summer or pool party!
That looks just like sand! My kids would love this!
That is really cool, it sure does look like sand. Kinda reminds me of the Halloween Kitty Litter dessert, except more appealing. LOL
I got it wrote down. Gonna try to make it for the 4th
It is SO easy and only took me about 10 minutes to prepare!
That looks delicious! I need to write this recipe down.
One of my relatives made this for our family reunion this last weekend.
I think I could have sat in a corner and ate the whole darn bucket…….it was SO good.
She has now passed this recipe link to me and I will definitely put this in the recipe box !!!!
You can’t fail with this one !!!!
Thanks so much for the raving review! It is one of my families most requested desserts!