Unfortunately, all the high level fish you can use to do sand are missing from the game so Cul gets a bit screwed here. However there are a couple more options, though they are far from optimal.

Do leves to get black pepper and stock pile it. A lot of the higher recipes need it.

You can also gather desert saffron if you have a midrange botanist (from Nophica/Halatali) and do pastry fish. All the rest of the items are pretty easy to obtain and you can spam this one from 40 until you are ready to do crowned cakes.