< Previous20 COASTMONTHLY.COM | OCTOber 2025 Pastry chef bethany boedicker, owner of Milk & Honey baking Company in downtown Galveston, creates scary sweet treats for a Halloween party. COASTMONTHLY.COM | OCTOber 2025 21 FEATURE SCARY SWEET Island bakers share tips and tricks for Halloween treats G alveston Island got a little sweeter this year with the opening of two new shops. In April, Rebecca and Dirk Frank, from Germany, opened Nifany’s Sweet Store Café Bar, 3818 Ave. S, serving espresso drinks, pastries, sandwiches, popcorn, cotton candy, warm waffles, slushies, ice cream milkshakes and more. And world champion baker Bethany Boedicker in Septem- ber opened Milk & Honey Baking Company, 2220 Postoffice St., in the island’s downtown. Boedicker, who has won multiple baking and culinary awards — the most recent being named 11th World Food Champion at the 2024 World Food Championships — was executive pastry chef Moody Gardens where she worked for 11 years before venturing out on her own. Her storefront showcases her specialty custom cakes, cupcakes, pastries, coffee, specialty drinks and more. Each shared their tips for creating scary sweet Halloween treats. photos by JENNIFER REYNOLDS Rebecca Frank, owner of Nifany’s Sweet Store Café Bar in Galveston, whips up whimsical Halloween treats.22 COASTMONTHLY.COM | OCTOber 2025 CHOCOLATE CAKE SKULL Milk chocolate candy coating Favorite prepared chocolate cake Favorite prepared icing Walnuts Skull ice cube mold tray (available on Amazon) Take cake and crumble with your hands until small crumbs are formed. Add a small amount of icing and mix to form a soft cake dough. roll into small ovals that will fit inside the skull mold. Melt milk chocolate candy coating and pour into skull molds and spread into a thin layer coating the front of the mold. Once the chocolate has coated the mold, insert a walnut where the “brain” would be. Insert cake oval under the walnut. Attach top part of mold and fill the rest of the mold with chocolate Put in freezer and let chill until hard and easily removable from mold. – Recipe courtesy of Bethany Boedicker, owner of Milk & Honey Baking Company, 2220 Postoffice St. in Galveston HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES For the cupcakes: 2 cups all-purpose flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1½ cups white sugar ½ cup shortening (butter is preferable) 3 eggs 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract For the frosting: ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 8 ounces brick-style cream cheese, softened 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ¼ teaspoon salt 4 cups powdered sugar Black gel food coloring For the cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine flour, baking powder and salt together in medium bowl. beat sugar and shortening together in a large bowl with an electric mix- er until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with FEATURE milk, beating just to combine. Stir in vanilla and pour cake batter into the cupcake tins. bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 15 to 20 minutes. Cool cupcakes completely before topping with frosting. For the frosting: Combine butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a hand mixer (an electric mixer works, too) and beat until creamy, well combined and lump-free. Add vanilla extract and salt and stir well to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined. remove ½ cup frosting and place in a separate bowl. Add a few drops of black gel food coloring at a time and mix well until you reach desired shade. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large round pastry tip with white frosting. Fill a second pastry bag fitted with a small pastry tip with black-col- ored frosting. Use white frosting to pipe ghost- shaped figures on top of cup- cakes. With the black frosting, create a black oval shape for the mouth and two small circles for the eyes. Have fun with the decora- tions. each cupcake can have its own spooky look. – Recipe courtesy of Rebecca Frank, co-owner of Nifany’s Sweet Store Café Bar, 3818 Ave. S in Galveston (Above) Whimsical Halloween treats by Rebecca Frank, owner of Nifany’s Sweet Store Café Bar in Galveston. (Top left) Chocolate cake skulls and pistachio macarons by pastry chef Bethany Boedicker, owner of Milk & Honey Baking Company in downtown Galveston.The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health) is in-network for most major insurance plans. utmbhealth.com/womens Comprehensive Care for Every Season of Life Whether scheduling your first-ever gynecology appointment, seeking prenatal care for you and your baby, or looking for a provider to help you navigate the changes that come with age, our women’s health experts are ready to serve you. With Women’s Health clinics in Angleton, Clear Lake, Friendswood, Galveston and Lake Jackson, UTMB Health delivers innovative women’s health care to the Bay Area and Southeast Texas. Schedule your appointment today online at utmbhealth.com/womens or call our 24/7 Access Center at (409) 772-2222. Caring for WomenGET TICKETS! THEGRAND.COM POP 2000 TOUR WITH CHRIS KIRKPATRICK OF *NSYNC, O-TOWN, RYAN CABRERA & LFO SAT, OCT 25 | 8 PM Who says #Throwbacks are reserved for Thursdays? This show delivers the TRL moments that will bring you right back to the early 2000s! SAT, OCT 18 | 10 AM – 5 PM SUN, OCT 19 | 10 AM – 4 PM Join us in historic downtown Galveston for ARToberFEST featuring over 100 artists, music, kids zone and fun!ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY LICENSE #31165126 COASTMONTHLY.COM | OCTOber 2025 DOWN HOME MUMMY DEAREST Island restaurateur creates frightfully fun Halloween treats story by SHANNON CALDWELL A shley Cordray has two Hallow- een recipes so cute they might just break your kid’s obsession with candy on a night of trick-or- treating. Fun foods are something of a new obsession for the entrepreneur and mom of four whose latest business venture with husband, Michael, is Local Dogs, which serves hot dogs, light bites and snow cones on 39th Street in Galveston. Ashley Cordray’s Mummy Dogs are frankfurters wrapped in flaky croissant dough, dec- orated with candy eyes, and served with ketchup, while her Screamsicle Soda gives little ones their own sip of the dirty soda trend. For the uninitiated, dirty sodas are non-alcoholic sodas with cream, flavored syr- ups and other mix-ins. Cordray’s Screamsicle com- bines orange soda, half and half, coconut syrup and vanilla, and is decorated with marsh- mallow cream ghosts on the inside of the cup. In addition to being cute, the savory Mummy Dogs can help offset a sugar crash by filling kids’ stomachs with something other than candy. They also can be adapted to suit dietary COASTMONTHLY.COM | OCTOber 2025 27 PHOTOS: COU r T e SY ASHL e Y CO r D r AY Galveston entrepreneur and mom of four Ashley Cordray’s Mummy Dogs and Screamsicle Dirty Soda are perfect for Halloween parties or pre-trick-or-treat snacking. (Opposite) Cordray and her husband, Michael, opened Local Dogs, 1325 39th St. in Galveston, in August. The new eatery features gourmet hot dogs, hand-cut fries and a snow cone shop with house-made syrups.28 COASTMONTHLY.COM | OCTOber 2025 requirements and personal tastes. “For my mummy dogs, I used premade croissant dough cut into half-inch strips and wrapped around the sausage,” Ashley Cordray said. “You can sub a traditional hot dog for any sausage you like. It works with them all, including vegetarian and vegan sausages.” Cordray used candy eyes to give the Mummy Dogs character and ketchup adds a spooky Halloween touch. A savory alterna- tive for the eyes is a squeeze of mayo and a dot of ketchup, she said. For the Screamsicle Soda, the cuteness comes from decorating the plastic cup. Cor- dray used a black marker pen to draw ghost faces on the outside of the cup, and inside the cup, she dropped marshmallow cream in a ghost shape before pouring in the pre- mixed dirty soda. Just a couple of months old, Local Dogs is getting rave reviews selling traditional Coney hot dogs and other fun fare. Ashley Cordray is particularly proud of the snow cone side of the business and wishes more people would try the house-made syrups that change daily and can include flavors such as cucumber mint, watermelon jala- peño and espresso. The Cordrays are known for their real es- tate company, Save 1900, which brings much national attention to the historic seaport city through the “Restoring Galveston” show on Magnolia Network. They also own Cordray Drug Store, which specializes in ice cream, boutique hotel The Mansard House, The Artisan (event venue) and various Airbnb properties. Despite busy schedules, the Cordrays love Halloween and make time to celebrate with a trunk-or-treat party at The Artisan. In the past, their children have liked wearing traditional Halloween costumes like bats and pumpkins. If Ashley Cordray gets to choose, she favors family-themed costumes. “I like to wear family costumes that say something,” she said. “Before we launched the ice cream shop, we were all ice cream cones, and one year everyone was noodles and I was a jar of Prego sauce. It was before I told everyone I was pregnant.” DOWN HOME MUMMY DOGS 10 hot dog or sausages of your choice 1 (8-ounce) tube Pillsbury Crescent dough Candy eyes Ketchup Mayo Heat oven to 375 F. Unroll the dough to create 4 rectangles. Cut the rectangles into half-inch strips. Wrap the sausages in the strips leaving space for a face. Cook on a sheet pan for 12 minutes. Decorate with candy eyes or use mayo and ketch- up to make eyes. Serve with ketchup. SCREAMSICLE DIRTY SODA 1 (12-ounce) can orange soda ½ ounce vanilla syrup 1 ounce half and half Marshmallow cream (to decorate) Using the back of a spoon, apply marshmallow fluff in a ghost shape to the inside of an empty clear up. On the outside of the cup, draw eyes and mouth with a sharpie pen. Make sure to do this before the cup is cold. Add ice and soda. Top with syrup and cream for layered effect. enjoy! Ghost shapes created using marshmallow cream add a touch of scary cuteness to a Screamsicle Dirty Soda. PHOTO: COU r T e SY ASHL e Y CO r D r AY PRESENTED BY SMART Family Literacy Join us in celebrating the 14th anniversary of The Daily News Press Run this October 25, 2025! CONQUER THE CAUSEWAY ALL PROCEEDS SUPPORT NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION To register, scan QR Code or visit GalvNews.com/PressrunNext >