Culinaria Kitchen, S1E1: Creepy Creations

SA Living host Shelly Miles and Culinaria President/CEO Suzanne Taranto-Etheredge show off their creepy creations on the show.

Now airing monthly on SA Living, the newly launched Culinaria Kitchen is your invitation into the world of chef-inspired cooking. Each episode highlights professional techniques, thoughtful tips, and culinary insights designed to help viewers savor the craft of cooking from the comfort of home.

Welcome to the very first installment of Culinaria Kitchen — our brand-new monthly segment on San Antonio Living, each paired with a companion blog to keep the inspiration going long after the cameras stop rolling. Each month, we’ll spotlight local chefs, seasonal flavors, and practical tips to help you bring a little restaurant magic into your own kitchen. We’re so excited to kick things off and invite you to learn along with us, both on screen and here on the blog.

For our inaugural episode, we invited pastry chef Felicia Miranda to the studio to share some spooky tips and tricks for making some delightfully frightful additions to your Halloween spread. 

Chef Felicia is known for her fun and over-the-top take on sweet treats, and it’s safe to say that Halloween is the season when we get to lean into the weird, the spooky, and even the downright creepy. Chef’s creepy, crawly cockroach cupcake toppers are sure to make diners do a double-take.

Now before you close this tab—don’t worry, we’re not baking with actual bugs! 

These cupcake toppers are made simply with pitted dates, buttercream, and creative piping that turns a harmless treat into something that looks a little too realistic. Perfect for Halloween parties, tricking your kids, or just leaning into that funky, spooky spirit, these are both delicious and delightfully gross.

Creepy, Crawly Cockroach Cupcake Toppers

Step 1: Bake your favorite cupcakes and cool completely. Ice them with a decorative swirl and then get ready to assemble your creepy crawly topper. 

Step 2: Fill a large pitted date with icing using a small-tipped piping bag and place the date on top of your cupcake. 

Step 3: Use brown icing to pipe antennas and legs around the date, making them look like little cockroaches. 

Step 4: Serve & Shock! Line them up on a spooky tray and watch everyone’s reactions, sure to range from, “ewww” to “yum!”

To elevate a Halloween dessert table, consider making some ethereal rice paper ghosts to add movement—and thrills— to your cakes and cupcakes. Rice paper is widely known for use as containers for spring rolls as it’s thin, flexible, and translucent… perfect for forming ghosts!

These Halloween rice paper ghosts are really easy to make, are a super cute addition to Halloween cakes and cupcakes, and require very few supplies.

Rice Paper Ghosts

Step 1: Pour water into a shallow dish— not a lot, just enough to dip one sheet of rice paper at a time, flipping it from side to side until it becomes pliable.

Step 2: When rice paper is pliable, carefully shape into ghost form and place onto parchment paper or silicone mat to dry. Use a small fan for direct air to speed up the drying process, or place the parchment/silicone on top of a cooling rack to encourage it to dry faster.

Step 3: When the ghosts have dried (up to 8 hours but preferably overnight) they can be decorated. They should be hard, like plastic, and have no damp spots. Chef Felicia keeps her ghosts super simple by drawing eyes and a mouth with black icing. 

Chef Felicia’s “Sweet Meat”

Last, but not least, Chef Felicia loves to create a record-scratch moment. You know the kind: the instant it feels the soundtrack of the scene just screeched to a halt. Depend on her Sweet Meat to do just that at your next Halloween Party!

There’s nothing sinister about these snacks; they’re simply Rice Krispie treats dyed red with food coloring and creatively packaged to resemble ground beef. Just make your Rice Krispie treats as you usually would, adding red food coloring to your desired shade of red. Chef Felicia adds sprinkles shaped like bones for a creepy, crunchy surprise. Then form patties or a mound onto a styrofoam tray and wrap in plastic wrap. 

Chef Felicia even adds labels with cheeky descriptors such as “Annoying Neighbor,” “Nosy CoWorker,” and “My GF’s Yappy Mutt.” Truly, the possibilities are endless!

Thanks for stopping by the blog and sharing in our passion for great food, local chefs, and all things delicious. We hope you’ll tune in again soon — and don’t forget to keep an eye out for next month’s Culinaria Kitchen segment on SA Living, where we’ll be serving up even more tips, tricks, and tasty inspiration for your home kitchen.