Singapore is that little dot of an island at the southern tip of Malaysia. It is well known for its clean, green garden city image, its chilli crab, its super efficient system and.... as the sharp tongued and super sacarstic Sue Sylvester had spouted in Glee , " ask anyone who safely walked the immaculate sidewalks of Singapore after winning an international cheerleading competition and they'll tell you one thing; CANING WORKS." . Yes, thanks to Michael Fay,the fame of our strict jurisdiction often precedes us and I am sure the world is going to hear more about us in the coming weeks as the system grapples with another high profile vandalism case.
For those who have not heard, some arse-iching fellows had decided to challenge the system and possibly showcase their artistic talents by breaking into our subway depot and spray painted 2 carriages with bold colourful graffitti. The duo, a Swiss National working as a business consultant in Singapore and a British guy will be charged with trespass and vandalism.The Swiss guy is now out on bail while the other British guy is still at large. This incident sparked off some very active debates over how these guys should be charged. Some argued that they should not be caned because the graffiti they sprayed on were actually quite artistic... but I doubt that the beauty of the artwork would be powerful enough to move the judges to show clemency. In fact, in terms of the counts of offenses, they probably are in deeper waters than Michael Fay.
When the news broke, I remember thinking to myself - these guys are blatantly telling the world that they want to be caned -surely the whole world must know that vandals get caned in Singapore! Then, there came more speculation of their 'art' - apparently the graffiti bore the signature of Mckoy Banos. Mckoy Banos are the stamp of 2 'artists' notorious for spray painting trains all over the world ... like some modern day Zorro who goes around tagging their mark on trains.... the good deed?... to bring art closer to the heartland?... a bit of a stretch, I guess. Nevertheless, this adds on a fascinating dimension to this case. It is still unclear if this duo is the real 'Mckoy' but I am already envisioning the headlines... 'Mckoy Banos Caught & Caned In Singapore' - that would be a blast! I am waiting with bated breath to see how our 'art-loving' judges would rule this controversial case when it opens for trial on 21st June.
In the mean time, I am trying to create a little graffiti in my own kitchen... What a feat! Didn't know that it could be so difficult to create pleasing graffiti in a cup cake! I had wanted to create some abstract swirls using raspberry and blueberry puree... and ended up with lame sputters of colour instead.
Well, all the best to the graffiti artists, I will be devouring my cupcakes while I wait for the verdict...
Recipe :
150g Cake Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
170g Sugar
115g Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
125g Milk
Raspberry Puree
Blueberry Puree
Method :
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter at low speed until white and creamy.
4. Add sugar a tbsp at a time to butter and continue to mix until dissolved.
5. Add Vanilla extract.
6. Add beaten egg in a slow drizzle while mixing the creamed butter.
7. Add flour and milk in alternate portions.
8. Half fill mold / cupcake casing with batter.
9. Scoop 1/4 tsp of Raspberry Puree and 1/4 tsp of Blueberry puree over batter. Continue to fill up mold with batter. With a tooth pick / skewer, swirl the batter to disperse the puree.
10. Bake for 20mins at 180C.
This raspberry cupcakes look cute and pretty! Thanks for sharing the recipe! I like your blog!
ReplyDeleteYour raspberry cupcakes are beautiful art pieces, I'm sure they taste even better than they look. I like how you linked them to the graffiti topic too ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you,ladies for your kind words. I am actually not very happy with the photos - one of the worst photos I have taken with my DSLR- the lighting today is really bad...but I do want to write about the vandalism case.
ReplyDeleteWell, if those who think what they did is art, ask those fellas go spray at their house, then let's see whether they will still "support" graffiti.
ReplyDeleteIt's gloomy here too, and my hakka dough dumplings had a hard time posing.
You told me the rasps were pricey eh.. how much over there?
Hi Wendy. The fresh raspberries here cost about $9-$10(sing) per punnet and they don't keep very well. But for baking I always use frozen raspberries. They are God-sent - $13 for a big box - almost a kilo, I think. Also, now we can get frozen blueberries, apricots, strawberries etc much much cheaper than fresh versions.
ReplyDeleteyour description of Singapore's location is unusually cute! normally, Malaysia is the lesser known one & often described as the peninsular above Singapore! :) Lovely, lovely cupcakes...but pls devour them s-l-o-w-l-y, raspberries and blueberries don't come cheap at all at where we live!
ReplyDeleteThose cupcakes are very pretty Shirley. Love that u use puree instead of food color. did use do the cut outs? its soo pretty!
ReplyDeletewhy on earth did they do that?..thyre not even childish teenagers. I guess theyre asking for it. ..attention and caning. heh
Beautiful cupcakes. Love the lovely filling. It's good that Singapore has strict laws to littering and graffiti drawing. Many other countries should follow that. All Singaporeans should be proud cos Singapore is so clean and so progressive.
ReplyDeleteYour canelés seem to be really tasty!
ReplyDeleteThey are full of fruit puree and I love that!
Gaelle
These cupcakes look so pretty. Where did you get the moulds for these? On the graffiti of the MRT, I think the govt will throw the book at these guys. They do deserve it for entering a restricted area. They should have vented their creativity elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteFinally, one imported fruit that is cheaper than Sing, Rasps.
ReplyDeleteHere it's below RM20. :)
I'm waiting for the day the Supermarket I frequent will have frozen berries. The nearest Cold Storage is no longer operating and I have to rely on Jusco and Tesco now.
maybe this doesn't look like artsy graffiti but sure it looks like some suuuper tasty cupcakes!!!
ReplyDelete:)
Shirley, I hope you burnt your little shitty cupcakes, burnt your hands and your kitchen for writing such a stupid article in regards to the graffiti spraying in Sinapore. There is absolutely no relevance to what you have said and you should be ashamed of yourself to even put such an irrelevent blog on the internet - Go to hell!
ReplyDeleteCan I call them Rasp-Graffit-berry cupcakes? :P
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,I am publishing your comment because as I reserve my right to have my opinion at my own blog,you are welcome to yours. At least I am churning out shitty cupcakes at my own space and am not causing inconvenience to others. Of course, you can save yourself a whole lot of stress and distress by staying away from my blog and visit billions of others that are more to your class and standard...
ReplyDeleteJo,these molds are actually mini bundt pans. I got them many years ago from the US. But you probably can check out Shermay's cooking school. They may have it.
ReplyDeleteI've been following that case with much interest. And having been in Australia for a couple of years where really artistic and beautiful graffiti is everywhere, I don't feel like it's that serious of a crime. But I suppose vandalism is still vandalism, regardless of how artistic it is, and well, we're governed by really strict laws here.
ReplyDeleteYour little cakes though certainly are such a work of art in themselves!
Coffeesnob,I agree with you - when it comes to art, things can become subjective.I guess for most of us, we can be tolerant and more forgiving it is not done on our own property.I wonder if we can still be a good sport if e.g. this is done to our own car. The line is grey. And I am really curious to see how the jurisdiction will trial this case- with Michale Fay's precedence- the law makers will be under pressure even if they feel more compassionate towards the artists...
ReplyDeleteShirley, I think it's hilarious and really quite clever that you tied your post in with the recent spray paint incident! (Ignore the naysayers... they're just bitter you can bake and they can't! haha)
ReplyDeleteThe cupcakes look yummy =) Actually I find a lot of time really pristine looking pastries don't actually taste that good. Abstract can be just as good or better!