Ghosts In The City

May 22nd is World Goth Day. It is a day to celebrate being a Goth and to enjoy the many aspects of Goth culture. Coincidentally, World Goth Day is celebrated a few days after my birthday. I decided to get into the spirit of these special days by celebrating my birthday night with an Old Melbourne Ghost Tour. I love Melbourne, it’s my home, and I have travelled through her streets all my life. Tonight I would learn the darker and deadly history of my beautiful city.

Melbourne graced us with a glorious Autumn evening for our ghost tour. The night was cold and dark, parts of the city glowed with eerie lights, and rain pelted down in bursts of watery fury. We waited for our tour outside Young and Jacksons, an iconic pub prominently located near the main train station. Not only is it a convenient location, but it also has a resident ghost attached to a controversial painting. After whetting our appetites with this ghostly tale of art, unrequited love and suicide, our gothically attired host took the weather in her stride as she guided us on a fascinating tour through the streets and laneways of Melbourne.

I’ve been on a few Lantern Ghost Tours, but never one in the city. The stark contrast of ghostly tales being told in urban landscapes was refreshingly chilling. It’s easy to picture ghosts haunting old mansions and historic homesteads. The ancient decor is enough to set images of restless spirits racing through your mind, especially if there are creepy dolls in the house! But in cities filled with light, we often forget how dark these place can be. We may think about city crime, but not necessarily city ghosts.

In its infancy, Melbourne was a very dark city. There were no street lights, and the tall buildings and narrow lanes blocked the light from the stars, leaving parts of the city almost pitch black, even when the moon was full. These darkened lanes were a perfect environment for nefarious activities. The city at night was scary, crime ridden and avoided by most. Our evening walk took us through some of the most notorious of these laneways as well as some of Melbourne’s more famous buildings, allowing us to enjoy the present while imagining its dark past.

Today Melbourne is well lit and vibrant. As befits a city renowned for its love of culinary delights, the lighting up of Melbourne started with an entrepreneurial baker and confectioner. To entice customers to come and enjoy his offerings after dark, he installed gaslights outside his shops. Crowds came to enjoy the light and to sample his tasty wares. Neighbours followed suit and over time the city centre was lit up and its nightlife grew. The gaslights are long gone, replaced by the electric lights that continue to illuminate our dark paths.

The tour ended in Chinatown where we were treated to a final ghostly tale. Melbourne’s Chinatown is the oldest in the Southern Hemisphere, born in the era of the Victorian gold rush, and alive with the ghosts of those who tested their luck in its gambling houses and opium dens. Before leaving we were invited to stand under a circle to cleanse ourselves of any lingering spirits. I stood under the circle in the sky, knowing that the only thing I would be taking home with me were lingering memories of my haunted city.

World Goth Day

May 22nd is World Goth Day. World what day? World Goth Day! That’s right, there is a World Goth Day and it has been around since 2009.

During a BBC Radio 6 exploration of musical subcultures, two goth DJs thought it would be great to get an event going that celebrated the goth scene. They chose May 22nd as the day. Initially a British celebration, World Goth Day spread and is now celebrated all over the world. You can check out the offical page to learn more and to see if there is an event near you.

World Goth Day celebrates the cultural heritage of the goth scene. It is a day for goths to be proud of who and what they are. I have been a proud goth since I was young, openly exploring the darker side of life through books, films, television and music.

When I entered the world of punk rock music I found my clan – punk goths. Not surprisingly two of the bands that influenced me the most were The Damned and The Cure. Both bands were punk goth hybrids and difficult to pigeonhole into one category. They were, to borrow a term from the awesome Billy Bragg, genre fluid – much like me 🙂 Also like me, both bands have lasted the distance and continue to embrace the soul of punk goth culture. In honour of World Goth Day’s musical roots, I have made a recipe based on one of my favourite songs.

In my post Neat Neat Neat I created a recipe for Smashed Potatoes in tribute to The Damned song Smash It Up. I also answered questions by Bob T. Panda including these two:
If you could be an animal, which one would you be?
“A Giant Panda like Clint Recession.”

Who is Clint Recession? Well he is a creation by David O’Doherty, Claudia O’Doherty and Mike Ahern in the book 100 Facts About Pandas. According to this book of fun fake facts, Clint is a founding member of The Cure and the inspiration for their goth look – he’s also a giant panda.

Which leads me to the next question:
What kind of cuppycake are you, and why?
“A Black Forest Cuppycake because I like black and I like The Cure song A Forest.”

Naturally I couldn’t resist creating a Black Forest Cupcake combining both goth and panda culture. My cupcakes are decorated with black liquorice which reminds me of black bamboo. And if there is one species of bamboo a goth panda would love it’s black!

Don’t forget, the original Black Forest Cake is named for Germany’s Black Forest – the setting for many of Grimm’s fairytales – and home to some spooky folklore. Wow, that’s a lot of goth to pack into one cupcake 🙂

Have a Happy World Goth Day!

Black Forest Cupcakes 

Ingredients
for the black forest cupcakes
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 + 1/2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
125g (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk, room temperature
2 eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
425g (15oz) canned pitted black cherries, drained and chopped, reserving the juice
1/2 cup juice, reserved from canned cherries

for the whipped cream
2 cups double cream
4 teaspoons powdered buttermilk or powdered milk
2 tablespoons powdered (icing) sugar
black liquorice for decoration
grated chocolate for sprinkling
fresh cherries for garnish – optional

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.
Line a 12-hole muffin pan with 12 paper cases.
In a small bowl, sift together the cocoa, flour and baking powder. Set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy and pale.
Add egg yolk, one of the eggs and half the sour cream and beat well.
Add remaining egg and sour cream and beat until combined.
Add the milk and mix until combined.
Using a wooden spoon, fold through the cocoa mix 1/3 third at a time until combined.
Add the cherries and juice and gently mix through.
Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon the batter evenly into paper cases.
Bake for 10 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
While cupcakes are cooling make the whipped cream by whipping together the cream, powdered sugar and milk powder with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Add the vanilla extract and whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form. Spoon whipped cream into a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes.
Decorate with black liquorice.
Sprinkle with chocolate and garnish with fresh cherries if desired.