So I've been thinking alot about food and literature, and the variety of ways that they are connected. One, is invariably cannibalism.

Cannibalism is a theme that has featured prominently throughout literature, and despite being sickening, it is also quite fascinating. I first started thinking about this a few weeks ago when watching one of my all-time favourite TV programmes, 'Bones'. In the third season, a cannibalistic serial killer known by the team working at the Jeffersonian Institute as 'gormagon' is introduced, provide several directions for plot development.

There are more contemporary pieces of literary work in which cannibalism is a feature: Robinson Crusoe, The Lost Boys for example. Does the scene in Lord of The Rings: The Return of the King where Gollum/Smeagul bites off Frodo's finger count?

You Are What You Eat
In 2003 the BBC published a story covering the trial of a German computer Programmer, Armin Meiwes, who allegedly murdered and ate a man who had volunteered to be eaten via an internet advertisement. Mr Meiwes had had fantasies of eating fellow classmates whilst at school, no doubt fuelled by violent horror films. According to court records, the victim went to Mr Meiwes' house and agreed to have his penis cut off. The pair cooked and ate this together, before Mr Meiwes killed the man.

German Industrial Metal band 'Rammstein' wrote a song called 'Mein Teil' based on the events. The song was popular throughout Germany, and it's status was boosted when it was nicknamed 'the cannibalism song'. Lead singer Till Lindemann agrees that cannibalism is fascinating whilst at the same time disturbing, saying, "It's so sick that it becomes fascinating and there just has to be a song about it", in explanation as to why the song was written.

For any who are interested, here is a video of the song. Somebody has helpfully provided and English translation of the lyrics:

Man Pie

Rock music aside, one of the most memorable instances of cannibalism in literature for me, appears in the BBC adaptation of The Silver Chair, written originally as part of the Narnia Series by C.S.Lewis.  Jill Pole stumbles upon a recipe for 'Man Pie'. Or some such dish, and finally the realisation dawns upon her that she and Eustace have been tricked into staying with 'friendly giants' who in fact intend to cook and eat them as part of their feast.



I'll leave you with a video clip from Tim Burton's musical adaptation of The Demon Barber of Fleet Street starring Johnny Depp as Sweene Todd. Such a fun song to sing in the kitchen!



Returning to the original theme of this blog, I present to you the cast of my murder mystery. Just to put your minds at ease, I knew no more about the plot or the characters than my guests, when I assigned the characters.

First, we had Hughes Le Grandbutte, Deputy-Mayor of Casablanca and a French bureacrat. He is in his mid-40s, has been married for 19 years and has one daughter. The character booklet for Hughes gives two sections of information to the guest: 'What the World Sees', a.k.a. facts that are public knowledge, and 'The Truth' - which the guest was warned not to reveal unless directly questioned. I don't want to spoil the plot, just in case some of you readers ever play this murder mystery game. My lovely friend Adrian took the role of Hughes, and it was hilarious! He almost managed to maintain the french accent for the entire evening. In retrospect, I probably should have re-considered assigning him to a character that was the husband of my sister's character. But it was just too funny.


My sister Hannah, who hosted the first ever murder mystery I attended, took the role of Edith Le Grandbutte, the wife of Hughes. Edith made in perfectly well known throughout the evening that she was not exactly happily married. She did, afterall, used to be a dancer on the stage in Paris, so perhaps it was understandable that she yearned for the glamour and respect of her single life. Considering my sister is married in reality, it was rather amusing to see her take on the role of 'wife' for a man she had never actually met before. But Hannah has always loved being in the spotlight, and rose to the occasion with enthusiasm.


The daughter of Edith and Hugh, Nicole le Grandbutte, was played by one of my closest friends, Victoria (or just 'Tori'.) 18-years old, Nicole shared her mothers' opinion that being back in Paris wuld be more enjoyable than boring old Casablanca. The relationship turned out to be rather stoney between Nicole and Hugh, as she dissaproved of her father's involvement with the Germans.

Nicole had brought along her boyfriend, a 24-year old half French, half Russian poet by the name of Pierre Payanski, who was played by Tori's fiance's best friend (who I had unfortunately not met until that evening) Paul. Yeah. I actually had no idea that Nicole and Pierre were an item until the evening - otherwise I would not have cast Tori's fiance's best friend as Tori's character's boyfriend!! This apparently linked back to a joke made between Tori and her fiance when they first met, and he had claimed that if she ever met Paul, she would probably run off and marry him instead. I was unaware of that until the relationship between Nicole and Pierre was revealed in the script - Tori couldn't stop giggling and I couldn't stop apologising to both her and her fiance!

Otto Von Pinkelwurst , an officer of the Gestapo, was played by my partner, Rob. He managed to successfuly convince us all that Otto was fanatical, paranoid and quite possibly stark raving mad! Not to mention he looked awesome in the leather jacket. I think Rob's character has two purposes. In some ways, he was meant to be a 'comic relief' character in the script, as at various points he would have a random exclamation of madness. However, at the end of each round he would perform the duty of an inspector in a murder investigation, despite being a suspect, by summing things up or making extremely obvious statements, such as at the end of the initial dialogue, "Pinklewurst: No one is beyond suspicion here. As a member of the Gestapo, I say it is time we made some enquiries." Rob's German accent was brilliant. (Perhaps due to some years of instruction at Italia Conta...) I do apologise for the evil glowing eyes. But then again, perhaps it just illustrates his insanity..muahaha.


Tori's fiance, Adam, did me a great favour by filling in the position of Kirk Ramson III, an American in his late-30's. The invitation described him as a 'doomed romantic hero, nursing a broken heart and a bottle of whiskey'. The character runs 'Kirk's African Cafe' in downtown Casablanca. You remember the awkward situation I described earlier of Adam's best friend Paul playing the fiance of Tori's character Nicole? Well, casting Adam as Kirk did not help things. Because...well, my character turned out to be having an affair with Kirk. And Hughes Le Grandbutte. You would not believe the number of evil daggers being thrown at me from all angles of the room. *Sniff.* But I couldn't have known it would turn out that sticky beforehand, unless I'd ruined the surprise for myself.

Tori's mum, Carole, who is a close family friend, came to the meal as exiled Russion aristocrat, Countess Bogov. A passionate anti-communist, she was glamorous and mysterious, and also had sympathies with the Germans. Her catchphrase for the entire night was "I do not understand!" After the second or third time that Carole had said this in answer to questioning from the other characters, no one could keep a straight face. The accent and tone of voice were too perfect.

My dad played Monsieur Oily-Carte, the booking agent for the 'Le Moulin Bleu' nightclub in Paris. He was educated in England, and apparently had impeccable manners along with being extremely sophisticated. Turns out my dad had done this murder mystery before, with some other family friends. (Its no wonder, in retrospect, that those family friends declined the invitation.) Also turns out that Oily-Carte was not called Oily-Carte at all, but was infact an English Secret Agent, who's real name was 'Paddy Hashbrown'. So that I could enjoy the evening properly and make observations for this blog, my dad also did me a favour and acted as 'host'. He therefore had access to the party-planner book and was responsible for ensuring that all the ground was covered in each round of dialogue or questioning. He also distributed each of the 'clues' which were to be presented by various characters. It didn't matter too much, since he was already familiar with the plot. Besides, I had enough to worry about with the food.

My good friend Helen was able to attend at almost the last minute, as a husky-voiced French caberet singer in her mid-20s, named Cherie Boot. This was an interesting one. The invitation I gave Helen described Cherie as 'almost androgynous'. It panned out that Cherie Boot was actually Jean-Paul Satire, one of the leaders of the French Resistance who had been in contact with Nicole. None of us could believe it when the truth was announced.

I suppose, having posted pictures and descriptions of all my friends and family embarrassing themselves on my account, I would not get away with my own life if I did not put myself through the same humiliating process. All of the guests consented to having their photo taken, with the agreement that it would be posted on this blog.

My character was Ingrid Pith. I was a Danish Art-Dealer for the night, specialising in finding paindings from all over occupied Europe. The invitation said that I had to be busty and flirtatious, so I certainly did my best.  It transpired that most of the paintings I sold were stolen, by none other than the muder victim - 'The Black Cat'.

At the end of the evening, I handed out a short questionnaire and asked my guests to log onto my blog and post a couple of their answers, if they felt comfortable to do so. Of course, since it's taken me this long to actually put up my own blog post, I cannot expect them all to have the time or fresh memories of the event.

Needless to say, I am lucky in having so many loving and supporting friends. The majority of them participated without complaint - all I had to do was explain that it would help me complete a project for my degree and they were more than happy with that. I'd especially like to thank my dad and Helen for filling in at such short notice, and also Adrian for travelling all the way from London to participate. (We had a much-needed Blackadder marathon when all the other guests had left - I think I lasted until the second episode of Blackadder goes forth?!)

So I finally remembered to take the Chocolate Euphoria Cookie bars out of the fridge, to discover that the last layer of chocolate on top had burnt rather than melted (as I suspect was intended). This meant that the cocoa pops were still loose, and that realistically, the cookie bars could not be eaten without a spoon. (I did in actual fact eat one with a spoon, just to do a taste test. Without the burnt chocolate, it would have been a real chocolate euphoria.)

To remedy this, (I spent like £15 on ingredients - no way this was going in the bin!!) I picked off the lumps of burnt chocolate. I then broke up about two or three easter eggs and some random cooking chocolate I found in the baking cupboard, and melted it in the microwave. I then used a spatula to spread the melted chocolate in an even layer over the cocoa pops, and put the dish in the hot oven for another 5-10 minutes before putting it back in the fridge. It worked a treat, and the bars were done in time for Rob's birthday. (Rob is my special person.)

As you can see, they have already been rather popular. If anyone does try making these at home, I recomend using a basic 'chocolate rice krispy cake' mix for the top layer. My niece and nephew have both requested these at their respective birthdays.

Whilst in Camberley Library looking for a completely different set of books, I came across the Hannah Swensen mystery series in the 'thriller' section, written by Joanne Fluke. One in particular caught my eye, no doubt because I was still mulling over the contents of my third (?) blog post.

Devil's Food Cake Murder, by Joanne Fluke follows is set in small town 'Lake Eden', Minnesota, where Hannah Swensen owns a small yet highly successful bakery. Everything is perfect in her life. Her love life is blooming, and she is equally happy for her best friend Claire, who has recently married Reverend Bob Knudson. When Bob's old friend Matthew Walters comes to stay, the (insert chosen proverbial) hits the fan. Matthew has a bit of a sweet tooth, and is ironically found face down by Hannah in a plate of Devil's Food Cake, with a bullet in his head. This sort of messes up the honeymoon plans of Bob and Clare, who had been relying upon Matthew to fill in at church for Bob in his absence.

In several ways, Devil's Food Cake Murder might remind readers of a typical 'whodunnit' sleuth/detective novel. Hannah Swensen, whether through morbid curiosity or simply seeking justice for her friend' husband's friend, starts asking questions and begins to piece together a sticky trail of clues left by the murderer. What makes the novel very not typical, however, is it's inclusion of recipes randomly dotted throughout. Instead of simply including the recipes as an appendices at the end of the novel, they are interwoven into the text.

In chapter eighteen, Norman, a dentist and admirer of Hannah's, offers to help her bake some goods for 'The Cookie Jar'. He makes 'Brownies Plus', while she makes 'Chocolate Euphoria Cookie Bars'.

"What are they?"

"Six-layer cookiebars with chocolate cookie crumbs on the bottom, semi-sweet choclate chips next, miniature marshmellows on top of that, white chocolate chips sprinkled on the marshmellows, chocolate cereal layered on top with some milk chocoate chips over everything."

"Wow! That's a chocolate Euphoria, all right!"

"You'd better believe it! I tested the recipe last week on Andrea, and she said that after eating only two, she felt like she was walking on air."

(Fluke 2011: pp190)

Having read this chapter, and the conversation above between Norman and Hannah sat cross-legged in the library, I was sold. I had to make this  recipe. Joanna has done an amazing thing by integrating her recipes into the story, and the testimonies from characters such as Andrea and Tracey (neices, from what I have read) did not lessen the temptation for me. I went from the library to Sainsburies, and bought as many of the ingredients as I could get my hands on whilst agreeing with a more sensible (she thinks) voice in my brain which told me I could probably substitute some of the ingredients to save money.

The recipe is written by Joanna, as if Hannah has told her the recipe and can be found on pages 196-199 of the novel. It's a weird distortion of reality, following instructions that were written by a real person, pretending to be a fictional character who then shared the recipe with the real person. The surrealism of this is hightened through the inclusion of 'Hannah's notes', (three in total) which are completely different to the commentary-style notes of Joanna!! The bold writing in the recipe is, I think, a note of Joanna's, unless labelled as one of Hannah's.

So, I assembled my ingredients, and preheated the oven to about 170 C, (350 F) as instructed by Hannah and Joanna:

• 1/2 Cup butter  This is where I encountered my first difficulty - when my scales, which have been threatening to die for some weeks, finally did. I didn't have the time or patience to find some batteries, and so the amount of butter used was partially guess work on my part.
• 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs I used Oreo Cookie Crumbs. I like Oreos. I like them very much.
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. I couldn't find these, so I just doubled up on the milk chocolate chips instead.
• 2 cups miniature marshmellows
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 2 cups Cocoa Pops cereal
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Having melted the butter in the microwave for approximately fifty seconds, I then mixed in the oreo cookie crumbs. It took about a pack and a half of oreos crushed up to get 1 and a 1/2 cups, just to let you know.  Then I spread it in my prepared dish getting as even a coverage of the bottom as possible.(regrettably, larger than that used by Hannah.)

I then layered the other ingredients on top, just as Hannah described - chocolate, followed by marshmellows, followed by white chocolate, then condensed milk and then choolate cereal topped with more chocolate.

It then came to putting the dish in the oven, at which point I struggled. Unlike Beth, I was not lucky enough to have someone remind me to check that the oven was empty. So I opened the oven door and found it as so:

 Having made space in the oven, I then cuddled up to read some more of the novel, cuddling my dog, Scarlet on the sofa. A picture of her is necessary, so that all may appreciate her cuteness.

Learning from my Devil's Food Cake experience, I did not leave the dish in the oven for the suggested 20-25 minutes, but instead set the timer to go off after just 15 minutes, since my oven is fan-assisted and very eager to do things well. So, a couple of chapters later, and I took this out the oven.

I'm still waiting for it to cool as I type this, but I assure you I'll take a picture of the finished product when it is ready.