Eat Me
LCPP - Part III
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
- Lewis Carroll
Once of the more memorable scenes from Alice in Wonderland (and there are many) is her intrepid sampling of strange food and drink, each labeled with entreaties to try them. They lead to all sorts of occurrences and you would think that Alice would learn her lesson but there she goes again.
Eat Me by Neil Hutchison
Neil Hutchison, a computer systems architect and coder, is not a professional woodworker nor puzzle box maker by trade. He is a tinkerer, and quite brilliant at it. In a remarkably short period of time he taught himself the trade. His collaborations with Robert Yarger, known by his moniker “Stickman”, garnered him his own moniker, “Stickboy”. It seems there is no end to Neil’s curiosity and he has applied his maker skills to metalwork machining as well. He is currently, for example, completing work on a life size and fully functional replica of R2-D2. In addition to making all the parts, he wrote the control code to bring the LED lights and movable panels to life so realistically that his R2 could be mistaken for the movie version. For the Lewis Carroll Puzzle Project he initially asked to work on the caterpillar, and had an idea for a box that may yet come to be someday. Ultimately, he settled on the “Eat Me Cake” as a puzzle, perhaps stealing it from another contributor, Perry McDaniel, who is known for his cake themed puzzle boxes – but Perry had other ideas anyway.
As if I needed an invitation
From Neil: “As far as the box went, I had some interesting ideas about making the box so that it wouldn't open in a traditional sense. Much like the pennyhedron's I thought that this unusual mechanic may throw some people off as it wouldn't do things that they'd expect. Over a couple of months I made a prototype of the box, to allow me to work out the kinks in the design and just to see if things would work the way I had in my head. Everything was drawn out on paper to cover the main mechanisms, and get a feeling for each of the components I'd have to make. … With a working proto, I set about making 18 copes. Things went fairly well, until I was able to fit up the box, and it didn't work. I found that between the proto and the final versions I must have modified something by a few thousands of an inch, and the result was that the locking mechanism completely failed, and the box could be opened at any point. Fortunately it was possible to modify the top of the box slightly so that it changed the clearances, and allowed the box to work as intended. I can tell you though, I had a good panic when I found that the whole thing didn't work!”
“Some fun things about the box. The brass inlay on the top of the cake that reads "Eat Me" is hand drilled. Each of those brass pips is a small hand drilled hole that is then filled with brass powder. It took about 2 weeks to hand drill the holes for each of those lids. I ended up making about 25 of them, since there was a high chance of things screwing up in this part, so I now have a set of Eat Me coasters that I made from the spares!
Drink Me!
Inside the box I added the "Drink Me" bottle that Alice used to grow big again. I think that was just a fun part of the story. The bottles are filled with a UV reactive resin, so they will glow in the dark … if you expose that bottle to UV (or leave it in the sun), when you open the box, it will have a faint glow. Fun, and something that you'd probably never see until you put the box back together if the bottle had been sitting out for a few hours.” One more unique feature of the Eat Me box is that Neil designed it so it can be completely disassembled if desired, once solved. There are some people who like to deconstruct their dessert and eat one bit at a time, and Neil is a consummate host.
Eat Me cocktail
Speaking of deconstructing dessert, lets take apart the Jabberwock cocktail and rebuild it in a decadent fashion for an after-dinner drink toast. Out goes the gin in the original, replaced by a sophisticated and sweet rum base. You’ll want a well-aged rum for this one. The Caperitif vermouth can stay, as it has an innate sweetness to it already and will anchor the drink as a Jabberwock variation. For the sherry, however, we will switch out the classic dry sherry to one that is quite a bit different. Sherry, made from the Palomino grape and fortified with grape brandy, is a versatile spirit with one of the widest possible ranges in flavor profile and character. Like Champagne, it is officially designated to a specific region - the marco de Jerez (“Sherry Triangle”) - which includes three towns in Southern Spain: Jerez de la Frontera (“Jerez”), Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa Maria.
Decadent dessert
The Eat Me cocktail features Pedro Ximenez sherry, made from the grape of the same name which produces a naturally sweet dessert wine. The grapes are either picked very ripe or more commonly allowed to dry in the sun to concentrate their flavors. The process produces intensely sweet wine that tastes of candied figs, dates, chocolate, coffee, raisins and baking spices. Aging Pedro Ximenez (also known as PX) brings out a savoriness as well without loss of the sweetness. It’s lovely to sip for dessert all on its own, and in a cocktail sets the stage for something richly complex. Add a touch of cream to this cocktail for true decadence. It’s a perfect partner for a pastry puzzle box. Cheers!
Just Desserts
Eat Me
1 oz aged rum
1 oz Caperitif
1 oz Pedro Ximenez
2 d Angostura bitters
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