London - Barking resident Mrs Hilda Ricketts has spoken of her dismay after a Pancake Day mix-up with her husband's ashes saw a Turin Shroud-like apparition pop up in her blini.
Apparently she mistook a jar of the late Jock Ricketts' cremated remains for some buckwheat flour which she then proceeded to mix with eggs, yeast, salt and milk ahead of the tragic mid-morning fry-up.
"I thought the batter was a bit off-looking," the octogenarian epicure commented to reporters from local rag the Barking Observer, "but then that's organic buckwheat flour for you - greyish, lumpy and full of gritty bits."
It wasn't until she'd flipped her first pancake that suspicions rose and an ominous crown-of-thorns image of Jacques de Molay - Grand Master of the Knights Templar - materialised slap bank in the middle of the skillet.
"Hello, I said to myself, what's this?" Mrs R continued as she described a growing feeling of unease.
Then it dawned on her to check the flour jar one more time before the horrible penny dropped.
It then took all of twenty minutes and a pot of Lapsang Souchong to stifle latent urges to phone the Pope with news of her extraordinary sighting.
"Nah, in the end I thought to myself it's not like either of us was ever Catlick," the retiree explained, "besides someone said to put it up on ebay, might get a fiver for it."
The late Jock Ricketts was 104.
