Was mother Caramel eaten by Big Mom? And does eating Devil Fruit Users transfer the powers? My question is divided into 3 subsets that have been bothering me for some time now. But they are all related to a theoretical way of gaining devil fruit abilities.


In the flashbacks of Big Mom's past, Mother Caramel and all of Linlin's (Big Moms) friends "disappear" after her food rampage. In the background we see Streusen, and he is obviously terrified by what happened.
In the anime, it was stated that Mother Caramel disappeared. Big Mom herself has no memories about the event.


Is it a coincidence that Big Mom has the exact same devil fruit ability as Mother Caramel? Or could it be the case that Mother Carmel was eaten by Big Mom?


If we assume (1) to be true, can we also assume that eating Devil Fruit Users will give a person the ability of the fruit?


If so, is it required to eat the entire devil fruit user, or would the person need "only a bite", like how only a bite is enough to attain the abilities from the fruits?


If (1) &amp; (2) are true, can this help in answering how Blackbeard stole Whitebeards "Earth quake" devil fruit abilities?


I know the last question is only a speculation, because we don't know why Blackbeard can have two powers, and there are some theories out there why he is able to. But could this explain how Blackbeard gained Whitebeards abilities?
The answers are 3 different levels of "I don't know".


While technically we don't know, I believe that we can say that
Big Mom probably ate Mother Caramel and the other children.  While
there may be some survivors, this was heavily implied by the scene
in question.  She is demonstrated to do similar things later in life
under similar situations.  Furthermore, we can speculate that Big
Mom is so emotional about Mother Caramel's photograph because she is
in denial.  I would actually be interested in hearing any other
interpretations but I'm certain her saying "Mother" eating a large
confection was the exact moment.
We don't know.  While she is shown to have Mother Caramel's
ability soon after eating her, she ate a lot during that event.  It
is probable that, if there were any fruit in the area, should would
have eaten that too (devil fruit or not).  We know the devil fruit
transfer was shown to be immediate with the salamander fruit so
timing makes sense.


Let me ask you these questions to consider:


How did Bartolomeo, the cannibal, get his devil fruit?
Have we ever seen any other cannibal or creature eat someone with a devil fruit?  If a Sea King would eat a DF user, he would almost immediately die.
What constitutes eating?  Luffy has been bitten and/or swallowed on a
number of occations.


We do, of course, know that if you eat Luffy, you will get food poisoning (Oda said so).


We definitely don't know.  I am certain that we will eventually
learn what happened as long as Oda continues to write.  Whatever
happened will be more complicated than just cannibalism or bringing
the right fruit.  I will note that the hole in White Beards chest
would make it easy for Black Beard to access either the stomach or
heart without us noticing that he took it.