Just over a week ago I answered the door to a friend of ours who was carrying with her a small tub containing a strange creamy coloured mixture. 'Has your Mum told you about Herman?' she asked. 'Herman? Who, or what an earth is Herman?' I thought to myself.
She could see that I was clearly very puzzled, and so explained...

Herman is a German friendship cake which is made from a sourdough starter (that explained the stange mixture) and is passed on to friends and family, a little bit like a chain letter. On receiving Herman, you are instructed to 'look after' him for 10 days before dividing the mixture up into four portions, baking one portion into a cake and giving the others to three new friends (and hence Herman lives on).


Herman was fairly easy to look after, all it involved really was giving the mixture a stir everyday and feeding with sugar, milk and flour on certain days- simple!
I was rather excited when it got to day 10 and it was time to bake the cake. I divided our mixture into four, then got started on giving Herman his final feed!


The basic cake contains flour, sugar (lots of!), oil, mixed spice and apples but you are free to add your own additional ingredients. To our cake I added dried fruit and walnuts, and baked it in a ring shaped cake pan rather than the roasting tin that it suggests.


Although I had my reservations to begin with (how can a nice cake come out of this gloopy, fermented mixture?) I was pleasantly suprised. The cake smelt absoultely delightful once baked and tasted divine! It was fairly dense but lovely and moist, and the warmth of the spices teamed wonderfully with the apples and dried fruit.


We have now passed on Herman to three friends and I hope that he brings some happiness into the lives of many more people to come!