Herman The German Friendship Cake

A few months ago I was given a pile of goo that smelt of beer with a list of instructions to look after it for 9 days, out on my worktop, covered with a towel. Eventually I would be splitting it into 4, giving out 3 and keeping one to bake. I decided I should look it up and see what it was in case I was going to poison my family.

This is the website I found

http://www.hermanthegermanfriendshipcake.com/

So I did as instructed

Day 1: put him in a big bowl and stir

Day 2: Stir well

Day 3: Stir well

Day 4: HERMAN IS HUNGRY
Add 1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk (I know, milk. Your thinking what I thought. Milk, hanging around on your work top, going gross for 10 days, but the yeast kind of digests it. Unless it starts to smell putrid it's fine)

Day 5: Stir well

Day 6: Stir well

Day 7: Stir well

Day 8: Stir well

Day 9:  HERMAN IS HUNGRY
Add 1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk

Once he starts to bubble again, divide the Herman into 4. Giving 3 away and keeping one

On day 10 I made the cake. Just the basic cake that comes with the instructions:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar
2 cups plain flour
2/3 cup cooking oil (I used vegetable)
2 eggs
2 cooking apples cut into chunks
1cup rasins
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda

METHOD

Put everything in with your Herman and mix

Line an 8" round cake tin

Put the mix into the tin

Cover with foil and bake at 170oC for 1.5 hours. Cooking time varies wildly. The instructions say 45 minutes but it was no where near done so I kept cooking it until a skewer came out clean.

But it was amazing!! By far one of the best cakes I have ever made. So soft. So moist.

I gave out my 3 remaining Hermans and asked one of of them if I could have one back to experiment with.

So on day 10 I got one back.

I did the instructions again but instead of giving them out I decided to see if the 3 Hermas would freeze. It says everywhere 'DO NOT PUT IN THE FRIDGE' but I found mixed results on freezing when I searched.

So.. Can you freeze your Herman?

The answer is YES!! Yesterday I took one of the Hermans out the freezer and once he was defrosted he started bubbling away. He was looking a little sad so I would defiantly recommend that you start that as day 4 and feed him or day 10 and cook him. I treated it as day 10 (as I still have 2 more in the freezer)

So the latest cake is


INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar
2 cups plain flour
2/3 cup cooking oil (I used vegetable)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup strawberries cut into quarters
1cup blue berries
125g (just over a cup) of white chocolate chunks


METHOD

Put everything in with your Herman and mix except the strawberries

Toss the strawberries in a little flour and add them just before you put the cake mix into the tin or the Herman will go slimy and pink

Line an 8" round cake tin

Put the mix into the tin

Cover with foil and bake at 170oC for 1.5 hours.



Cherry and almond muffins



1 cup sugar
1 cup plain flour
1 cup powdered almonds
2/3 cup cooking oil (I used vegetable)
2 eggs
2 tsp almond essence
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup glacé cherries



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