HERMAN THE GERMAN APPLE AND CINNAMON FRIENDSHIP CAKE

Okay, so when my charming 7 year old next year neighbour Agnes aka "Tiger" knocks on the door with an old plastic soup container filled with bubbling batter, then desperately tries to explain what it was for, I'll be honest it was a struggle to understand. I was handed a sheet of paper with Herman the German friendship cake written on it, with a little illustration of what looked like a block of cheese with a face and a hat on waving at me... my first thought was, uh oh chain letter! But she managed to sweeten the deal ( as it were) by handing me two small muffin sized apple cakes, I sampled one and she exclaimed "thats Herman!" ooh I thought, Herman is a tasty chap and deserves a go!

Herman the friendship cake. Photograph: cherishedbyme.com

I must stress this is the strangest way to prepare a cake I have ever experienced, the batter is kept out, on a work top for 10 days! Its supposed to bubble, its supposed to smell a bit, and you have to feed it every so often, like a monster! But it is defiantly worth it as the cake is absolutely delicious.


HOW TO START A HERMAN


INGREDIENTS
460g plain flour
500ml milk
230g sugar
90ml warm water
2 tbsp active dry yeast


Sprinkle 1 tbsp of sugar over the warm water then add the yeast over this and leave in a warm place for about 10 minutes to double in size


Mix all the remaining ingredients together in a bowl, then follow the below printable instruction sheet.


HERMAN METHOD PRINTOUT for each of your friends


The reason why I have written it as a printout is this; Herman is a sharing cake, so when you get to the end of the process you split the batter into 4, keep one for yourself to make the final cake with and give the others to friends. Drag the sheet below onto your desktop, follow method and give to your friends.

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