Herman the sourdough starter bubbling in his bowl
My good friend Regine, who’s German and therefore knows good cake, dropped round a plastic pot of bubbling gooey stuff called Herman a couple of weeks ago.
He’s a special sourdough cake starter, and came with a list of instructions. He’s pretty low maintenance – he sat on the kitchen surface in a bowl with a tea towel over the top. He mostly just needed a bit of a stir once a day, but on two separate occasions needed feeding a combination of flour, milk and sugar. Far more straighforward than the boys…
Turns out it’s the baking version of a chain letter (but less sinister), as once you’ve looked after Herman for 10 days you divide him into four, bake a special cake with one part, then pass the other three portions on to other people to carry on the process.
It’s been widely written about on the web, including this feature on Word of Mouth, but I’ve clearly been living in a bunker as I’d not heard of it.
The cake was full of delicious ingredients like apples, raisins and cinnamon, so smelt incredible when it was baking. The boys gathered around the plate once it was out of the oven, clamouring for a taste. It was quite an effort to get this shot of the cake without someone’s fingers picking the top off it.
A slice of German friendship cake
It was a moist, fruity, cinnamon-spiked sponge with a crispy brown sugar crust – SO good with a cup of earl grey on a rainy bank holiday weekend!
I altered the recipe slightly by using corn oil and sultanas and cooked it for an hour instead of 45 minutes.
Herman originates from the Amish culture’s love of sourdough recipes, and the starter mixtures were shared within the community for everyone to cook their own creations with.
You can find out more about it on Herman’s website where you get full instructions of how to look after it, the recipe for this amazing cake and more importantly how to make your own sourdough starter if you want to start a chain of your own.
If you have cake-loving friends they’ll love you for this. It’s also a cute project to do with the kids.
Have you encountered Herman yet? Have you made any other recipes with the sweet sourdough starter?
Yes Herman paid me a visit courtesy of my mother last Summer – the cake tasted great….but found caring for Herman pre cake baking a bit traumatic!
I have to admit I forgot about Herman for one day, and he got put in the fridge when he first arrived – but somehow he survived and lived to spawn younglings 😉
How funny, my friend was only telling me about Herman the German last week! I had never heard of this before either! It sounds like a fun idea and your cake looked great!
Thanks Jayne – yes I think he’s quite a phenomenon! The cake is definitely worth making – it’s divine! You should start your own Herman 🙂
I’m so excited about this! I literally just got back from Germany last night so am inspired to do this soon. Thanks!
would you like one of my baby hermans?
Would love it. Thanks!
This cake looks packed with flavours. I look after a German rye bread starter and I often forget to feed it …I love the Amish concept of sharing the starter mixtures within the community.
ooh German rye bread – yum! Community baking is such a lovely concept isn’t it 🙂
Sounds great fun.
Good thing I am seeing you tomorrow for a baby Herman!
oh no Helen – my last baby Herman has just flown the nest 🙁 You’ll have to start the Baron’s Court branch of Hermans…
I’ve heard about this before, it sounds so much fun! And looks incredibly tasty too!
I’ve got a Herman bubbling away on the kitchen worktop right now! We’re selling our house at the moment, so hopefully the sourdough batter smell is an enticement, rather than the other way round.
hehehe love hearing about all the little Hermans out there – I think he’s taking over the country! The smell of the spiced herman cake baking will make your house smell incredible and probably add to it’s value I should say 😉
I have just been given one but I am very concerned because it has milk in it & never goes in the fridge. Some of the very first milk put into this cake could be around for months so surely this is a health risk?
The living bacteria would die if you left it in the fridge – it’s like a sourdough starter that you’d use for making bread. You’re unlikely to get food poisoning from eating it as it gets stirred into cake batter and baked in the oven. I can certainly vouch for eating a lot of this cake and living to tell the tale 😉
My Herman is 1.5 years old, I have used it to make many different kinds of cakes, muffins, loaves, pancakes, cornbread, cinnamon buns, crackers, biscuits, and Christmas fruitcake.