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German friendship cake

May 7, 2012 by Katie Bryson

Herman the sourdough starter

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.

The German friendship cake

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?

 

Filed Under: 1 Featured Recipes, Bakes Tagged With: German friendship cake, herman the german friendship cake, sourdough starter

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Comments

  1. Claire Smith says

    May 7, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    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!

    • Katie Bryson says

      May 8, 2012 at 8:14 am

      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 😉

  2. Jayne says

    May 7, 2012 at 4:01 pm

    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!

  3. Katie Bryson says

    May 8, 2012 at 8:15 am

    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 🙂

  4. Teresa Pabst says

    May 8, 2012 at 9:47 am

    I’m so excited about this! I literally just got back from Germany last night so am inspired to do this soon. Thanks!

    • Katie Bryson says

      May 8, 2012 at 11:14 am

      would you like one of my baby hermans?

      • Teresa Pabst says

        May 8, 2012 at 1:15 pm

        Would love it. Thanks!

  5. ritacooksitalian says

    May 8, 2012 at 10:55 am

    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.

    • Katie Bryson says

      May 8, 2012 at 11:58 am

      ooh German rye bread – yum! Community baking is such a lovely concept isn’t it 🙂

  6. Fuss Free Helen says

    May 8, 2012 at 2:23 pm

    Sounds great fun.
    Good thing I am seeing you tomorrow for a baby Herman!

    • Katie Bryson says

      May 8, 2012 at 2:56 pm

      oh no Helen – my last baby Herman has just flown the nest 🙁 You’ll have to start the Baron’s Court branch of Hermans…

  7. Fishfingers for tea says

    May 8, 2012 at 6:24 pm

    I’ve heard about this before, it sounds so much fun! And looks incredibly tasty too!

  8. KSalty says

    June 11, 2012 at 11:05 am

    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.

    • Katie Bryson says

      June 12, 2012 at 11:56 am

      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 😉

  9. Dave Sanders says

    July 6, 2012 at 2:42 pm

    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?

    • Katie Bryson says

      July 8, 2012 at 3:11 pm

      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 😉

  10. BRENDA CHARTRAND says

    January 19, 2019 at 4:15 pm

    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.

About Katie

I’m Katie Bryson – Freelance Food Writer, wife of a strapping vegetarian and mum of two boisterous boys – keeping them all fuelled and trying to stay sane is a daily challenge so I thought I’d share my experiences. Read More...

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