To be a bit dubious of Herman The German!

[lucyellensmumnamechange]

The other night my DP came home from his saxophone lesson clutching a margarine tub and A4 peice of paper. I said, whats that. He said "this is Herman the German" its a cake. Errr no its not, it looks like some sort of strange dough. The note describes it as "herman the German friendship cake"

Has anyone else heard of this? Its a quaint idea that you half make the cake then separate it and hand the bits on to three friends for them to continue making other cakes. But it takes 10 days!!!! 10 days of milk, flour, sugar, bicarb and yeast festering on my work top.

After 10 days my DP expects me to eat this!

Serious question - surely it would have gone off? The milk FGS, the millk!!!!!

Herman rocks! We are only on day 4 but have tasted the finished result and I think it is delicious. Whole house is smelling a tad yeasty tho'.. Love the idea of choc chips and cherries..

Starter mix recipe at the bottom of this page.

And then you can eat it warm with cream and ice cream.............delicious!!!!

I binned herman in day 7, I just couldn't his yeasty smell was giving me the boak!

Fanny you Herman murderer.

I killed Herman. This is why I don't have pets. I'm over it.

We love herman too! I kept one of our pass 'em ons to make more, but ended up freezing it. Don't. It doesn't work- frozen Herman died

grumpykat, the instructions say not to put Hermann in the fridge or he will die. I guess that applies to the freezer too

Oh, im warming to the idea now, having spent half the day moaning at DP because his pet cake is in my way!

It turned out nicer than I feared. A bit sweet though. Would put in less sugar next time.

i loved mine,kids & hubby loved it too keep meaning to start of one!

I was given a Herman at the local swimming pool to take home. He had to go once he started attaching himself to the tea towel!

I made 4, they were all average. Not a great cake imo.

How do I know if it's died? DD's is not frothing, it seems quite passive.

We couldn't give the stuff away! Everyone I approached in the playground backed away muttering that 'they'd already had the bloody thing'

The bit I kept I baked with sultanas and cubes of Bramley apples-it was lovely

Thanks for the link. That's my baking project with the kiddies sorted for the next week or so :)

I did this with DD, I very nearly binned it a few times cause I hate the smell of yeast.

When it came to cooking it, DH did the final stages with DD, they forgot to share it into 4 and cooked the lot, needless to say Herman the monster erupted in my oven.

DH just described it as "a bowl of bubbling fermenting sick"

naturalbaby we're on round too here in Warwickshire so he should be making his way to you soon.

He's lovely with extra cinnamon and apples!

Omg! I had no idea Hermans were so widespread. DD brought one home from nursery 2 weeks ago and he has been part of the family ever since; the children talk about him as a person and want to stir him each day. He is thriving; Herman II will be cooked this week...

I cooked Herman yesterday!

two obviously, not too. Or two, too.

Ahh we love Herman in this house! Our Herman cakes always turn out very moist and are a huge hit. The only bad thing was having to insist on two things:

1. No, everybody could not have their own Herman, they had to share.
2. Youngest DC could not keep Herman forever and cooking him was not murder [rollseyes].

A couple of times the mix recieved from DC's friends has looked ropey and near death to say the least so I've just made them up a new one after bed time so he's ready to be stirred when they get up. Lessens the chance that anyone will report back to their parents that their Herman skills are below par! Also a good plan if you're worried about other folks hygeine.
The fermantation ensures it's perfectly ok to eat as long as you keep the yeast alive.

The first Herman we had couldn't have been timed better - my house was full of the smell of 2 babes in nappies (I hate scented nappy bags but also poop) and although not an everyday drinker was not having any at all so it was great to walk in to the kitchen and be able to snuff up the yeasty, fermenty smell! If you don't like sourdough I can totally see why this wouldn't be your thing though.