As soon as I got home I emptied my mixture into a metal bowl. Which I later found out was a mistake. Herman contains yeast and apparently metal can kill yeast, so metal is a big no, no! I transferred him into a glass mixing bowl and thankfully he had survived!
The instructions give you ten days to look after Herman before baking him, they are as follows:
Hello, my name is Hermon. I’m a sourdough cake, I am tobe left on the worktop for 10 days without a lid on. Do not put me in thefridge or I will die. If I stop bubbling, I’m dead.
Method.
Day 1: Take the lid off Hermon and put him in a large mixingbowl. Cover loosely with a tea towel.
Day 2: Stir well with a wooden spoon.
Day 3: Stir well with a wooden spoon.
Day 4: Hermon is hungry! Add 1 cup each of plain flour,sugar and milk. Stir well. Don’t worry about small lumps – Hermon will eat themlater.
Day 5: Stir well.
Day 6: Stir well.
Day 7: Stir well.
Day 8: Stir well.
Day 9: Hungry again. Add 1 cup each of plain flour, sugarand milk. Stir well.
Divide into 4 equal amounts and give 3 away to friends witha copy of these instructions.
Hermon 4 stays with you…
Day 10: Hermon is very hungry. Stir well and add thefollowing:
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of plain flour
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
2 heaped tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2/3 cup of cooking oil
2 cooking apples, chopped into chunks
½ cup of walnuts / almonds / chocolate chips (optional)
1 cup of raisins (optional)
Mix everything together and pour into a large greasedroasting tin. Sprinkle with ¼ cup of melted butter and ¼ cup of brown sugar.Bake for 45 minutes at gas mark 4 Check after 35 minutes. When cool, cut intofingers. The friendship cake freezes well.
I came home from work on about day 6 to find that Herman had taken over my kitchen, he had outgrown the bowl (he gets bigger everyday) and leaked all over the kitchen work top! Straight to Wilkinson's for a bigger mixing bowl!
I decided against adding the ingredients above. Instead I added one big bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk, one big bar of Cadbury Wholenut and a bag of plain chocolate chips. My name is Leanne and I'm a chocolate, hello :)
He turned out deliciously!
Ready to start the chain again
As I was given Herman I'm not sure how you would start him off from scratch, but I have found a website that can tell you!
As Herman made his way to you yet?
