I'm not sure how familiar people are with Herman the Friendship Cake. He's starting to circulate but there are a fair number of people who are unaware of him. Herman is a sourdough cake. However, you do not receive Herman in cake form - you receive Herman as cake mixture. Once receiving this mixture your task is set. You must keep the mixture (consisting of yeast, sugar, flour and milk) alive for nine days - some days you simply stir the mixture, others you add more ingredients. Once you've kept Herman alive for this long you divide the mixture in to quarters, giving away three - that's where the friendship part comes in - Herman is passed between friends who then pass the mixture on to other friends etc. The quarter you keep is what you bake for yourself.
When I received Herman I was over the moon. What a great idea - a small baking project for you to carry out (he honestly doesn't require that much maintenance) and a way to share something fun with your friends - well, certain friends - some of my nearest and dearest would happily kill Herman within days.
So, I started out with one batch of Herman - how did I end up with five cakes? As I said, Herman has circulated a lot, and by the time I had successfully got rid of my first batch, another container of Herman mixture arrived on my doorstep. I didn't particularly want to grow and share another Herman - I'd been a good friend with my first batch already right? - so I decided to carry out a project - my Herman Project. When I looked at the basic structure of Herman I realised this was something I could experiment with! I could add some ingredients, take others way - go crazy! Well... cake crazy - Rachel crazy.
The past couple of weeks, to the varying delight and torment of my housemates and friends, I have been forcing cake upon people. I've been dashing around St Andrews always laden with tupperware boxes full of cake begging people to eat it so it stops cluttering up my kitchen - it certainly made a recent Greenpeace meeting more chirpy and was the perfect addition to a catch up with an old friend!
Here we go, the many Hermans that have emerged over the past couple of weeks:
1. Regular Herman - pure and simple
This is the regular Herman that you are given instructions to make at the end of caring for the mixture. He is not the most elegant cake in the world but he was delicious. The regular Herman consisted of vanilla, cinnamon, apple and raisins. I made sure the apple chunks were especially large because soft, warm apple is so divine. I made the mistake of adding too much cinnamon to the mixture - making this cake quite spicy but, personally, I think that improved it. This mistake inspired the rest of my experiments - I think we often abide by recipes to the nth degree and forget how much fun it is to experiment with flavour - there's no one standing over you to make sure you follow the rules so go with your instincts!
2. Nuts and Spice Herman
This Herman consisted of vanilla, chopped mixed nuts and cinnamon. He was very much a case of creating a balance between sweet and spicy, seeing as the frosting on top was vanilla. He came out with a nice sweet flavour followed by a small spicy kick. This cake purely resulted from a rummage in my kitchen cupboards to see what I could experiment with.
3. Chocolate and Raspberry Herman
I'm sorry about the picture quality for this Herman - by the time I had remembered to document my efforts he had been attacked by my housemates. This Herman consisted of chunks of milk chocolate and raspberries. I made another mistake with this recipe that led to a new discovery - I added more vegetable oil than suggested, but as a result I ended up with a perfectly moist cake. This Herman was the perfect pick me up alongside a cup of tea after a heavy day at the library.
4. Banoffee Herman
This Herman was my monster. This cake got out of control. I've always loved banoffee pie and thought I'd experiment by replacing the pie factor with cake - it works out rather nicely - although I can appreciate the need for the subtle pie crust to tone down the sweet toffee, bananas and cream. Speaking of, I am tragically proud of whipping the cream for this cake all by myself!
5. Peanut Butter Herman
The final Herman consisted of a plain vanilla base with milk chocolate chunks which was then smothered in peanut butter frosting. I stand by the rule that peanut butter makes everything better - you can't go wrong with it. It's been an addiction since childhood - we Prossers aren't a family to buy lots of spreads but peanut butter is a constant in our cupboard (a minimum of three jars on the go). Making this frosting was a balancing act between getting enough of a peanut taste but not making it sickly sweet - I've epically failed with other peanut butter recipes before but this one turned out alright!
It's rather funny to look back on these monsters and think they all emerged from the same basic mixture.
However, a further reflection is that I don't want to look at another cake for months. Ugh. There is such a thing as a cake overload sadly.
