Herman the German

If I'm honest, I'm more of a savoury baker. I'd prefer to make different types of breads as opposed to cakes and the like (donuts not included). However, on a recent trip to see friends up north, I was presented with a small tupperware container of a yeast mixture with some instructions which ended with you baking a cake about 10 days later.

Now, I'm not a hugely patient person but I thought this sounded interesting and well worth the effort, especially as we had tried some of the cake our friend had baked which was superb. Oh yes, the cake was called Herman!

So off we set, back home with our precious cargo, trying carefully not to spill it en route. Over the course of the next week or so, we followed the instructions carefully, stirring it most days, feeding it, talking to it (I made that bit up). Then the big day arrived...bake day. Just before you bake Herman, you add other ingredients including apple, sultanas, cinnamon etc, in fact it's up to you what you add at this stage.

The resulting cake is below and turned out really well. We even passed on the starter mixture to family, who promised to keep the spirit of Herman alive.