The gift of friendship...cake

I'm a big sourdough fan. It tastes great, is better for you, lighter on the hips but mainly it's a lovely thing to share with friends because the starting sourdough culture can be kept forever as long as it is kept alive by airing, stirring and feeding. Keeping the culture alive means growing it gradually too, so once divided each person can cultivate their own small bit into an even bigger bit of doughy joy.

This is the principle that Herman (The German Friendship Cake) is based on. I was luckily enough to be given a bubbling jar of him by my bestie Anna and have now passed him on to a few more. If you want to start your own Herman, then follow this recipe, after that you grow and cultivate him for 10 days and pass the following recipe on to your friends with your jar of dough.

Sourdough Friends

After 10 days of my kitchen smelling faintly of yeast, he was ready to add to and to cook. 

I included apples, raisins, vanilla essence and cinnamon in mine, topped with a simple butter and brown sugar crust and then served him up for breakfast on a lazy weekend morning with a big dollop of Greek Yoghurt and some american style syrup. 

After cooking him at 190° for 1.5 hours (covering for the last 1/2 hour) - this is much longer than the instructions but everyone I've spoken to says that he takes far longer to cook than the 45 minutes allowed, I only cooled him for a few minutes on the rack before serving - this was because I prefer a warm cake for breakfast. We had him cold with a cup of Earl Grey on Sunday too and he was just as good but an all together different taste and texture when cold.

Anna got her dough from an already started chain. There's something deeply satisfying about knowing that each person gives him to 4 more, so in theory the chain should multiply outwards every 10 days. 

This is the lovely little package that I handed to Georgie on Friday (Lauren and Ruth will be getting theirs soon). I'm looking forwards to hearing about the results. 

I attempted to superficially disguise the fact that I was carrying around an odd smelling, bubbling jar by putting it in a Selfridges Food Hall bag... It didn't stop me from getting more than a few odd looks in the restaurant I met Georgie in on my lunch break.

Flo and Elle London Blog London Lifestyle blog German Friendship cake breakfast cake caring for Herman Herman Herman Flo and Elle Recipe Flo and Elle London Blog London Lifestyle blog German Friendship cake breakfast cake caring for Herman Herman Herman Flo and Elle Recipe Flo and Elle London Blog London Lifestyle blog German Friendship cake breakfast cake caring for Herman Herman Herman Flo and Elle Recipe Flo and Elle London Blog London Lifestyle blog German Friendship cake breakfast cake caring for Herman Herman Herman Flo and Elle Recipe Flo and Elle London Blog London Lifestyle blog German Friendship cake breakfast cake caring for Herman Herman Herman Flo and Elle Recipe