Herman the German

We once met a German called Herman when I was on holiday as a kid. Even back then I loved a good dose of wordplay so I found the moniker 'Herman the German' immensely satisfying. This post isn't about him (though if you're interested, he was dead tall and rocked a Speedo.), it's about a cake. Herman the German friendship cake. I'd never heard of such a thing until I was given a piece of the mixture from whence Herman springs. He was given to me by a lovely lady I met on jury duty (that's my most recent excuse for having not been hanging about here for, like, aaaaaaages) and, in a nutshell, he's like a chain letter but in cake form. You get given a bit of cake mix, which you add to for 8 days, split into 4, giving 3 parts of the mixture away to unsuspecting friends/eager bakers/ anyone you can find who reckons they can get another 3 folk to take a bit. You add some extra basics, some fruit, bake it and, voila, a fully formed Herman. Here's how it goes - be warned, this isn't one of those gloriously shot food posts. In fact, he doesn't look great most of the way through. Who cares though, right? Hopefully the words are painting a tiny picture and I can tell you that he tastes bloody lovely! Enjoy.

Mmm, non-descript cake mix.

Adding to the mix on day 4.

Masquerading as a giant jar of jam.

Warning, do NOT taste Herman raw. He is not a spoon-licking kinda cake. Who woulda thunk it with all that milk in him, sitting out for days. He's a bubbling bad-ass.

Herman split into 4, the rest of the ingredients are added, including apples and raisin. Fruit means he's totes healthy, innit?

I had so much cake mix, I had to bake two Hermans...

The Herman bits that got stuck in the cake tin. Perfect with ice cream on top! Yum!