Herman

After Christmas, I was given a 'friendship' sour dough cake by my mum called 'Herman'. The cake is bubbling and 'alive', the idea being that you look after the cake for a week, feeding it sugar and flour before splitting into portions and distributing to your friends. The last portion you get to keep and make into a cake yourself. Being a sucker for inanimate objects that claim to be alive (I once bought a half dead chive plant from a tesco reduced to clear bin because it had an 'I'm Alive' sticker on the side) I was happy to take Herman home with me.

I wasnt sure what to make of the cake at first. It smells almost beery (that'll be the yeast) and is really bubbly.

I ended up cobbling Herman a little bit, as when it came to feed him I ran out of plain flour and had to use self raising. This resulted in Herman bubbling up and out of the mixing bowl I'd put him in! As it was the biggest bowl I had he had to be moved to a cake tin for the rest of his growing time! Luckily he turned out ok!

The cake was surprisingly nice (mine had raisins, but the apple one is equally as nice!), although you really do need a cup of tea to go with him! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to pass on all of his 'children' - you don't realise how hard it is to get rid of bubbling cake mixture until you try it!