Hermann the German Friendship Sourdough Cake starter survived a road trip through Daylesford and the Macedon ranges and the altitude of a plane trip. He settled easily into his new home in Sydney and is alive and well. Yesterday was Day 9 of what I like to think of as the feeding and breeding program. He spawned 3 little baby Hermanns; one for the oven, one to keep and two to adopt out to new homes.

There have been no shortage of offers to adopt baby Hermanns.  Talk about reverse psychology at its very best. Last week in my post I was adamant that I wouldn’t inflict any baby Hermann’s on unsuspecting friends. To keep up with overwhelming demand it looks like I will be feeding and breeding Hermanns for quite some time. For those of you who are new to the blog or haven’t been following the story, here’s the link to the original post, From Daylesford With Love. Hermann the German Friendship Cake.

I’m delighted to report that I have successfully baked my first cake. Decisions. Decisions. Which flavourings was I going to use? After much contemplation I settled on apples, dried cherries, almonds and rum.

Here’s Hermann on Day 10 frothing wildly, preparing for his trip to the oven.

After nine days of stirring and the occasional feeding, making the actual cake  was a breeze. I beat the following ingredients into a very hungry Hermann with nothing more than a wooden spoon:

2 cups of self raising flour
1 cup caster sugar
2 teaspoons of mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup olive oil
2 eggs
2 apples, peeled and cut into chunks
1 cup of dried cherries, softened in hot water for 20 minutes, drained
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
1 teaspoon pure rum extract.

After a good beating, I poured the batter into a 30 cm by 22 cm rectangular cast iron daisy cake pan. To be honest I had forgotten I had this until I went rummaging through my cupboards looking for a suitable tin in which to bake my Hermann. It must be a long, lost relic of one of my daughters’ birthday parties when they were very young.

I brushed some melted butter on top – the recipe called for 1/4 cup but this seemed way too much so I only used half. Then I sprinkled some brown sugar on top, again not quite as much as the 1/4 cup sugar specified in the recipe. Here’s the cake ready to be baked in the oven.

And here’s how Hermann the German Friendship Cake looked emerging from the oven, studded with apples, cherries and almonds.

Look how pretty he looked turned out of the pan and dusted with a little icing sugar. More of a Hermione than a Hermann I think.

Good enough to eat! Warm and delicious, just out of the oven!