The Sewing Dilettante

So, last Saturday, just in time for Easter, Herman the German was ready for baking. As there were 22 of hubby's immediate family gathered together for the holiday, a cake was definitely a welcome addition to our festivities, especially as it tasted wonderful! Moist and dense, the cake had a lovely, crunchy, salty-sweet crust on the top and lots of plump raisins and apple chunks throughout. It reminded me a bit of  my Nana's apple cake , but it certainly took a lot more preparation time. Most of that time was just sitting around and waiting, stirring occasionally and adding a few basic ingredients every once in a while, but still, I'm not sure I'd bother with it again, unless, of course, someone gave me another batch!  All that aside, the 22 of us made very short work of this Friendship cake, and I'm pretty sure it won me some brownie points!  The starter's all been used or passed on at this stage, but I can still spread the love by sharing the basic cake re...

And his name is Herman. He's German, and he's making my house smell like a doughnut shop. Never a bad thing in my mind, but still, kind of odd. Unless, of course, you're a sweet sourdough starter like Herman, who's pictured here in all his bubbly glory. This starter is used as the base for  'Herman the German Friendship Cake' , a lovely, dense apple cake, which sounds really delicious but which takes ten days to make! Actually, you have to stir or 'feed' Herman for nine days in order to to keep the sourdough culture alive, and then, on the tenth day, you can bake. Delayed gratification and all that. The best part though? When you do finally bake, you reserve enough of the sourdough culture to spread the love to three of your friends, who then get to do the same. Hence the name, I guess!  I've always been fascinated by the idea of sourdough, so I can't wait to see what this is like! Any (local) bloggers want to meet my friend Herman, too?!