Do people still make 'friendship cake'?

I've just recently remembered it. It's quite possibly got a different name elsewhere, but it's a yeasty cake 'bug' that was big over here in the 80s, but I haven't seen it for ages.
I remember it multiplying furiously and it ended up being like zucchini: everyone dropping off batches of bug on each others porches and scarpering!
We ate a lot of cake, since my mother is rather sentimenal about alive things and felt guilty getting rid of excess.

Yes, it still exists! Google "Herman the German friendship cake" and you'll find a fab website about it.

Yup! and around here we love it. I am impatiently waiting for the right day to make it.

Also, you can use the starter/ "herman" to make some bread or pancakes.

I used to make the fruit version of the Friendship Cake.'

Initial Starter
Step 1 - Set aside a 1-gallon jar. Purchase all of the ingredients, including canned pineapple, canned peaches, sugar, and maraschino cherries. Add brandy and nuts as optional items. Include the canned juice when mixing in the fruit.
Step 2 - Mix 1 cup cubed pineapple, 1 cup sugar and 2 tbsp. brandy (optional). Pour the mixture into the 1-gallon jar. Stir every day for two weeks.
Step 3 - Combine 1 cup maraschino cherries, 1 cup sugar and 2 tbsp. brandy (optional). Add to the gallon-jar mixture and stir daily for two weeks.
Step 4 - Mix 1 cup canned peaches, 1 cup sugar, and 2 tbsp. (optional). Add to the gallon jar. Stir daily for two more weeks.
Step 5 - Drain the liquid into a separate bowl. Do not refrigerate it. Reserve 1 1/2 cups for five friendship starters. Use the remainder for another purpose, such as a topping for ice cream.

Making Five Friendship Starters
Step 6 -
Prepare the mixture for the five starters by combining the reserved liquid, 2 1/2 cups sugar and 28 ounces of canned sliced peaches. Pour into the 1-gallon jar and loosely cover it with a paper towel. Do not use the lid or refrigerate it. Stir the mixture daily for 10 days.
Step 7 - Mix 2 1/2 cups of sugar and one 16-ounce can of crushed pineapple. Add to the 1-gallon jar. Stir daily for 10 days.
Step 8 - Add 2 1/2 cups of sugar and one 16-ounce can of fruit cocktail. Mix in one 10-ounce jar of maraschino cherries. Stir every day for 10 days.
Step 9 - Drain the juice and divide the mixture equally into five starters, measuring two cups each. Give each starter away, including the directions to make five starters and the Friendship Cake recipe. Reiterate not to refrigerate the mixture.

Friendship Cake
Step 10 - Divide the leftover fruit mixture into two equal parts. Mix together two cake mixes, two small boxes of instant pudding, 3/4 cup of oil, and eight eggs. Fold in the fruit.
Step 11 - Add two cups of nuts if desired. Fold in optional ingredients such as chocolate chips or coconut. Pour the mixture into two greased pans.
Step 12 - Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool and enjoy.

Is this coincidence? Telepathy maybe? Just a few days ago we* talked about this 'Herman', how it was a nice way to reach out to friends and acquaintances, to get them interested in 'doing new things', or 'thinking differently'. Thank you for the recipe!
*We are a small local group, talking on subjects like (social) permaculture, sharing the abundance, etc. and we want to grow (in numbers) to start doing more to 'make a change' in this small town.

My wife's maternal family is from rural south carolina. They had a family tradition/ Family recipe for this which ultimately became the Claxton fruit cake, a nationwide commercial success which helped to popularize the fruit cake to a broader audience.

Family cake recipe...

12 lbs very dark molasses sugar
12 lbs Flour
36 lbs seeded raisins
24 lbs Currants
12 lbs sliced citron
10 dozen eggs
2 1/2 quarts molasses
3 bottles sherry wine
3 bottles brandy
6 ounces grated nutmeg
6 ounces cloves
6 ounces of cinnamon
6 ounces of mace
12 teaspoons baking soda
One 12th of this baked slowly in a four quart pan makes a delicious cake

We always called it Friendship Bread.
I use to make it all the time. Especially around the winter holidays.
It got me to thinking of other things I use to  make.
Does anyone remember Apple stack cake?
It has a bunch of thin layers with cooked apples or spiced applesauce in between.
Was one of my favorites cakes growing up.
Mom would make them in the fall when the apples came in.
Now I am wanting one....may have to go make a cake ;-)

Leila Rich wrote:
I remember it multiplying furiously and it ended up being like zucchini: everyone dropping off batches of bug on each others porches and scarpering!

Sounds like if you're not careful, it could be a "losing friends" cake!! The proverbial white elephant...

I've got some starter kits for friendship cakes that went out of date in the shop, obviously not a great demand locally unfortunately. I'm sure they'll be fine (just a 'best before'). I opened one to look at the ingredients and was surprised to find that in the final mix you are supposed to add baking powder and use self raising flour. Surely with a yeast based cake mix we shouldn't need more raising agents. All the recipes I found online seemed to be the same. Does anyone have a friendship cake mix recipe that doesn't add extra raising agents?

The Friendship cake that I made years ago called for using a cake mix.  

That was way back when I had a job and two kids so the cake mix made a very tasty cake.

I always thought of it like I was adding wine to something, though instead of wine I called it brandy.

Probably most folks are not familiar with fermented foods and do not know that there is yeast in fermented foods.

Thanks for reviving this thread so I can read it again.

When I lived in Scotland, someone told me I ought to call my "Herman" Hamish instead to reflect where he lived so we had Hamish cake instead. Somewhere in a box (we have recently moved house) I have the recipe. I had to find another recipe for a starter as my original Herman got used up years ago when everyone had had enough of friendship cakes. I think I will have to get him going again as soon as I find my cookery books, I can remember the taste as I sit here typing.

I am curious how does the Herman Cake compare to the Friendship Cake?

Are they something similar that you ferment fruit with a starter or something different?

Hi Anne, Similar but different. I think the Herman cake is more like a sourdough starter - a yeasty liquid with flour and water, rather than a wine like liquid. Do you add the fruit into the friendship cake or just the liquid? I'm a bit confused.

I did a bit more online research and found the 'hermanthegerman' site had become taken over by a dodgy online gambling site, but Herman cake gives a link to the wayback machine site, which has lots of lovely sounding recipes and also includes one for avoiding adding extra raising agents and just uses the yeast: proper herman

I made up the mix as usual, except I substituted plain flour for self-raising, threw all the ingredients in and gave it a good stir, and then I left it in the mixing bowl for the yeast in the sour dough to do its thing. My kitchen is usually cool, and it was October, but after a couple of hours it was still nicely bubbly, not quite like a freshly fed Herman but with bubbles clearly visible on the surface. Now it’s these bubble that are important, the more bubbles the more the cake will rise. For those of you who know how yeast makes baking rise, skip the next bit!
For those of you who don’t, the yeast uses the sugar as a food source, and gives off CO2 as it ferments, which is what the bubbles are. These bubbles expand in the baking process and make the cake rise upwards, as due to the confines of the tin it’s the only way it can go.
I was really pleased with the carrot cake. After a couple of hours to rise, similar to bread making, I poured it very carefully into a lined tin so as not to disturb the bubbles, then baked it in the oven and watched it rise. The finished texture was lovely and everyone enjoyed it. It was so successful I decided to do it again!

So basically, with a bit of patience/time the Herman cake can be made without baking powder. I'm happy about that and will probably report back in due course.

Nancy Reading wrote:. Do you add the fruit into the friendship cake or just the liquid? I'm a bit confused.

Thank you for the explanation, Nancy.

The fruit is added to the cake batter.  It has been a long time since I made a Friendship Cake because it has been a long time since I had any starter or made the starter.

Step 10 - Divide the leftover fruit mixture into two equal parts. Mix together two cake mixes, two small boxes of instant pudding, 3/4 cup of oil, and eight eggs. Fold in the fruit.

I don't remember the fruit in the cake (like a fruit cake).  I am thinking that by the time the fruit has spent so much time in the fermenting process that it is like mush, though as I said it has been a long time.

I still can remember how good the cake was ...

Anne Miller wrote:I am curious how does the Herman Cake compare to the Friendship Cake?
Are they something similar that you ferment fruit with a starter or something different?

Someone gave us a Herman and called it a friendship starter.  We made lots of bread and cake and gave lots away.  Then went on holidays and Herman went to god.  We are about to start another, having been given a starter from a 2 year old batch.  I think it could be a matter of who is calling it.  I did an online search and there are a lot of recipes named "Herman Friendship Cake".  There are a number of recipes just called friendship cakes made from bought cake mix.

I did did a search for "How to make a Herman cake Starter" and found this:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7160/herman-sourdough-starter/

Ingredients

   2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast

   2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

   2 cups all-purpose flour

   ¼ cup white sugar

1 cup white sugar, divided

2 cups all-purpose flour, divided

2 cups milk, divided

Directions

   In a large glass or plastic container, dissolve the yeast in warm water. Stir in the flour and sugar, mix until smooth. (DO NOT USE A METAL SPOON)! Cover loosely and store in a warm place overnight.

   The next day, stir and refrigerate.

   Stir once each day for the next four days. On the fifth day, stir, then divide in half. Give half away with feeding instructions.

   Feed starter with 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 cup flour, and 1 cup milk. Stir until smooth. Cover and place in refrigerator. Stir once each day for next four days.

   On the tenth day feed again with 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 cup flour, and 1 cup milk. Return to refrigerator and stir once each day for the next four days.

   On the fifteenth day it is ready to be used for baking. Reserve one cup of the starter in the refrigerator and continue to follow the stir and feed cycle (Stir once a day for four days, stir and feed on the fifth day, ready for use on the tenth day.)

source

Frienship Cake





https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7900/thirty-day-friendship-cake/

The Friendship Cake Starter is the red liquid in the jar in the picture with several cakes.

As everyone can see from the pictures, we are talking about two different cakes. Although both are called "Friendship Cakes".

As everyone can see from these pictures the Herman Cake is more like a "sourdough cake" and the Friendship Cake like the recipes I posted above is more like a 'brandy cake".

Since I have never had or seen a Herman Cake, I am sure it is equally as good as what I know as a Friendship Cake.

From the pictures above the Herman Cake looks like a much darker richer cake, at least to me.

I would love to make and taste one, I just don't feel that either cake is something I can do in the near future...

At the very least this thread has turned into a really fun learning experience.