Friendship & Herman

There was a knock on the door earlier. I jumped up, expecting it to be the postman with a couple of parcels I'm expecting and wanting to get to the door before he's raced off up the path and left a red card through the door. As it happened it wasn't the postman, it was one of my friends bringing a portion of this round (picture is after putting it in my own bowl):

It is Herman the Friendship Cake.

I remember my mum doing one of these years ago and Joanne at RiversMEET was (maybe still is!) doing one recently. If you're not familiar with it, the basics are that a friend gives you some of the mixture. You then look after it for 10 days, during which time you mostly stir it occasionally and on certain days you add some specified ingredients to the mixture. On the 9th day, you split your mixture into 5 portions - one for yourself and 4 for friends. On Day 10 you cook your portion after mixing in extra ingredients, depending on what type of cake you want it to be. Each of your friends repeats the 10 day process...thus spreading the friendship cake to more and more people.

The mixture keeps at room temperature, you simply cover the bowl with a tea towel or loose fitting lid.

Hopefully I'll have some cake pictures for you in 10 days time!

 

Mmmm Cake!

It's my birthday tomorrow and, unusually for me, I'm going out! It's not really a birthday night out but my friend was going out with her friend and has invited me and a joint friend out too.

It also means winning a prize from the Lucy 'In The Sky' blog was great timing! In the spirit of passing on the good fortune I'll start a giveaway tomorrow to celebrate. I think I can find some hand-dyed yarn that needs a home ;-)

Of course, it can't be a proper birthday without cake. I was hoping Orla would want to bake with me but despite saying yes she refused to come into the kitchen :-/ so if it tastes awful I've no littlies to blame it on!!!

The recipe I used is from this book, which was a Christmas present from my sister.

Every time I use this recipe I have a slight panic that it's gone horribly wrong. It never seems to have the usual cake mixture consistency, it's more like pastry when it goes into the cases/tin. I've never had a problem with the taste of it though ;-)

I also got to try out my butterfly cake silicon mould. I've had this one and a train one for ages now. they came from a clearance sale at Lakeland some time ago and I've just not used them. One thing that has put me off is I threw away the cardboard that was around them that told me how much mixture to make. Anyway I was brave and it seems the recipe I followed (Vanilla Cupcakes) makes pretty much the right amount!

See what I mean about the consistency????

But it seemed to turn out ok...

I'm hoping Erin might help me ice it when she gets home from school. I might use this mould and recipe for her birthday cake as the plates & party bags are butterfly themed.