On Friday, I returned home from a friend's a little before midnight. I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and was greeted by our mixing bowl covered in a tea-towl with what seemed to be a set of typed instructed titled, 'Herman the German Friendship Cake'.
I then went on Facebook and saw my mother's status:
"thank you for my Herman The German Friends cake - it's bubbling away nicely on my work top as instructed. Most intriguing!"
even more intriguing was a reply to a comment slightly further down:
"I'm hoping Amie will care for it while I'm away."
I should have known I would end up involved.
It turns out, a Herman cake is a chain letter in ancient Amish form originally for the needy and sick (we'll assume our Herman-sender doesn't feel we sit in that category). You receive a pot of bubbling goo (in our case from an anonoymous friend) with a set of instructions to help you nuture Herman for the following 10 days; stir, add flour, milk, etc at various intervals. Eventually, you reach a stage where you split your mixture into four parts - one to bake and three to pass on friends and so the cycle begins again.
According to our instructions, Herman tells us,
"You cannot put me in the fridge or I will die. If I stop bubbling, I am dead."
- rather dramatic for a cake! But hey ho, we'll give it a go - we're currently on day 2 of the instructions so I'll keep you posted...
I'd say wish us luck but mum goes on holiday on Monday so really, it's just me looking after her cake for her. No pressure then.
Watch this space...
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