Someone gave me the starter for this as a counter-attack when I gave her some of my sourdough starter. I've made two cakes now, both delicious and well received but can anyone answer these questions?
1. Why is there not time allowed for rising in the instructions? Another yeast cake I have looked at does include rising time before cooking: http://www.coffeeandvanilla.com/polish-yeast-cake-ciasto-drozdzowe/
2. Looking at the ingredients to be added to the Herman starter, I have wondered if they would make a cake by themselves without the starter - so what's the point? Eggs, sugar, oil/butter, flour and baking powder plus the flavourings and apple look like a cake recipe already.....
PS I have frozen three sets of Herman, having read that it is easy to revive
Its main raising agent is the baking powder added to it (selfraising flour), not the yeast. The yeast just gives it a faintly 'alcoholic' flavour.
Your second point, see answer above. The flavour would be quite different, even if the ingredients make a good cake in their own right.
Yes it reconstitutes well from frozen. The yeast comes back to live without problems, the same applies to sourdough starters.
I'll have a look at the Polish cake, sounds yummy and we have a family birthday coming up :)
Thanks, that all makes sense. Do you know what would happen if I did leave it to rise for a bit?
It does rise better than other cakes, Deb. But you can use a resting time if you like. It doesn't rise properly like bread though. I actually turned my Herman into a sourdough bread starter and now I use it for all my yeasty recipes ;D No one in my house really liked the cakes much but they are not true cake lovers. I did make a terrific lemon cake with it. Jeannine suggests adding some Angel Delight or other instant whipped pudding mix to it, and I agree that this does make a very good texture.
Quote from: artichoke on May 02, 2012, 15:28:30
Thanks, that all makes sense. Do you know what would happen if I did leave it to rise for a bit?
Never tried that, I guess it would be a bit lighter in texture? Perhaps add plain flour rather than self raising and a bit of fresh yeast too (or an additional couple of teaspoons of granulated yeast)? If you do try this, please report back here.
There are many recipe variants for Herman cake out there (really nice as chocky cake with lots of cocoa), but I am not aware of a 'yeast cake' variant.