CSvax:smp (03/11/83)
In reference to the person who was looking for the "starter" for the
Friendship Cake, if it is the one I am thinking about, you can easily
make your own. All you need is a large (the exact size depends upon
how big a batch you are interested in making) crock or glass jar or
some such thing. Make sure it can be covered in some way. To make the
"starter", simply take a 500 ml bottle of brandy, the flavor you pick
is up to you, pour it into the crock or jar. Then you add fresh fruit,
and an equal amount of white sugar. Stir the mixture well, cover and
let stand. It must be stirred every day or mold will develop on the top.
Fruit and sugar can be added as desired, but after the last addition of
this combination, it will probably be a week or two until the "starter"
is ready to use. This is a nice recipe to make during the summer months
as fruit can be added as it is in season, and by the end of the summer you
have a nice batch of syrup and fruit that can be put into jars and saved
for the winter months. It is very good over vanilla ice cream. The
various fruits also play a part in the kind of syrup you end up with, ie
melons tend to "melt" into the syrup whereas blueberries don't. After
your syrup is finished, it is the syrup minus the fruit that is passed onto
your friends for the cake. Enjoy!!
Sue Piotrowski.pjc2@nvuxb.UUCP (P J Carstensen) (10/02/85)
someone a while back requested a recipe for "friendship cake"
starter, which I assume is the same thing as Herman (as in "That
Herman is getting unruly again...I guess we better feed him.")
So to make starter mix together
2 c flour
2 c warm water
1/4 c sugar
1 package yeast
cover loosely and let stand overnight in a warm place. Then refrig,
stir each day. On the fifth day, feed with
1 c flour
1 c milk
1/2 c sugar
On the tenth day, it is ready to use: Give 1/3 of the stuff
away (to be fed immediately and on the fifth day, as above), use
1/3 to make sour-dough pancakes, waffles, or coffe-cake (see below)
and "feed" the left-overs to start the next batch...(Note: I don't
think you are sposed to store in metal containers, and you can feed
it all sorts of weird stuff like oat flour, and if you feed it late,
it tends to forgive you...)
I keep 1/2 batch going tho and don't give any away, just use 2/3
of the starter each time...
The way I make the coffeecake (which is non-standard, but I forget
the standard) is:
Take a bunch of chopped up fruit (apples, bananas, zuccini, mashed
cooked fresh pumpkin, (whole) blueberries) -- maybe 2 c. worth?
Add 1 egg, quota of Herman, 1/3 c oil, misc flavorings (choice of
cinammon, nutmeg, vanilla, molasses, wheat germ, etc.), sugar (1/2
to 1 cup -- depends on the fruit), sift in 1 c. flour, touch of salt,
1/4 t. soda, 1 t baking powder...stir up mess, throw in pan, bake at
350 until the top is reasonably brown...
Pat