From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!npois!houxm!houxa!houxi!houxz!ihnp4!ixn5c!inuxc!pur-ee!CSvax:smp Newsgroups: net.cooks Title: Friendship Cake Article-I.D.: purdue.507 Posted: Fri Mar 11 13:00:52 1983 Received: Sat Mar 12 08:47:45 1983 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.