There was a time when I used to sell chocolate cakes for a little extra income during the holiday season. My son loved having the house filled with the aroma of chocolate and the refrigerator over flowing with chocolate cake trimmings. He was in ultimate chocolate cake bliss. But, it came to a point when there was just too much trimmings for my little one to even get excited about anymore.
I felt bad with the thought of just throwing them out, so I had to think of a way to recycle these and still make them good enough to sell or give as gift aways during the Christmas season.
I was stumped with ideas when I suddenly remembered these small cakes I had tasted from one of the cake shops that was laced with a bit of rum. I clearly recall dissecting it as it was pretty darn tasty and an awesome chocolate fix.
It seemed like it was made with chocolate cake but I’m sure these people won’t bake such minute cakes in the shape of golfballs. It dawned on me that these may be made from cake trimmings and what better way to disguise the burned rough edges of the cake tops than with rum and chocolate ganache.
That seemed like sheer genius to me and so I decided to play around a bit with a small batch. You may use any dark rum or liquor I would guess, or if you’re feeling generous with a smidgen of Irish cream, amaretto flavouring or Gran Marnier, fell free to get creative.
It is best to keep these rum balls covered in the refrigerator to maintain it’s flavour and moisture. Allow the alcohol to evaporate for a day or so before you start going to town on these things. The alcohol flavour might be too strong when you consume these rum balls soon after you’ve made them.
Play around with this basic recipe and I’m sure you can come up with something even more yummy!
Chocolate Crumb Rum Balls
Ingredients:
200g dark cooking chocolate
¼ cup cream
30g butter
200g chocolate cake crumbs
2 teaspoons rum
½ cup chocolate sprinkles or nuts
1 cup chocolate ganache ( optional for chocolate covered rum balls)
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Place chocolate in a bowl
- Combine the cream and butter in a small pan and stir over low heat until the butter melts and mixture is just boiling
- Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate melts and mixture is smooth
- Stir the cake crumbs into the mixture and then the rum
- Refrigerate for 20 mins, stirring occasionally until just firm enough to handle.
- Roll heaped teaspoons of the the mixture into balls of your desired size
- Spread the chocolate sprinkles or nuts on a sheet of grease proof paper and carefully roll the rum balls and set aside
- You may choose to melt some chocolate ganache to make chocolate covered rum balls
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes until firm
Photo Credit: sifu renka
Photo Credit: beatle2102
Photo Credit: Pamcake324