On Monday I was left with the quandary of what to do with left over cake trimmings, though to be honest left over cake in this house is a rare sight. As a child I had a fondness for Rum Truffles. The best ones being from a local bakery called Mellors. These rum truffles were huge, but that could also be due to nostalgic hindsight, just like Wagon Wheels and Monster Munch used to be bigger back then. We also used to make them at home. All I could remember was that is was cake crumbs, rum essence and not much else.
At 6am Monday morning when I was trying to remember the recipe, Google was no help. No help what so ever. A thousand and one recipes for cake pops and the like and fancy truffles with all sorts of ingredients added, but nothing like the simple recipe I could barely remember.
A quick phonecall to mum sorted it. The recipe we used to make as kids is from a retro book simply called Woman’s Weekly Cookbook. They are not the fanciest of truffles, but they are easy and delicious. Perfect for children to make as no heat required not even melted chocolate. They also make great gifts and in these cash strapped times make fab festive gifts.
There is lots of variations and the limitation is your imagination. As well as different ways of decorating you can also change the flavour. Orange extract instead of rum works well.
- Halloween – Now when I set about making these truffles they we’re going to be dung beetles and well dung balls but the glitter called me and you can’t have a dung beetle that looks like it’s about to take part in Strictly Come Dancing. If you do want to make this dodgy Halloween treat follow the beetle making instructions here. Alternatively with couple of sugar pearls, each adorned with a black dot along with 8 icing/liquorice legs you have a spider truffle or add some wings and you have a bat.
- Harry Potter – dust in gold lustre dust and you have Quidditch balls.
- Christmas – make into mini Christmas Puddings or cover in icing sugar to make snow balls.
To help get an even cover of coating. I pour some of the coating in a mug, place one truffle in the cup and while holding the cup move in it a circular motion. Got to love centrifugal force. With bigger items like the polka dots this method doesn’t work as well and it’s sometimes easier to press the sprinkles into the truffle by hand.
Rum Balls/Truffles
makes around 15
125g cake crumbs
60g icing sugar
30g cocoa powder
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp rum (the hard stuff or essence)
topping (glitter, sprinkles, crumbed oreos etc…)
1) mix together all of the ingredients until it is the consistency of a fudgy brownie. I did this in the bender as it’s the easiest and quickest way to do it, it could be done by hand.
2) From the mixture roll balls about the size of a malteser. Roll in topping then place on greaseproof paper to dry. Or in my case, eat asap.
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Jeyna Grace
October 26, 2011 at 8:30 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Those look delicious! And cute too!
Mike
October 26, 2011 at 9:53 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
In the words of Perez Hilton – AMAZEBALLS!
thelittleloaf
October 26, 2011 at 11:53 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Ooh I love the idea of these! Leftover cake is very uncommon in our household, but would be worth setting some aside just to make :-)
Laura@howtocookgoodfood
October 26, 2011 at 11:56 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
These are co fantastic, my kids would go mad for them! :-)
Helen T
October 26, 2011 at 8:31 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I want to make these, sure we used the same recipe when I was a kid too. Love your different decoration ideas too.
Kate
October 27, 2011 at 6:43 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Wow what an inventive way to make colorful truffles. These are brilliant. I make truffles every year but always struggle to make them look amazing.
Liz (@violetposy)
October 28, 2011 at 3:41 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
They are fantastic, and thank you for adding them to Thrifty Christmas! Can I use them as a guest post?
The Curious Cat
November 9, 2011 at 7:47 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
And bookmarking again – sooooo cool! :) Your blogs been making me laugh and smile a lot today! xxx
Jules
November 14, 2011 at 8:52 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Aw, thank you!
Vanessa Kimbell
November 17, 2011 at 1:23 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
They are just fabulous !!! so so Pretty THANK YOU !
Vanessa
xxx
Janet Currie
November 20, 2011 at 9:32 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Having a go at these today with Emily, age 8, today!
When baking goes bad « Butcher, Baker
November 2, 2011 at 1:02 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
[...] Cake burnt on top? Trim the top of the cake and cover with icing. If this isn’t an option, trim off the burnt bits of the cake and transform the decent cake into truffles. [...]
Christmas is coming! « Apple & Thyme
December 5, 2011 at 4:43 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
[...] the final Cookery Class of the term we are making Christmas Pudding truffles based on this recipe and last week in the last evening class of the term the ladies did a sterling job of decorating [...]
Thrifty Christmas Linky {Now Closed} | Thrifty Christmas
December 20, 2011 at 11:38 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
[...] Rum Balls/Truffles [...]
When baking goes bad » Butcher, Baker
February 8, 2012 at 7:43 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
[...] Cake burnt on top? Trim the top of the cake and cover with icing. If this isn’t an option, trim off the burnt bits of the cake and transform the decent cake into truffles. [...]