Rum balls

Decadent, chocolatey, rum-soaked cake pops that are perfect for the holidays and require no baking.

  • Cooking time
    1 hour
  • Calories
    kcal
Recommended by
97.8
%
of
10933
members who rated this recipe on Youtube

Many Calcuttans have grown up eating rum balls from Kathleen, Nahoum's, or Flurys, and many more. Rum balls were developed as a way for bakeries to use up leftover cakes and trimmings, but they are delicious—very often tastier than the cakes they were made from! They are the perfect gifts for holiday parties, as they are easy to make, easy to transport and easy to consume without making a mess—but most importantly they are very rich, very satisfying, and they have rum! Could it BE any better?

In this recipe we are starting with a readymade fruitcake, but if you have some leftovers from a fruitcake you made, put it in your rum balls! Use the recipe as a guide because depending on the cake you are using the quantities of rum or corn syrup may need to be adjusted. If it is too shaggy, add more cake. If it is dry, add some rum. We are keeping the frosting simple by dipping the balls in dark chocolate, but there are many possible variations. Hope you give these a try!

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Ingredients

Serves
20 rum balls
  • 160 g Marie biscuits or plain wafers
  • 320 g fruitcake
  • 40 g cocoa powder (our favourite cocoa powder)
  • 120 g corn syrup
  • 120 g dark rum
  • 60 g cashew nuts
  • 200 g dark chocolate (for the frosting)

Method

  1. Crush Marie biscuits and crumble the fruitcake in a mixing bowl until no large chunks remain.
  2. Add cocoa powder, dark rum, corn syrup and chopped cashew nuts, and mix until uniform.
  3. Divide the mixture into 40 g portions, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  4. Roll into smooth balls and put them back in the fridge until needed.
  5. For the frosting, melt chocolate over a baine marie.
  6. Dip each rum ball in the melted chocolate and allow it to set. For an added flourish, once the rum balls are set, pour the remaining melted chocolate in cone and form a in zigzag pattern.
  7. Let the rum balls set for a few hours at room temperature before serving them. These can be stored outside in paper boxes for upto 7 days in winter.

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