Chocolate Rum Balls

This is another of Mum's recipes, but I've made them a few times myself. They're a pretty-much-failsafe recipe for an afternoon tea or after-dinner treat.

They need to be made in two stages (usually, over two days) as you have to make the cake first.

Ingredients:

Cake:

4 oz (110g) margarine
4 oz (110g) caster sugar (super fine sugar)
2 eggs
4 oz (110g) self-raising flour
3 metric (20mL) tablespoons cocoa or to taste
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
dash milk (optional)


Rum Balls:

Cake as above
3 metric (20mL) tablespoons apricot jam (US jelly or preserves)
½ metric cup (125mL) dried apricots, finely chopped
½ metric cup (125mL) dessicated coconut (shredded coconut)
2 metric (20mL) tablespoons rum
2 metric (20mL) tablespoons water
chocolate sprinkles to coat (these: choc sprinkles -  Cora tells me that they're called the same thing in the US :-D)


Method:

Cake:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C (350 F) and grease and flour a large cake tin (pan).

2. Cream margarine and sugar until fluffy.

3. Add eggs one at a time, creaming until mixed.

4. Add sieved (sifted) flour and cocoa and mix until absorbed. Taste-test to see whether more cocoa is required.

5. Add vanilla essence and mix in thoroughly.

6. The mixture should be at dropping consistency (if you lift a dollop up on a spoon and turn it sideways, the dollop should fall off). If it’s too stiff, add a little milk.

7. Add cake mixture to greased and floured tin, smooth over and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

8. Leave cooked cake until completely cold before proceeding to next step.


Rum Balls:

1. Place cold cake, broken into pieces, into food processor, and blend until it forms fine, even crumbs.

2. In a large bowl, combine cake crumbs and all other ingredients (except chocolate sprinkles) thoroughly

3. Roll into balls a little smaller than 4cm (1.5 inches) in diameter

4. Roll each ball in chocolate sprinkles to coat and refrigerate until required. These can also be frozen for several months – just take out of the freezer to defrost a couple of hours before they are required.