Valentine Rum Truffles

February has a far more relaxing vibe than the preceding two months. The most notable holiday is Valentine’s Day; a holiday you can choose to celebrate on a large scale by sending out a plethora of notes, or more laid back and intimately spent with your sweetheart. I insist on doing both. My favorite way to continue the creative momentum and warmth of the holidays, usually climaxing on New Year’s Eve, is to give my loved ones little treasures on Valentine’s Day. To make it extra special and enjoy some quality kitchen time, I recruited my girlfriend Denise to help!

Ingredients*:
• 4 oz Spiced Rum
• 1 spiced cake box mix (6 cupcakes, to be exact)
• 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 ½ Cups Ginger Snap Crumbs
• ½ Cup White Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder

For this recipe, we bought a new box of cake mix; however, you can definitely use leftover cake from another baking session- even better, if it’s a bit dry! I used six cupcakes worth of baked cake. I finely crumbled the cupcakes into a medium mixing bowl and set aside. While I crumbled, Denise smashed, bashed and ground! She filled a sealable plastic bag with 15-20 ginger snap cookies and rolled over it with a rolling pin until she was left with nothing but ginger snap powder.

For the fun part- I measured out five ounces of spiced rum, saving one for sipping. Pour four shots into a smaller bowl, and whisk in the cocoa powder and powdered sugar – Denise whisked and I sipped. After sipping my way through a few background sighs and whines, I joined in the next step of slowly mixing in the spiced rum into the cupcake crumble. Depending on the dryness of your cake, mix until you have created a dough that is slightly tacky and still sticking together.

The next preparation step is really fun because you can ‘assembly-line’ the finished truffles with your partner. Place some wax paper, tin foil, or parchment paper, over your workspace. Spill out a pile of the ginger snap powder, and next to it a pile of white sugar. I took out a small bit of dough, rolled into a ball in my hand (for the small favor boxes, I used four quarter-sized balls). Roll the ball into the first powder, and your partner rolls the same ball into the second, lastly placing the truffles on an oven rack to dry overnight.

I packaged mine up for Valentine gifts using white gift boxes and some pretty ribbon. I also used some festive labels and heart-shaped tags from Evermine for a personal, finished look.

*Alterations I’ll be trying next: Chocolate sprinkles in place of the ginger snap crumbs. Irish crème in place of the spiced rum.

More Valentine’s Day gift ideas…

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Zoe (64 Posts)

Zoe is born and bred in Portland, Oregon and recently moved to Orlando, Florida. She studied sociology and philosophy at University of Oregon, and is currently employed at a law firm. Presently, she devotes her time to being lost in the tropical vegetation of her backyard, sun-scorched bike rides, repurposing everything she can think of, quirky cooking, and promoting the creative lifestyle that she loves.