Rum Balls

These rum balls are made with good ol’ Aussie Weetbix. I researched several old-fashioned recipes to come up with a recipe that delivers perfectly soft and delicious balls of rum bliss.

(If you don’t have weetbix in your country, don’t fear. You can use 120 grams of a wheat breakfast cereal instead of weetbix.)

Searching for the perfect rum balls recipe

I searched old newspapers, Nana Ling’s handwritten recipe books, old home cooking supplements and vintage recipe books to find the perfect rum balls recipe. But I wasn’t quite satisfied with any I came across.

I turned to my mum and she shared some recipes she’d collected during her time working in bakeries.

Still, not quite what I was looking for.

One of my mum’s recipes used cake crumbs and while it may guarantee a lovely soft texture, it’s an ingredient that doesn’t really translate well for home cooks these days.

However, the recipe did offer some neat little ingredients that I thought would be perfect to add to my own recipe.

The weetbix recipes are often criticised for being on the dry side, so I wanted to avoid that problem and now I had a plan – and a couple of extra little ingredients – to do just that.

So the recipe here is a mash-up of old rum balls recipes. I’ve borrowed from here and there to create a perfect rum balls – with weetbix – recipe.

Making these yum balls of rum 

Making this recipe is a fun and straightforward process.

First there’s a little crushing, making sure your weetbix or other cereal reaches a fine consistency.

Then there’s a little sprinkling of rum.

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix away.

Now, get ready to roll. Your small balls of rum bliss should be rolled again and coated in the additional coconut.

Looking for more Christmas treats?

You’ll find Christmas pudding, trifle, mini Christmas Cakes and more in the growing Cooking with Nana Ling Christmas collection.