Black Strap Banana Cake Balls

First of all, allow me to say PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE forgive my absence.  Autumn is horrible for my allergies and I caught an actual cold on top of it.  Bleh.  I WILL be going back on local honey this weekend and visiting my allergist soon after if that doesn't fix me up.

Enough of that.  This weekend I went to an early Halloween party.  Some people in attendance had been asking me for treats so I brought a few things.  I even let one of the ladies pick a liquor for some rum balls.  Carla chose Black Strap Rum.

I put a lot of thought into what to pair with the rum and eventually decided on caramelized banana.  First I cooked  a cut up banana in a large skillet with 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  While that cooled I prepared a yellow cake batter (with sour cream, yum) for a 6" cake pan.  I mashed the banana and mixed it in.  In retrospect, I could have reduced the liquid (sour cream or sugar) in the recipe a little bit because the cake was very moist and clung to the pan when I went to unmold it.  Of course, this wasn't a problem since it was all about to get smashed up for cake balls.  I also could have reduced the leavening a little bit to account for the small pan size.  I really pushed the amount of rum in these.  I managed to get 8 tablespoons of liquid into them before I thought they might not hold together anymore.  They had a nice warm bath in semi-sweet chocolate and then were left to cool.

The Black Strap Banana cake balls were met with many oooos and ahhhs.  One particular person went back for a few ;-).

 

Things I'll change next time:

• use less liquid in the cake batter
• use less leavening (if i stick with the 6" pan)
• cut banana into coins rather than quarters, so that it cooks more evenly and mashes better

How to:

• cook one banana (cut up) in 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons sugar, about 2 minutes per side
• mash up banana and mix into yellow cake batter and pour into 6" pan, bake
• allow cake to cool and then mash it up
• add Cruzan Black Strap Rum, one teaspoon at a time until the mixture forms a nice ball that sticks together
• form mixture into balls (I use about 1 tablespoon for each)
• freeze on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
• melt chocolate and dip frozen balls into chocolate, return to parchment to cool
• top as you see fit, if you like
• ENJOY!