You know that niggling feeling, when the image of something sweet is hovering on your mind and you can just about taste what you fancy.   Today I just had to have a Rumkugel. So when I passed the bakery on the way home  from a long walk in bleak weather  I was happy to see they had nice big ones waiting for me.

15 minutes later I settled down with a tea and these billions of calories:

You can get Rumkugeln anywhere in Germany, but they are small and more like  chocolate truffles. It is only in North Germany you will get these big ones in the bakeries. I remember buying one each Saturday when my mother sent me for bread. They cost only 10 Pfennig then, and later, as schoolkids we liked to spend our pocket money on them.

There was a rumor among us kids that the baker made ‘Rumkugeln’ by sweeping off the crumbs of cakes and bread from the tables and the floor, before mixing them together with rum and chocolate. Truth is, these things are made of leftover cake. That’s why the taste is never the same. I have found f. i. cherries, walnuts, pieces of apple and bits with cinnamon taste  in them. Sometimes they are very soft inside, sometimes a bit more dry. One ingredient however is rum. Not much, and most likely these days it is rum aroma, but that is a must. I suspect our baker is using cream, most likely with some melted dark chocolate mixed in, cocoa powder, castor sugar and  maybe some egg. Then it is all mixed together and rolled (kugeln) around in chocolate sprinkles.