Brandy balls and cake stalls

I love cake stalls, and I love 'working' on them. You meet nice friendly people who are really happy to part with their money for a good cause. This week I baked for Bellyful. The tables were laden with wonderful homemade baking and sweets. They looked a treat. And not surprisingly, everything flew off the table!

Wonderful cup cakes - this baker is so clever!

I enjoy volunteering for Bellyful. The women are fun, enthusiastic and best of all, have a great community spirit. They are always willing to give their time to help Mums and families with newborns and/or sick children, every week cooking and delivering meals for them. Let's face it, most of us have experienced similar exhausting times and remember wondering..... can we get through this! A little bit of help is a godsend.

Items ready for sale

For the cake stall I offered to make a fruit loaf, a carrot cake, and some Brandy Balls. I thought Brandy Balls might be something a little different. I had made them a few weeks earlier (for the adults at a children's party), and they all went in seconds!!
When I went down to help at the stall, I noted only one bag of my Brandy Balls were left. It made me smile, thinking that my baking might not be appreciated (recall my earlier post about lamingtons).

The last bag of Brandy balls

I recalled the story my lovely husband told me not long after I had met him. When he was a young boy, for a Scout 'do', his Uncle Jack kindly made date sandwiches (with lovely wholemeal bread). Everyone else bought pies, cream cakes, sausage rolls etc (you get the picture) and it became clear to him that his sandwiches were not at all popular with the other scouts.
He went on to tell me he only got a meat pie about once a year, and while he would have preferred to chomp into one of the many 'unhealthy' items on offer, he felt he had to eat as many of his sandwiches as he could... to show his appreciation for Uncle Jacks efforts. Like M's mother, he was also a vegetarian.... they were somewhat few and far between in the 50's.
Both times I have made my Brandy balls, I've been so focused on the task, no photo was taken, so my apologies for the copy from the Edmonds Cookery Book. I can assure you mine looked (almost) identical. They are really easy to put together - but allow a bit of time - rolling the balls and dipping into chocolate hail can be a little time consuming.
They are wonderful with coffee, and lovely to give as a little thank you gift. And as one lady who bought them from the cake stall said, 'they will be perfect for my mid winter dinner tonight'.
Brandy balls – Edmonds Cookery book (Pub. 1998)
Ingredients

250g pkt Vanilla wine biscuits – crushed

2 tbsp currants – finely chopped

2 tbsp finely chopped walnuts

1 egg

¼ c castor sugar

1tbsp cocoa

1 ½ tbsp brandy or sherry - you could use pure essence but the real thing is better!

125g butter, melted

Coconut or chocolate hail

Method 

Place crumbs in bowl, add currants and walnuts

Stir to combine

In another bowl beat egg with a fork, add sugar and cocoa, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

Add brandy, pour this mixture into crumb mixture.

Add melted butter, stirring until well combined.

Measure tablespoons of mixture and shape into balls.

Roll in coconut or chocolate hail.

Chill until firm.

Makes about 20.

(I made a single mix the first time and the balls were perfect. I doubled the mixture for the cake stall but made the mistake of adding extra currants. The mixture needs to be quite sticky in order to cover with chocolate hail easily, the extra currants made the balls a little less sticky.)

Copied from Edmonds Cookery book