Cumberland Rum Butter - gifts for workmates

Last year (- has it REALLY been a whole year?) I made my work colleagues a jar of Rum Butter.

As it went down rather well, I thought I might make it a tradition, and make them some this year too.  (but with an added bonus of a wee bottle of Sloe Gin)

I actually used SIX blocks (250g blocks) of butter for this batch.  I did four to start with and decided it wasn't enough, so did another two.  For the second batch I could only get dark brown sugar though, so the batches are slightly different colours - but equally delicious.

Here is the recipe for you.  (I have broken it down into a smaller portion for you, but the photos show bulk :)  )

You will need:

• 250g butter
• 500g soft brown sugar
• a good measure of rum

What you do:

• Pop the sugar in a bowl and pour the rum over it.  Let it soak all the way through.

• Meanwhile, pop the butter in a non-stick pan over a low heat and allow to melt.

• Once melted, pour onto the boozy sugar and stir.  The hot butter will dissolve the sugar.

• Give it a good mix with a wooden spoon then plug in your electric whiskers.  (you can do the next bit by hand, but you will have muscles Popeye would be envious off by the time you are finished)

• On a slow setting give it a good whisk until the sugar is blended with the butter.

• Now, go away for half an hour, do some crocheting, make a brew, wash the dishes, catch up on Corrie - whatever, just leave the butter to cool slightly.

• Then go back and whisk it again, it will magically change colour.

• I leave it another 15 minutes and give it another whisk to make it light and fluffy.

• Then pipe it into pots.  I prefer to pipe rather than blob it in with a spoon as it's much less messy.  Although on the down side it looks rather like...... let's not go there!

Voilà!   Yummity, easy-peasy, hand-made Rum Butter.

To make it into a gift I added a scruffy hand-made label - or you can take your time with it and make a pretty one  (time was running out fast for me this Christmas)

.... and added a little bottle of highly alcholic, home-made Sloe Gin  (Sloes kindly picked and donated to me by my lovely friend Lezley)

Tied it up with a red ribbon (got Hubster to curl the ends to make it prettyful)

Pretty pressies all round  :)

And there is a pot left in the fridge for me  :)
Perfect on hot toasted crumpets, so the Rum Butter all melts and leaves a puddle of sugary rummy mess on your plate which you just have to lick  :)