Hot Buttered Rum (and love)

For those frigid southern California nights...

Hot Buttered Rum Batter (10-15 servings)
-Stolen and slightly modified from Ye Olde Internetees-

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups dark brown sugar
2 Tb honey
1 Tb vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1 Tb pumpkin pie spice + ¼ ts ground cloves + ½ ts ground cinnamon + ¼ ts ground nutmeg
OR
1 Tb cinnamon + ½ ts ground cloves + ½ ts ground nutmeg (fresh ground is best, of course)

Dark or golden rum
Boiling water
Nutmeg to garnish (optional)
Cinnamon sticks to garnish (optional)
Whipped cream to garnish (optional)

With hand-mixer or standing-mixer cream butter, sugar, honey, vanilla, salt, and spices into an even paste. Mix enough so that the ingredients have incorporated into a uniform paste with no chunks of butter. Do not overmix so that the butter begins to melt.

Place batter in an airtight container and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until firm. Batter can be refrigerated for a week or so, and can be frozen indefinitely. If frozen, divide up into two tablespoon balls before freezing.

For each mug, use two tablespoons of batter. Add 2-3 oz. rum, fill with boiling water and stir until batter dissolves.

Garnish as desired, or don’t.

(This is a sweet recipe, so I wouldn’t recommend adding more than 2 Tb of batter per mug. If you want something a little richer but less sweet, cut the sugar by ½ cup and try adding 3 Tb of batter per mug. Also, don’t skimp with light rum. It’s a waste of your damn time.)