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| Alternative names | Baba au rhum,savarin (closely related dessert),babà orbabbà (in Naples) |
|---|---|
| Type | Cake |
| Course | Dessert |
| Place of origin | France |
| Region or state | Lorraine |
| Main ingredients | Eggs, milk, butter, rum |
Arum baba orbaba au rhum is a smallyeast cake saturated insyrup made with hardliquor, usuallyrum, and sometimes filled withwhipped cream orpastry cream. It is most typically made in individual servings (about a 5 cm tall, slightly tapered cylinder) but sometimes can be made in larger forms similar to those used forBundt cakes. Thebatter for baba includes eggs, milk and butter.
The original form of the baba was similar to thebaba orbabka, a tall, cylindricalyeast cake. The name means 'old woman' or 'grandmother' in mostSlavic languages;babka is adiminutive ofbaba.
The modernbaba au rhum (rum baba), with dried fruit and soaked in rum, was invented in therue Montorgueil inParis, France, in 1835 or before. Today, the wordbaba in France and almost everywhere else outside Central and Eastern Europe usually refers specifically to the rum baba.
The original baba was introduced into France in the 18th century viaLorraine. This is attributed toStanislaus I, the exiledking of Poland.[1][2] TheLarousse Gastronomique has reported that Stanislaus had the idea of soaking a driedGugelhupf (a cake roughly similar to the baba and common in Alsace-Lorraine when he arrived there) or a baba withalcoholic spirit. Another version[3] is that when Stanislaus brought back a baba from one of his voyages it had dried up. Nicolas Stohrer, one of hispâtissiers (or possibly just apprentice pâtissiers at the time), solved the problem by addingMalaga wine,saffron, dried and freshraisin andcrème pâtissière. The writerCourchamps stated in 1839 that the descendants of Stanislaus served the baba with asaucière containing sweet Malaga wine mixed with one sixth ofTanaisie liqueur.
Stohrer followed Stanislaus's daughterMarie Leszczyńska toVersailles as her pâtissier in 1725 when she married KingLouis XV, and founded his pâtisserie in Paris in 1730. One of his descendants allegedly had the idea of using rum in 1835. While he is believed to have done so on the fresh cakes (right out of the mold), it is a common practice today to let the baba dry a little so that it soaks up the rum better. Later, the recipe was refined by mixing the rum witharomatizedsugar syrup.
The baba is also popular inNaples, and became a popularNeapolitan specialty under the namebabà orbabbà.[4]
The pastry has appeared on restaurant menus in the United States at least since 1899.[5]
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In 1844, the Julien Brothers, Parisian pâtissiers, invented thesavarin, which is strongly inspired by thebaba au rhum, but is soaked with a different alcoholic mixture and uses a circular (ring) cake mould instead of the simple round (cylindrical) form. The ring form is nowadays often associated with thebaba au rhum as well, and the namesavarin is also sometimes given to the rum-soaked circular cake.
