{{Short description|Cake saturated in rum}} {{About|the pastry|the cartoon character Rum Baa Baa|Henry's Cat}} {{Redirect|Babba|the Cardiacs drummer|Bob Leith}} {{Refimprove|date=July 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox food | name = Rum baba | image = BabaRum.jpg | image_size = | caption = | alternate_name = ''Baba au rhum'', ''savarin'' (closely related dessert), ''babà'' or ''babbà'' (in Naples) | country = France | region = Lorraine | creator = | course = Dessert | type = Cake | served = | main_ingredient = Eggs, milk, butter, rum | variations = }}

A '''rum baba''' or '''''baba au rhum''''' is a small yeast cake saturated in syrup made with hard liquor, usually rum, and sometimes filled with whipped cream or pastry 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 for Bundt cakes. The batter for baba includes eggs, milk and butter.

==History== [[File:Romanian savarine.jpg|thumb|Romanian modern {{lang|ro|savarine}}]] [[File:Neapolitan rum baba.jpg|thumb|Neapolitan {{lang|nap|babà}}]] thumb|A Rum Baba presented onboard the MS Queen Anne.

The original form of the baba was similar to the {{lang|pl|baba}} or {{lang|pl|babka}}, a tall, cylindrical Polish yeast cake. The name means 'old woman' or 'grandmother' in most Slavic languages; {{lang|pl|babka}} is a diminutive of {{lang|pl|baba}}.

The modern {{lang|fr|baba au rhum}} (rum baba), with dried fruit and soaked in rum, was invented in the {{lang|fr|rue Montorgueil|italics=no}} in Paris, France, in 1835 or before. Today, the word {{lang|fr|baba}} 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 via Lorraine. This is attributed to Stanislaus I, the exiled king of Poland.<ref>Courchamps, Dictionnaire Général de la Cuisine Française, 1839</ref><ref>Grimod de La Reynière, ''Almanach des Gourmands'', 1806</ref> The {{lang|fr|Larousse Gastronomique}} has reported that Stanislaus had the idea of soaking a dried {{lang|de|Gugelhupf}} (a cake roughly similar to the baba and common in Alsace-Lorraine when he arrived there) or a baba with alcoholic spirit. Another version<ref>History of the baba according to the Pâtisserie Stohrer (possibly biased). [http://www.stohrer.fr/historique/index.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012081029/http://www.stohrer.fr/historique/index.html|date=12 October 2007}}.</ref> is that when Stanislaus brought back a baba from one of his voyages it had dried up. Nicolas Stohrer, one of his ''pâtissiers'' (or possibly just apprentice pâtissiers at the time), solved the problem by adding Malaga wine, saffron, dried and fresh raisin and ''crème pâtissière''. The writer Courchamps stated in 1839 that the descendants of Stanislaus served the baba with a ''saucière'' containing sweet Malaga wine mixed with one sixth of Tanaisie liqueur.

Stohrer followed Stanislaus's daughter Marie Leszczyńska to Versailles as her pâtissier in 1725 when she married King Louis XV. Stohrer 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 with aromatized sugar syrup.

The baba is also popular in Naples, and became a popular Neapolitan specialty under the name {{lang|nap|babà}} or {{lang|nap|babbà}}.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mangoni |first=Fabrizio |url=http://www.festivaletteraturadiviaggio.it/altrove/cibi/viaggi-del-baba.htm |title=I viaggi del babà |date=23 September 2011 |language=Italian}}</ref>

The pastry has appeared on restaurant menus in the United States at least since 1899.<ref>[http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=275222&imageID=476321&total=17&num=0&word=haan%27s&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=10&e=w "Haan's Ladies' and Gentlemen's Restaurant," New York, menu dated 9 December 1899: "Dessert ... Baba au Rhum 15."]</ref>

==''Savarin''== {{Unreferenced section|date=March 2024}} In 1844, the Julien Brothers, Parisian pâtissiers, invented the {{ill|savarin cake|fr|Savarin}}, which is strongly inspired by the {{lang|fr|baba au rhum}}, but is soaked with a different alcoholic mixture and uses a circular (ring) cake mould (Savarin mould) instead of the simple round (cylindrical) form. The ring form is nowadays often associated with the {{lang|fr|baba au rhum}} as well, and the name {{lang|fr|savarin}} is also sometimes given to the rum-soaked circular cake.

==See also== {{Portal|France|Food|Liquor}} * List of cakes * {{lang|pl|Babka}} * {{lang|fr|Gâteau nantais}} * Rum cake * {{lang|de|Gugelhupf}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Rum baba}} * [http://www.leguidedesconnaisseurs.be/article271.html Article about the history of the Baba, with references to historical texts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307155714/http://www.leguidedesconnaisseurs.be/article271.html |date=7 March 2012 }} (in French) * ''Oxford Companion to Food''

{{Cakes}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rum Baba}} Baba Category:French cakes Category:Yeast cakes