Prep
10 minsBake
30-40 minsServes
8 to 10Difficulty
Medium About
This fluffy cake is soaked in a fragrant rum syrup, giving it the right balance of sweetness. But although most believe to have originated in France, babas are a derivation of a Polish cake. They then made their way to Naples, at the court of the Italian monarchy, where they were deemed the king of desserts. Served simply in syrup, I decorated mine with a mascarpone chantilly cream and fresh fruit, dusted with icing sugar.
In the bowl of a stand-up mixer, add your flour, sugar and fresh yeast previously crumbled.
With the paddle attachment, on a low speed, mix all ingredients to make sure they are well combined.
Add your eggs in two times. Wait for the first to be absorbed, before adding the remaining eggs and the vanilla paste. Bring your speed to medium.
Once the dough is well combined and starts attaching to the paddle, add all the salt and finally the butter in three times, waiting for the previous to be absorbed completely. Use a spatula to clean the sides of the bowl if necessary.
Place the rich dough into the chosen container that has been previously buttered, and let it rise until reaches the borders.
Place in a preheated static oven at 180° C/Gas Mark 4 and bake until golden brown and a wooden skewers comes out clean.
For the rum sugar syrup ‘bagna’
Place half of the water, all the sugar, and the orange peel into a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer until the sugar is all dissolved.
Take the saucepan off the heat and add the remaining water to bring the temperature down. Only when the sugar syrup mix is warm, add your rum.
As the baba is still warm, start pouring the syrup over numerous times, until you feel that this yeasted cake is literally heavy and soaked.
Serve as is with a dust of icing sugar, or decorate with your favourite topping of cream and fresh fruit.
TOP TIP
Instead of rum, why not trying a limoncello syrup? Perfect for summer.
Ingredients – 8 items
1
Manitoba flour
also known as Canadian flour
Caster sugar
Fresh Yeast
depends on the external temperature
Sea salt flakes
Vanilla paste
Unsalted butter, softened
Medium eggs
Orange zest
Grated
For the syrup
Water
Caster sugar
Rum
at least 40% alcohol
Orange
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