Rum Baba

Rum Baba is a French dessert from the Lorraine district. It is a small cake made from yeast, milk, eggs and butter. It is served with a Rum sauce which is poured over after the cake is baked. Almost like our South African Malva pudding. It is mainly baked as individuals in mini Bundt cake tins or ‘baba’ moulds. The open area of the moulds is then afterwards filled with Chantilly cream (whipped cream, sugar and vanilla essence/ vanilla pod’s seeds) or whipped cream. It is a bit different from another yeast cake, called the Gugelhupt cake (which is dry and does not have syrup over). The Gugelhupt is originally from Austria and the batter also consists of raisins and blanched almonds and no sauce- where the Rum Baba has no raisins or almonds, but with the Rum sauce. The exiled king of Poland, Stanislaw Leszeynski had the idea of dripping the Gugelhupt cake with Malaga wine(Hungarian wine) because he found the Gugelhupt cake too dry too his taste. The Malaga wine was then replaced by Rum. It is said this is how the Rum Baba was born. We still make it with the Rum, today. Rum baba is something you need time for, therefor I would not suggest you make this recipe if you are in a hurry. It is more time-concerning but definitely worth making if you have plenty of time to perfect it.

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Serves: 4 Prep time: 30 Minutes Cook time: 120 Minutes Ready in: 150 Minutes

Nutrition: Calories 300 Carbs: 50g Protein: 2g Fat: 8g

Ingredients:

CAKE
3 teaspoons sugar (15 ml)

60 ml warm water

15 g dry yeast

3 tablespoons milk (45 ml)

60 g butter

1 Cup flour (250 ml)

2 eggs

pinch of salt

SYRUP
2OO g sugar

400 ml water

90 ml Rum

Instructions:

CAKE:
Pre-heat the oven to 180° Celsius.

Place 5 ml sugar(1 teaspoon) and the warm water in a bowl.

Sprinkle the yeast over and allow to stand for 10 minutes in a warm place until the mixture has risen almost to the top of the bowl.

Meanwhile, heat the milk until lukewarm.

Work the softened butter until creamy.

Sieve the flour and make a well.

Add the eggs, salt, remaining sugar and heated milk to the yeast and mix well.

Add the softened butter and mix again.

Knead until smooth and elastic, and lifting it to incorporate air.

Butter a Bundt(small 'baba mould'), and place the dough in it.

The buttered mould can be sprinkled with sugar before adding the dough- it will help later to get the sponge out.

Make the mould one third full with the batter.

Cover with a cloth and let it rise until level with the rim for about 1 hour.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

SYRUP:
Combine the sugar and water and boil.

Remove from the heat and stir in the Rum.

Once the 'baba' is baked, take it out of the oven and leave it a bit to cool down.

turn it out- it will be easier once it has slightly cooled, prick with a kebab stick and pour the sauce over so the rum baba absorbs the sauce.

ASSEMBLING:
Decorate with raspberries and sifted icing sugar, whipped cream and orange zest/segments, or Chantilly cream.

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