IL BABÁ, the rum soaked cake from Naples
The Babá, with its unmistakable mushroom shape, is one of the classics of Neapolitan pastries - a sponge cake soaked in a sticky, sweet rum syrup - which originated in the eighteenth century in Poland (babka ponczowa) and was brought to Naples, via France, in the nineteenth century by the monsú – as the French chefs serving the aristocratic Neapolitan families were called – and named Babá. The Neapolitan then doubled the consonant and added an accent at the end (Babbá).
I dare say, the Babá is an icon of the city, so much so as to be part of the Neapolitan lexicon. So, if someone in Naples tells you – ‘sí nu babbá’ (you are a babá) – he is complimenting (or teasing!) you for your sweet character and gullible disposition.
Admittedly, as a child, I didn’t particularly like this cake because of the rum. However, I still loved seeing the beautiful shiny mushroom-shaped cakes, in the golden paper tray of mixed miniature pastries my dad would regularly bring home from the shop. As if it was one of those relatives, you hardly have a conversation with at family gatherings, but you would definitely miss if they weren’t invited.
After carefully mixing the ingredients - eggs, flour, sugar, butter and fresh yeast – it is left to rise, twice, until it doubles in size then is cooked in either individual small elongated aluminium cone-shaped moulds (which gives the typical mushroom shape) or in a beautifully ornate bundt pan.
Once cooked, it is left to dry for a day so that it loses most of the humidity. Finally, it is soaked in the sweet syrup made with water, sugar and rum, then served plain or with some whipped cream or custard cream and small wild strawberries.
Needless to say, I now love this cake and regularly crave its soft, succulent texture, dripping with syrup-soaked memories. if I pass a ‘pasticceria’, when I am back home in Naples, I always peep through the window, just incase there is one waiting for me!
Paola pretty much grew up in the family ‘pasticceria’
Ingredients for Recipe
Babá (10 -12 cone shaped moulds - whose size approximately are: top edge diameter 8cm, lower edge diameter 6cm and height 7cm or a bundt pan)
250gr flour 100gr butter
15gr fresh yeast 16gr sugar
1 dl milk 250gr cream
4 eggs
Syrup : 500gr sugar + 500gr water + 3 small ladles of Rum
Paola’s grandfather, Vincenzo, taught her to make Il Babá’
Moulds for Il Babá
Method
Heat a bowl in hot water and dry it well. dilute the yeast in a few drops of warm milk. sift the flour into the heated bowl, place it in a fountain, add the yeast, break into the 4 eggs and beat them with a fork, gradually incorporate the flour. finally pour enough milk to obtain a very soft, almost liquid paste, continuing to work for another 5 minutes. Leave to rise in a warm place, covering it with a woollen blanket. In the meantime, beat the butter until it becomes stringy and fluffy, add sugar, salt and mix well for another minute.
When the dough has doubled in volume, continue to work for another 5 minutes (no more) and finally add the previously worked butter.
Grease the moulds with butter, fill them with pasta for a third of their height, cover them and leave to rise in the heat until they double in volume.
Heat the oven to high temperature (about 200 degree) and bake, decreasing the heat as soon as they begin to colour. leave to cook gently until, putting a toothpick on it, it comes out completely dry and until they have taken on a dark brown colour.
Remove from the oven and let cool then remove from the moulds or pan.
Aside beat the cream with a little sugar (a couple of full spoons) and leave in the fridge.
Prepare the rum syrup by boiling the water and sugar for 10 minutes. Then add the rum and while still hot, dip the baba one or two at a time, letting them absorb the syrup. If using a bundt pan, pour the syrup on the baba left in the pan. Then place the babá on a cooling rack to let drip the excess syrup.
Finally place on a plate and decorate with cream and fruit to taste.
Paola is our in-house cook, here at the House of Talents. She is offering Italian inspired Italian inspired cookery classes for adults and kids.
Times: 3pm on Tuesdays and Fridays (60 mins).
We are asking for a £5 donation for group sessions (with a minimum of 5 people per session).
Please get in touch with Paola to sign up for one of her group classes, or to book a one-to-one session.
Email: paolacimmino3@gmail.com
Instagram: @cucina_cimmino
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