When he came home on Sundays, arms full of pastries for his family, my greedy father always saved a little space for his rum baba, which was forbidden to his children because it contained (a little…) alcohol. It must have been his ‘madeleine de Proust’. I’m trying a version with my own lemon sauce. Baba au rhum is a classic dessert loved for its soft texture and rum flavour.
Ingredients
For 6 babas
- 50 ml milk
- 3 eggs
- 150 g sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
(or vanilla extract) - 50g butter
- 120g flour
Syrup
- 50g cane sugar
- 25 cl water
- Juice of half a lemon
- 10cl rum
(to taste)
or
rum flavoured syrup
(alcohol free)
Decoration (your choice)
- Homemade whipped cream (illustration)
- Pieces of fresh fruit
Recipe
- Preparing the cake :
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 6).
- In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is pale and frothy.
- Add the flour and baking powder and mix until smooth. Add the melted butter and milk and mix again.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold in.
- Pour the batter into six buttered individual moulds (for crown babas or simple ramekins). Leave some room for the baba to rise when baking.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cake is golden and a knife inserted comes out clean.
- Leave to cool.
- Prepare the syrup :
- While the cake is baking, bring the water and sugar to the boil in a saucepan.
- Leave to boil for 5 minutes to obtain a light syrup.
- Remove from the heat, add the rum and lemon juice and leave to cool in the fridge.
- Assembly:
- Place the baba cakes, which have chilled in the fridge, in shallow dishes
- Pour the syrup generously over the cake so that it soaks all over.
- Decorate the top with whipped cream or small pieces of fresh fruit.
