SHF #41 - Sweet Gifts - Rum Baba

Danielle of Habeas Brulee is hosting this month's Sugar High Friday, and has selected Sweet Gifts as the theme. The gist of this theme is to make a dessert for someone, and share the story of why you made that particular dessert for that particular person.

For my entry, I made a rum baba for my friend, Charet, who invited me to stay at her house in a beachside suburb for the Labour Day long weekend. Rum baba is one of Charet's favourite desserts, so I decided to make it for her as a gift for her generosity in having me to stay.

Until Charet mentioned rum baba, I had never heard of it, and I didn't actually know what I was making when I started this project. Some research on the Internet informed me that rum baba is a rum-soaked yeast cake, sometimes served with cream and fruit. There were a lot of different recipes on the internet for rum baba, all generally along the same lines, but some contained dried fruit while others which did not. I opted for this version of rum baba, adapted from an Ina Garten recipe. However, I didn't bother with the cream, and I left out the rum-soaked currants (which turned out to be the right move!!). I was rather scared that the cake would fall apart after being drowned in all that rum syrup, but amazingly it didn't - so if you make it, don't be shy!

Charet shared her rum baba with me, and I was pleasantly surprised. It is certainly very different to the types of cake which I usually make, but pleasant all the same, and boy, does it smell like rum! Charet says that rum babas are often even rummier than this one, but that she liked my less rummy version because she could have more than one slice ;)

Thanks to Danielle for hosting this month's SHF, and do check back to her site for the roundup later in the month.