The story of the rum baba
The story of the Baba au rhum.
Invented in the 18th century, rum baba takes its name from the Arabian Nights.
Stanislas Leszczynski, King of Poland, had asked the pastry chef Nicolas Stohrer to rework the recipe for kouglof, a cake then very popular but which he found too dry.
The new alcohol-soaked dessert was then born and the monarch would have baptized it “The Ali-Baba”, in reference to the tale Ali Baba and the forty thieves.
Having become “rum baba”, the dessert was then introduced to France by Queen Marie Leszczynska, wife of Louis XV and daughter of Stanislas Leszczynski.
She had taken with her the famous pastry chef, whose shop still exists in Paris.
