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Dessert

Baba or Rum Cakes

A yeast-based cake soaked in a rum-infused syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baba or Rum Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sponge

  1. Mix the yeast into the water thoroughly.

  2. Stir in flour to make a dough and knead into a ball.

  3. Cut a cross on top of the dough and set it in a saucepan of lukewarm water.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the remaining flour, salt, and butter with 2 eggs until smooth.

  2. Add the other 2 eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  3. Incorporate the light ball of sponge and beat until smooth.

  4. Turn the mixture into well-buttered molds.

Bake and soak

  1. Let rise until nearly double in bulk, then bake for 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Boil the sugar and water until it forms a thick syrup.

  3. Remove from heat and add the rum.

  4. Pour the hot syrup over the hot cakes.

  5. Serve warm or cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough and the structure that holds the cakes as they rise and bake.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness, setting the crumb as the cakes bake.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cakes a tender texture and flavor.
Compressed yeast
Produces gas that makes the dough rise, giving the cakes their light, airy crumb.
Sugar
Forms the thick syrup that sweetens the cakes and keeps them moist.
Rum
Adds aroma and flavor to the syrup soaking into the cakes.

The step that matters

Let rise until nearly double in bulk. Yeast needs enough time to produce gas and expand the dough; underproofed cakes stay dense, while overproofed ones may collapse in the oven.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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