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Babà napoletano – Neapolitan rum baba
’o babbà
Babà napoletano
Mushroom-shaped leavened cake soaked in rum syrup.
Contains
It was born in Lorraine, at the court of Stanisław Leszczyński; it was brought to Naples by the monsù, the French cooks of the great families. Here “si’ comme a nu babbà” is a compliment.
The story of ’o babbà
’O babbà, the Neapolitan babà, is a mushroom-shaped cake of leavened dough, soaked in a syrup of water and sugar flavoured with lemon and laced with rum. The Campania Region has listed it among its Traditional Agri-food Products.
It was not born in Naples. It comes from Lorraine, from the court of Stanisław Leszczyński, the exiled King of Poland: according to the most widely told story, Stanisław found kugelhopf too dry and had it soaked in liqueur. His daughter Marie married Louis XV in 1725 and took the pastry cook Nicolas Stohrer to Versailles; in 1730 he opened his shop in Paris, which is still trading. In Paris the cake acquired rum and its domed shape.
It was brought to Naples by the monsù, the French cooks of the great families, and here it took on the shape and the soaking syrup it has today. By the end of the nineteenth century it was the cake of the middle classes, and was eaten on the go, too. A legend circulates about the name: Stanisław is said to have named it after Ali Baba, the character from the Thousand and One Nights.
Today in Naples “si’ comme a nu babbà” is an affectionate compliment: you’re as sweet as a babà.
Is babà Neapolitan or French?
It was born in Lorraine, at the court of Stanisław Leszczyński, and took shape in Paris with the pastry cook Stohrer. In Naples, brought by the monsù, it acquired the mushroom shape and the rum syrup that have made it a symbol of the city.
Why is it called babà?
According to tradition, Stanisław named it after Ali Baba from the Thousand and One Nights; another theory links it to the Polish “baba”. Neither is documented.
How do you say babà in Neapolitan?
’O babbà, with a double b, as in the compliment “si’ comme a nu babbà”.