Babà: Neapolitan or Sicilian? Neither!

Contrary to what you might think, the origin and history of the babà are anything but Neapolitan.

That's right, the bitter truth is that this famous cake is of Polish origin! The inventor of the babà seems to have been Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland.

The king loved sweets but, having no teeth, found the traditional European cakes too dry. From this need came the idea of a soft cake soaked in rum.

According to another, more folkloric version, the king, a man with a terrible temper, used to hurl anything he didn't like at walls and furniture: the lucky babà crashed into a bottle of rum and ended up soaked in liqueur. The king tasted it and found it delicious.

The origin of the original name, babka, is also debated: some say the king named the delicious cake Ali Baba, after the hero of “One Thousand and One Nights”, which he loved to read. Another, perhaps more plausible, version refers to the shape of the skirts worn by the elderly noblewomen of the court at that time (babka in Polish).

The recipe for rum babà in its typical modern mushroom shape dates back to 1835. We owe it to a descendant of the famous pastry chef Nicolas Stohrer, who came to Paris with Maria Leszczyńska, the Polish king's daughter. Once in Paris, the babà was modified again and given a new shape. From Paris it then reached Naples thanks to the monzù, the cooks of noble families who embodied the meeting of French and Neapolitan cuisine. In no time the babà, in its mushroom shape, became the most popular dessert to eat on the go among Naples' well-to-do.

Classic soaked in rum, reinvented soaked in limoncello and, for the sweetest tooth, covered in cream or filled with custard, an essential every Sunday: it is a truly distinctive and picturesque cake, perhaps the best loved in Italy.