Baba au Rhum

Daria Souvorova

3 hours
serves: 6-12

Last weekend, I had some of my closest friends over to share a meal that I have been talking about for months! Nico’s parents sent me duck confit last Christmas, and I have been hoarding it and planning to make a Cassoulet. Finally, the weather turned and it was time to cook my cassoulet!

It was a beautiful meal from start to finish! We started with a colorful Crudités Platter of local veggies paired with a homemade aioli and Caesar dressings. Our main course was the classic french Cassoulet made with Duck Confit brought special by Nico’s parents and a variety of meats and beautiful beans.

But no meal is complete without dessert, right? I was originally planning some sort of tiramisu since I had a some Marscapone cheese that needed to be used…but this was a French dinner not an Italian one. Nico suggested a Baba au Rhum, and I decided to make it and serve it with a Marscapone Whipped Cream.

The combination was really delicious. The Marscapone gave our whipped cream a bit of a buttery consistency which paired nicely with the yeasty, fluffy cake, and the vanilla bean in the dough gave the cake an extra kick of complexity. I was really happy with the result.

Do not be afraid of how much rum liquid this recipe calls for. It will all soak in eventually. Make sure you carefully pour it over the cake and have a pie dish or something to pick up the excess, if any, and then switch dishes and pour the remainder over the cake again.

The cake lasts on the counter for a few days as does the Marscapone cream in the fridge.

Ingredients:

• • • 1/3 cup golden raisins
    • 2 tablespoons dark rum
    • 1/2 cup milk
    • 1/2 vanilla bean
    • 3 teaspoons yeast
    • 2 tablespoons sugar
    • 2 1/2 eggs
    • 1 2/3 tablespoons all purpose flour, extra for mold
    • 4 tablespoons room temperature butter plus extra for the mold
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • rum syrup:
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 2/3 cup dark rum
    • 1 1/2 cup water
    • apricot glaze
    • 1 cup apricot jam
    • 1-2 tablespoons water
    • marscapone whipped cream:
    • 1 pint heavy cream
    • 1/3 cup sugar
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 8-10 ounces Marscapone cheese, room temperature

1. Combine the raisins and rum. Set aside to soak for at least an hour.
   Prepare your bundt pan or baba au rum dishes by coating with butter and sprinkling with flour.
2. Meanwhile, heat milk in a small saucepan with vanilla bean. Make sure to slice open the bean and scrape out as many of the seeds as possible into the milk.
   Bring to a boil and allow to cool until around 115°F
3. Once cooled to 115°F, mix yeast and sugar into the milk (discard the vanilla, or reserve for another use). Leave for five minutes
4. Add the eggs, flour, and salt and butter. Mix/knead with your mixer for about 5 minutes on medium speed until the dough gets nice and elastic.
5. Scrape down the sides, cover with a damp towel and rest for 1 hour until double in size.
6. Drain the raisins and mix into the dough.
   Place in pan and spread the top out as evenly as possible. Cover in towel and let rise another hour.
7. Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake for around 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.
8. Combine all of the rum glaze ingredients in a small pot. Heat until the sugar melts and remove from heat. .
9. Once the cake is out of the oven, let it cool 10 minutes before taking out of mold.
   Place on cookie sheet that is above a pie dish. Slowly pour all of the glaze into the cake. Re-pouring anything that spills over.
10. Heat apricot and water. Strain, brush on cake.
11. Whip heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and sugar.
    Remove 2/3 from dish and add in Marscapone on slow setting. Fold in remaining whipped cream.
12. Serve a slice of cake with a dollop of the Marscapone whipped cream.