Rum Baba is a yeast cake (like the Easter European “babka” cake) that gets soaked in Rum and served with whipped cream as a topping. When the cake is shaped as a ring with the center hole filled to the brim with pastry cream or fresh fruit, it’s called a Savarin, named after Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin who was a food writer in 18th Century France.
The Savarin recipe as we know it was developed by the Parisian patissiers, Julien Brothers, in the 1840s, and it’s mostly used in Eastern Europe. In other parts of the world, the non-ring-shaped version is more common.
Savarin is incredibly sweet and rich, but it’s made from a very light and delicate dough so it’s not overwhelmingly heavy. The sweetness originates from the alcoholic syrup the cake gets soaked in. If you’re good at making light yeast pastry, you can really play around with the sweetness, fruitiness, and alcoholic flavors of Savarin.
