Symbol of Naples’ patisserie, the babbà has very peculiar and, indeed, ancient origins! It reached Naplesfrom Paris, city were the chefs of bourgeois families were usually sent to improve their culinary skills. ButParisians didn’t invent it because, according to the legend, this sweet, rum-filled little mushroom was bornoff an accident, caused by an angry King Stanislao Leszczynsk of Poland.
Kept against his will in the Lorraine region of France one day, while conceiving and writing improbable political pamphlets and documents, he dropped - luckily, we may add - a bottle of his favorite tipple, rum, onto a cake calledkugelhunpf. Nicolas Stohrer, the chef who created its distinctive shape, was probably inspired by a polish cake calledbabka ponczowa, called baba in French and then transformed into babbà by Neapolitans.
