▪ I. baba1
(ˈbɑːbɑː, -æ-, -æ)
an infantile variant of ˈpapa, papa. Cf. bab.
| 1863 Kingsley Water-Bab. 48 Sitting down and crying for his baba (though he never had any baba to cry for). |
▪ II. ‖ ˈbaba2
[Fr.]
A kind of light plum-cake. Now esp. rum baba, baba au rhum, a rich cake soaked in a rum syrup.
| 1827 L. E. Ude French Cook 461 The oven must be moderately hot, as the babas must remain a long time in. 1846 A. Soyer Gastron. Regenerator 566 Take off the band of paper, turn the baba over upon a hair sieve, and serve either hot or cold. c 1864 Francatelli Cook's Guide 298 Particular care should be taken in baking the baba to prevent its acquiring a deep colour. 1868 Gouffe Cookery Bk. (1869) 533 Butter a baba-mould, 6 inches in diameter. 1933 A. Christie Lord Edgware Dies xiv. 126 We had a delicious omelette, a sole, a chicken and a Baba au Rhum. 1939 M. Allingham Mr. Campion & Others 135 Accepting a rhum-baba. 1952 B. Nilson Penguin Cookery Book xxiv. 417 Rum Babas. 1958 W. Bickel tr. Hering's Dict. Class. & Mod. Cookery 668 Baba au rhum, savarin dough mixed with raisins and currants, baked in baba mould, soaked while still hot with hot syrup flavored with rum; served with rum-flavored apricot sauce. 1958 R. Godden Greengage Summer ix. 95 He explained the different kinds of cake to us: éclairs, rum babas, meringues. 1959 R. Postgate Good Food Guide 1959–60 212 A chocolate gâteau ‘consisting of a baba au rhum with a milk chocolate couverture, far too rich, but delicious’. |