Romanian Rum Cake
A Romanian savarina, similar to French baba au rhum and Polish babka, features a cake generously soaked in rum simple syrup after baking.
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Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 300 F (150 C).
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Prepare the cake dough by dissolving yeast in warm milk. Combine flour, yeast mixture, eggs, sugar, and salt in a mixer; mix until soft. Incorporate softened butter, vanilla, and lemon zest, then mix again. Cover the dough and let it rise until doubled in volume.
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Butter a mini Bundt or cupcake pan, optionally dusting with crumbs. Divide the dough into the pan wells. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes, or until the dough reaches the top of the pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick tests clean.
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Concurrently, make the rum syrup: Melt 100g sugar in a heavy saucepan to a light caramel color, swirling occasionally. Remove from heat, add water and 200g sugar; mix until dissolved. Cool completely, then stir in rum and lemon juice.
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Remove baked cakes from the pan. Pour some syrup into each pan well, then dip cake bottoms in the syrup. Return cakes to the pan and pour all remaining syrup over them. Cover the pan and refrigerate overnight.
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To serve, bring cakes to room temperature. Whip cream with sugar until peaks form. Slice cakes horizontally and fill with apricot preserves and whipped cream, or dollop whole cakes with whipped cream and garnish with fruit.