Coffee Baba

This cookbook has been selected for our next cooking club gathering, and my assignment is dessert. There are lots of desserts in this gigantic book, and I decided to look for something simple, and something that did not depend on cups and cups of heavy cream. This recipe caught my eye because its a cake that uses yeast. Our meeting isn't for another week, and so I decided to give this recipe a test drive.

The first difficulty is that the recipe is said to serve six, and instructs the cook to use a ring pan, but no size was provided for the pan. The closest I have is a bundt cake pan, and I couldn't imagine that a bundt cake would only serve six - so I doubled the recipe.

The batter was very liquidy, and after it had risen to double, there was no way that I would be able to shape it into a sausage shape, as instructed. I poured the batter into my bundt pan, and baked for about 10 minutes longer than the specified 40 minutes (using the toothpick test). The cake had puffed up and was golden brown, but did fall about 20% after removing from the oven. I also had a bit of trouble taking the cake out of the pan.

My next issue was the syrup. 3/4 C coffee, some rum, and only 1/4 C sugar doesn't make what I consider a syrup. It was very very liquidy. Still, I poured it over the cake, making sure it soaked in all over.

The result is a cake with a fairly acceptable texture, its not too sweet, but its not all that tasty, either.