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[[File:Baba al rhum.jpg|thumb|Jars of Italian babàs drowned in rum or limoncello syrup]]
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| The golden, wavy, spongy surface had just detached from the mould. It looked like something between a turban and a pagoda, an architecture of new consistencytexture, built out of concentric cirles growing smaller and smaller towards the top. Stanislao soon understood that he had found an answer to his own desires. It looked soft and was elastic supple to the touch. Its fine texture and the scent it spread made it an absolute novelty. Even before he tasted tasting it, he already knew that he had invented a dessert like no other in his land or in his times; a rare point of equilibrium between consistency and lightness. A bit like in his own life.
This is the beginning of the long journey of the babà, a mythical dessert invented in the mid-18th century by Stanislao Lekzinsky [sic], ex-King of Poland and Duke of Lorraine at the time. A journey which has many links with the Orient. Stanislao had spent much time in Ottoman captivity and had the opportunity to study and sketch the architecture of that land, which would later inspire the pavillions decorating his ducal palace, along with an enormous theatre of automata. At first, the babà was dry, filled with sultana and Corinthian raisins, and most importantly, it spread the scent of saffron. For its exoticism, the novelty of its taste and texture, Stanislao dubbed the dessert Ali Baba, in reference to One Thousand and One Nights, whose French translation he had read during his stay in the sultan's prison in Constantinople.
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How much of all that is true? Should Stanisław Leszczyńskie really get the credit for inventing the rum baba and does its name really come from a fairy-tale Arab craftsman who robbed the forty thieves of their sesame treasure? As you can see from the quotations above, the first stop on our journey to unravel this mystery is going to be in France.
== Babaorum ==