Ingredients
3/4 pound flour
1/2 pound butter
5 eggs
2 ounces sugar
the finely chopped peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 teaspoonful salt
1 yeast cake dissolved in 1/4 cup warm milk
2 ounces well washed and dried currants
1 1/2 ounces seedless raisins
1 1/2 ounces finely cut citron
A little finely cut candied orange peel
For syrup
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup Madeira wine
Directions
Mix yeast, milk and 1/2 cup flour together and set it in a warm place to rise.
Stir the butter to a cream, add the sugar and next the eggs, one at a time, stirring a few minutes between each addition.
Next add the yeast which was set in a warm place to rise, then the flour and fruit.
Beat the whole thoroughly with the right had for 15 minutes; cover with a clean cloth and let it rise to double its size; press it down and let it rise again.
Then put it into a well buttered from with a tube in center, which should be 1/4 full; let it rise till form is full; paste with the white of egg a strip of buttered paper around the top edge of form and bake the cake about 1 hour.
When done turn the cake out of form and set it for a few minutes in the oven to dry.
In the meantime put 1/2 cup sugar with 3/4 cup Madeira wine over the fire; let it get hot and pour all over the baba; serve either hot or cold on a napkin.
Small babas are made of the same dough and baked in small deep forms, otherwise treated the same as above. Instead of Madeira any other kind of wine may be used; also vanilla or pineapple syrup.
Notes
This recipe was taken from "Desserts and Salads" by Gesine Lemcke. It was published by D.Appleton and Company in New York in 1920. For the complete copyright-free cookbook visit www.Gutenberg.org.... Photo: Mary Melfi. | 
