Rum baba the idea of soaking a dried Gugelhupf (a cake roughly similar to the baba and common in Alsace-Lorraine when he arrived there) or a baba with alcoholic spirit. Another version is that when Stanislaus brought back a baba from one of his voyages it had dried up. Nicolas Stohrer, one of his pâtissiers (or possibly just apprentice pâtissiers at the time), solved the problem by adding Malaga wine, saffron, dried and fresh raisin and crême pâtissière. The writer Courchamps stated in 1839 that the descendants of Stanislaus served the baba with a saucière containing sweet Malaga wine mixed with one
Rum is also a theory that it comes from the Turkish name for Greeks, "Rum," as some of the earliest rum spirits were distilled by Greek Christians in the eastern Mediterranean. Other etymologists have mentioned the Romani word "rum", meaning "strong" or "potent". These words have been linked to the ramboozle and rumfustian, both popular British drinks in the mid-17th century. However, neither was made with rum, but rather eggs, ale, wine, sugar, and various spices. The most probable origin is as a truncated version of "rumbullion" or "rumbustion". Both words surfaced in English about the same time as rum did