朗姆糕,当蛋糕遇上酒

Each week, The Times’s crossword column, Wordplay, highlights the answer to one of the most difficult clues from the previous week’s puzzles.

每一周，时报的字谜专栏“词玩”(Wordplay)都会呈现前一周字谜难度最高的线索的答案。

This week’s word: babas.

本周的词是：babas（朗姆糕）。

“Baba au rhum” are rich, rum-flavored cakes that are largely popular in France and ItAly. Babas is the plural.

“巴巴朗姆蛋糕”(Baba au rhum)是一种口味浓郁的朗姆酒口味蛋糕，在法国和意大利广受欢迎。“Babas”是复数形式。

The baba originated in France, and was supposedly inspired by the Polish king Stanislaw I, whose daughter, Marie, married King Louis XV. It is said that Stanislaw was partial to the Alsatian Gugelhupf cake, though he discovered that the dry dough tasted better when dipped in liquor.

朗姆糕起源于法国，据说灵感来源于波兰国王斯坦尼斯拉夫一世(Stanislaw I)，他的女儿玛丽嫁给了路易十五(Louis XV)。据称，斯坦尼斯拉夫更偏爱阿尔萨斯人的咕咕霍夫蛋糕，不过他发现这种口感较干的蛋糕蘸进酒里的时候更好吃。

The Parisian baker Nicolas Stohrer went on to popularize this combination, and one of his descendants eventually established rum as the alcohol of choice. Stohrer’s patisserie is still around today.

巴黎面包师尼古拉斯·施托雷尔(Nicolas Stohrer)让这种组合流行了起来，他的一位后人后来选定了朗姆酒。如今人们仍能尝到施托雷尔的法式糕点。

Babas have continued to be a staple of French baking, and the success of the cake has carried over to Italy and the United States. Babas are now often made with raisins in their dough, and they usually resemble Bundt cakes or doughnuts in shape. Variations may use sweet wine or liqueur in place of rum.

朗姆糕一直是法国烘培的主力，这种蛋糕的成功也传到了意大利和美国。朗姆糕的糕体中现在经常会加入葡萄干，通常外形酷似圆环蛋糕或甜甜圈。一些衍生的做法可能会用甜酒或烈酒来取代朗姆酒。