The art of Babovka / Umeni babovky

“Why don’t you come over for some coffee and Babovka?”,that was (and still is) one of the most popular sentences in the Czech Republic. Whenever someone comes over for a visit to a Czech home, they better have Babovka on their table, or some angry plates will be flying through the air.

Babovka is a Czech name for a (marble) pound cake. I know Americans have their pound cake, but the Czech version is less sweet and there is NO gross frosting on it!!! I found an easy enough recipe on Recepty.cz for everyone to try out. I was somehow successful in my attempt to make the perfect Babovka, yet I still have ways to go. The first time I made it I was out of butter and since I am not very particular and precise in my cooking I substituted butter with olive oil. The Babovka came out dry and hard. The second time I had butter but only salted butter and Babovka came out moist this time but not sweet enough. According to the Czech ratings however, the recipe is bullet-proof so don’t mind my self-inflicted troubles.

BABOVKA

Ingredients:

PS: powdered sugar to powder the top of ready-to-serve Babovka

Method:

1/ Carefully oil up the inside of the pound cake form, getting all of the creases. Sprinkle some flour on top, so the baked cake does not stick to the pan (the hardest and the most important part of the baking process!!)

2/Mix all ingredients together, except the cocoa powder.

3/ Separate about a half of the dough into a different bowl and mix it with the cocoa powder.

4/ Pour the light-colored dough into the pound cake form and then pour the cocoa dough on top. You can run a tootpick through the final dough to give it a fancier look when it is ready.

5/Bake it at 350 degrees F for about 30-40 minutes.

6/Take Babovka out of the oven and let it rest on a wire rack for about 8 minutes; Turn the cake form upside down and lightly pat the top in order for the Babovka to come out.

7/Sprinkle it with some powdered sugar and serve. Dobrou chut!

CZ: Cesky recept muzete najit zde (kliknete zde).