Instructions: Beat the eggs and sugar over hot water until white and thick. Dissolve the yeast in some warm milk. Add the two mixtures with all the ingredients except the butter. Beat, pour in the butter and beat again. Fill a greased baking tin, traditionally a Turks Head mold, to one-third. Cover and leave to rise. Bake in a medium oven for about 1 hour.

NOTES:
Medium Oven 325F TO 350F (160C to 180C)

Varieties of babka were also prepared for weddings.

1-Excerpt (p.365) from Lesley Chamberlains THE FOOD AND COOKING OF

NOTES : The Polish Easter and general festive cake has as its hallmark the use of saffron as the traditional spice. The recipe for it probably came to Poland from Italy in the sixteen century via queen Bona, as a transplant of the Milanese panettone. Since then much ritual has surrounded the baking of this fragile masterpiece. Precious pastry cooks declared it needed to rest on an eiderdown before it went into the oven, after which baking took place in an atmosphere of maternity. Men were forbittden to ender the kitchen and no one was allowed to speak above a whisper.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.