Place the flour in a large bowl. Stir in the yeast and sugar.
Mix together the eggs, milk and salt until well combined.
Add three-quarters of the milk mix to the flour and stir to combine.
Mix in the rest of the liquid and knead the dough on a floured worktop until it’s smooth, about 10 minutes.
Add in the softened butter and knead it through the dough thoroughly until it’s stretchy, about 5 minutes.
Place the dough back into a bowl and cover with cling film. Set the dough aside to rise for at least an hour, until doubled in size.
Grease and sugar four x 11cm/4½ inch fluted rum baba tins.
Turn the dough out of the bowl and knock it back by kneading it a few times.
Place the dough into a piping bag with a large plain nozzle. Pipe the dough into the four moulds. Try and get them all as equal as possible.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160 Fan/Gas 4.
Allow the dough to prove for a second time until it has expanded almost to the top of the tins.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile make the syrup. Put the sugar and rum in a small saucepan with 200ml/7fl oz water and bring to the boil.
When the babas are cooked, take them out of the oven and allow to cool a little before carefully removing the cakes from their tins.
Place the babas onto a rack over a plate and spoon over half the syrup. Allow them to soak up all of the liquid; then turn them over and repeat with the rest of the liquid. Pop them in the fridge to chill.
Meanwhile for the Chantilly cream, whip the cream with the icing sugar and vanilla until it holds its shape. Spoon it into a piping bag and pipe the Chantilly cream, using a star nozzle, into the middle of the babas. Serve within 1 hour.
The Chantilly cream doesn’t have to be piped, it could simply be swirled onto the babas from the end of a fork.
