According to legend, in the mid 1600s, the King Stanislas Leszczynski, had become very tired of eating the cold, hard, dry kugelhopf bread that was served at his meals. One evening he dipped the hard bread in his glass of rum that he was drinking. He liked the taste so much he continued to dip his bread into his drink at every meal; pretty soon, this new way of eating the hard, dry bread caught on with the other people in the castle.http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/BabaCake.htm

Before long, the wet, spongy, dipped bread became popular with the other citizens. The king called his new culinary discovery Ali Baba, after the famous character in books and movies. The plain bread recipes were soon altered to include different fillings and flavors accorfing to the likes of the cooks and their traditional preferences.http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/BabaCake.htm

Babka is also known as bobka or baba bread and there are several ways cooks like to prepare their favorite version. All babka bread is moist and spongy but some people prefer to fill theirs with fruit or a cinnamon mixture. Chocolate babka is another popular version, used as a filling and or topping. Many regions, like Lithuania, like to fill their babka with non-sweet items, such as onions, cheese, bacon and potatoes, instead of the traditionally sweetened Polish version.http://www.mahalo.com/babka-recipes

In the United States, the bread is made sweet, with raisin and cinnamon and it is usually served during the Easter holiday. There are also sweet babka breads made with sour cream and dried fruit pieces. No matter how you serve your babka bread, you are getting a tradition that is more than 400 years old. There are babka bread machines available for those who do not want to knead the dough by hand.http://www.mahalo.com/babka-recipes