Many dishes of France have wonderful stories/histories attached to their creation. The Baba au Rhum, a classic French dessert, originally came from Poland but quickly became a "naturalized" French dessert with a sprinkling of "spirit".
According to many sources, Polish Prince Stanislas Leczinski, King Louis XV's father-in-law, introduced this cake while he was in exile and living in Nancy. It probably was a version of Kougelhopf made with rye flour. Popular legend says that the Prince found the cake too dry and so he doused it with some of the rum he had been drinking. It was so good, he gave the command that he would only have his cake this way and he christened it Ali-Baba, in honor of his favorite hero from the Arabian Nights.
The baba was introduced in Paris in the 1800's by a pastry cook, named Sthorer. He developed the practice of making his babas in advance and then brushing them with rum as they were sold. They quickly became the rage in Paris and Sthorer's fortune was made. He later developed the method of immersing the babas in a rum syrup.
At about the same time, another similar confection, knows as a fribourg was being developed in Bordeaux and across town in Paris the Julien Brothers were creating the Brillat-Savarin as a rival to the baba. Basically, they just left out the raisins. But the famous gastronome Brillat-Savarin gave them the recipe for the soaking syrup, so they named their creation after him. Eventually, the Brillat was dropped and it is now known as a savarin. And the rest, as they say, is history -- history you can eat