"Sofia’s Vasilopita is a traditional Greek New Years Eve cake, made with sweet spices and is baked with a coin in the centre. The recipient of the coin once the cake is sliced and served will enjoy good fortune for the year ahead."
Vasilopita
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Prep time: 25mins
Cook time: 1hr
Recipe Card
ingredients
- 375 gram white sugar
- 6 room temperature 65g eggs
- 250 gram melted unsalted butter
- 110 milliliter milk
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
- 180 milliliter freshly squeezed orange juice
- 15 gram vanillin sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 15 milliliter brandy, cognac or rum
- finely grated zest of one orange
- 675 gram sifted self-raising flour
- 100 gram coarsely chopped walnuts
- 100 gram sultanas
- 100 gram quartered glacé cherries
- 1 small coin
- baking paper
Method
Preparing the Vasilopita
Step 1
Beat the sugar with the eggs with either a hand-held or stand-up mixer, until the mixture is pale – approximately 4 minutes
Step 2
Slowly add all but a small amount of the melted butter and mix in well (reserve the remaining butter to baste the cake tin)
Step 3
Slowly add the milk and mix in well
Step 4
Ensure the orange juice is in a tall glass
Step 5
Over the mixing bowl, add the bicarbonate soda to the orange juice and mix these well, before adding them to the cake mixture
Step 6
While continuing to beat the ingredients, add the vanillin sugar, ground cloves, cinnamon, brandy and the orange zest
Step 7
Add the flour, one spoonful at a time, while continuing to beat the cake mixture
Step 8
Reserve one spoonful of the flour
Step 9
Place the walnuts, sultanas, glacé cherries and reserved flour in a bowl and stir them thoroughly, ensuring all the pieces are coated in flour
Step 10
Add these ingredients to the cake mixture and continue to beat the mixture till all the fruit and nut pieces are dispersed through the cake batter
Step 11
Wash, dry and wrap a small coin in baking paper; add this to the cake mixture and mix the batter well
Step 12
Baste the base and side of a spring-form pan (approximately 25cm diameter and 7.5cm depth) with the reserved butter
Step 13
Line the cake pan with baking paper and baste that as well
Step 14
Pour the cake mixture into the pan and tap the pan on its sides and base to spread the mixture evenly in the pan
Baking the Vasilopita
Step 1
Place the cake pan in a fan-forced oven preheated to 160°C
Step 2
Do not open the oven door for the first hour
Step 3
After the cake has baked for an hour, insert a long skewer into the centre of the cake through a natural crack in the surface of the cake. If the skewer comes out with uncooked batter on it, return the cake to the oven and bake it for another 5-10 minutes. Check the cake once again with a new skewer. When the skewer comes out clean or lightly crumbed, remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the pan
Step 4
Carefully remove the cake from the pan, peel away the baking paper from the base of the cake and cool it further on a cake rack
Step 5
Once the cake has completely cooled, decorate it with a generous dusting of icing sugar and using pomegranate arils or toasted almond slivers or flakes, write the letter Χ and Π, which stand for Χρόνια Πολλά, on the top
Serving the Vasilopita
Step 1
Serve the Vasilopita at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day or during your celebration later that day
Step 2
Traditionally the first slice is reserved for Jesus and the second for the family home where the celebration is taking place
Step 3
The following piece is served to the eldest person at the gathering. Continuing on, the next eldest is served and so on
Step 4
The person lucky enough to find the coin in their slice of cake is said to have prosperity and good fortune all through the New Year
Key Points
Step 1
It’s important to thoroughly coat the walnuts, sultanas and glacé cherries in flour before adding them to the cake batter, so they spread more easily and evenly through the cake batter; otherwise, they will clump together and it will be hard to separate them
Step 2
It’s also important to use a small, light coin so that it doesn’t settle on the bottom of the cake when baking and can’t be seen when transferring the cake from the tin to the cooling rack or from the cooling rack to the serving plate
Step 3
Wet and drain the pomegranate arils so that they stick to the icing sugar when placed on the cake