My best wishes to all of you for a
Happy New Year!!
Vassilopita is our traditional New Year’s cake or Sweet Tsoureki Bread. This cake can easily be called an orange cake and it is similar to a pound cake. In fact this year I have adapted a pound cake from The Joy of Baking and made my Vassilopita. I just increased the dose of the ingredients as I wanted to have a bigger cake and have added orange juice, brandy and almonds, which are staples in a Vassilopita and, of course, the coin.
I have written about Vassilopita last year, so if you would like to learn about the history behind it you can read it in my last year’s post.
Vassilopita Cake
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
- 290 grams orange juice
- 500 grams self-rising flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 250 unsalted butter, room temperature
- 225 grams sugar
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon zest of an orange
- 150 grams of almonds with skin, powdered
- 35 grams brandy
- A few tablespoons of confectioners’ sugar for sprinkling on top
Directions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place rack in center of oven. Butter or line with parchment paper a 26 cm baking tin.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt and orange zest.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter with sugar until creamy and smooth. Add eggs one by one until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. After about five minutes the batter should be light in colour and fluffy in texture. Add brandy and orange juice, in which dissolve baking soda. Lower mixer speed to medium and gradually add the ground almonds and flour. You will notice that the batter will look curdled. Don’t worry as the batter will come together again after you add the flour mixture. Add the vanilla and beat until incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and add a coin washed and wrapped in aluminum foil. Smooth the top and bake for about 50 to 60 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely. Allow to cool and sprinkle with icing sugar.
For the decoration draw the year number and a few patterns on a piece of paper and then cut it. Place it on the cake and sieve some confectioner’s sugar on top.
Tags: Cakes, Christmas, Festive, Traditional, Vassilopita
Very nice Vasilopita Ivy! Who found the coin? My wife found it in ours.
Καλή Χρονιά!!!
May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!
Happy New year Sis. It has been a pleasure to follow your blog for the past year, to get to know you and share so many delicious and tasty dishes. Eutichismenos o kainourgios chronos!!!!
A delightful cake! It looks really delicious!
Cheers,
Rosa
Your cake looks so good and I love the way you decorated it. With the orange juice and brandy, I’ll bet it was moist and tasty.
Wowww wat a gorgeous Cake!!!! Happy 2009 to u n ur family…
Great looking vasilopita. Ivy. Happy New Year to you and your family!
I loved the story of the coin! Were you the ‘lucky’ one this year? The bread looks delicious! Happy New Year!
Soft n moist! looks so tempting ivy! Gr8 baking again.
Happy New Year to all of you. My husband was the lucky one this year.
This is exactly the type of cake I love – not loaded with creams and icings and even has money in it. Can it get any better
.
Loving this cake Ivy. Happy New Year!
Ivy, again Xponia Polla and that’s a big Vassilopita! I prefer the pound cake version like yours here…it’s actually edible after the cutting of the cake.
Happy New Year, Ivy! What a great cake to ring in 2009! I like the powdered sugar year on top!
A beautiful recipe for vassilopita! I’m Greek-Cypriot-Canadian myself and I was really happy to find your site! Happy New Year!
Hi there,
I am Paras from Melbourne Australia, and just by chance I got onto your site.
I am a chef and it is great to see all the traditional recipes on line. It is up to our generation to keep the culture alive.
I have been in the hospitality industry for over 20 years, and Greek food is under estimated by many people, only recently it has come back in vogue..fashion
One question do you have a recipe for Halva Farsalo,(the baked one) I had a friend that made the topping with goats fat..(he passed away not sharing their fantastic recipe…what a waste of knowledge)
they usually make it up the Northern part of Greece. I am from the Pelloponiso we only make the semolina one on the stove.
I would be very grateful if you could email me a recipe.
Keep up the fantastic work.
Bravo sas!!
Paras
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