The New Year Cake

03 Jan The New Year Cake

A delicious Vasilopita recipe (Greek new year cake), infused with orange aromas and cranberries and garnished with a glossy vanilla scented sugar glaze!

This is my family’s Vasilopita recipe with which we welcome the New Year together with friends and loved ones. Read on to discover how to make my Greek New Years cake to perfection with my tips and tricks, step by step, my tips on how to decorate it, how to store it and of course the recipe! 

Vasilopita is a cake that we bake in Greece for the New Year dedicated to the Greek Santa “Agios Vasilis” who comes at New Year’s eve and brings gifts. 

Sweet flavoring is added to the bread which symbolizes the eternal sweetness and joy of life.

When we prepare the Vasilopita a coin is baked into the ingredients. 

The coin is washed and wrapped in aluminum foil and gives to the receiver luck for the new year.

I still have the coin that I got from the vasilopita of 2019. It was my lucky year. The year my daughter Ellie came into my life. Let’s see what we need now:

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs (room temperature),
• 170 gr butter (room temperature),
• 200 gr sugar cane,
• 250 ml Greek Yogurt,
• 350 ml orange juice,
• Zest from 2 oranges,
• ½ cup of washed fresh cranberries,
• 300 gr all purpose flour,
• 1 tbsp baking soda,
• 1 tbsp baking powder,
• A pinch of salt,
• 1 tsp of orange extract (optional)
• For decoration
• 1 cup of sugar powder
• 1-2 tbsp of water
• ½ tbsp of vanilla extract
• Fresh cranberries
• Don’t forget to wash and cover with aluminum foil a coin.  

The Recipe is simple.

In a mixer bowl add the butter and sugar. Using the paddle hook or the creaming attachments whisk until the butter is creamy and fluffy like whipped cream. Add the eggs one at a time, whilst mixing, allowing time for each one to be absorbed, before adding the next. Pour in the orange juice, the orange extract, the orange zest, the Greek yogurt and mix to combine.

Remove the bowl from your mixer and add 1/3 of the sifted flour and blend with a spatula. Repeat with the rest of the flour until all your ingredients are combined. Add the cranberries last after you wash and dry them with a paper towel. Use a tbsp of flour and mix it with cranberries before adding to the cake. Now add them in the dough and mix softly with a spatula.

To bake the vasilopita, preheat the oven to 180C / 355F using both top and bottom heating elements. Pour your dough in a baking pan after buttered and floured it. Time to add the coin. Wrap a coin with aluminum foil and stick it in the cake. Time to bake!

Don’t open the oven while baking. You are going to need 45 to 60 mins to bake.

Stick a wooden skewer or toothpick in the middle of the cake to check if your cake is ready. If it comes out clean, then your vasilopita cake is done!

Let your vasilopita cake cool down completely and invert the pan on a plate. If it’s not cold it may break! 

Invert the vasilopita on a serving platter with the bottom of the cake facing upwards. Having a completely flat surface will make your glaze go on so much easier and will be nice and flat.

Prepare the glaze for your Greek new year’s cake. In a bowl add all the ingredients and blend with a spatula until the glaze is smooth and glossy. If needed, add a little bit more water. The glaze should have a glue like consistency but be perfectly smooth when blending with the spatula. Top the vasilopita with the glaze and even out with a flat spatula.

Don’t forget to carve the number of the year on top of the glaze or use some toasted almonds to shape it! 

Enjoy!

I hope you are going to have an amazing NewYear. 

I hope the new year will find us all healthy and positive. 

With less stress and more love. 

Happy new year guys. 

Your Greek friend,

Theodora

Watch the recipe here: