Vasilopita
The Greek New Year cake, cut on St Basil's Day with a coin hidden inside — whoever finds it has luck all year. This is the cake version: buttery and orange-scented, with the new year's numbers dusted on top in icing sugar.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 250 g butter, softened
- 10 g butter, for the tin
- 300 g sugar
- 6 eggs, separated
- 1 tbsp orange zest, finely grated
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 500 g plain flour
- 15 g baking powder
- 200 ml orange juice
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 coin, washed and wrapped in foil
- 3 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting
Nutrition (estimated)
high confidenceRecipe total: 5728 kcal · P 92.9g · C 755.2g · F 263g
Estimated from 12 of 12 ingredients
Approximate estimate, calculated from the ingredients.
Video
Steps
Steps
- 1Heat the oven to 180°C, butter a 28 cm round tin and line the base with baking paper.
- 2Beat the 250 g of butter with 200 g of the sugar for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy, then beat in the yolks one at a time, followed by the orange zest and vanilla.
- 3Sift the flour with the baking powder and add it on low speed in three parts, alternating with the orange juice.
- 4Whisk the whites with the salt to soft peaks, add the remaining 100 g of sugar gradually and whisk until stiff and glossy. Fold into the batter in three additions.
- 5Pour into the tin and push the wrapped coin into the batter from the side so it leaves no mark on top.
- 6Bake for 50–55 minutes, until golden and a skewer comes out clean; cover with foil if the top browns too fast.
- 7Leave in the tin for 15 minutes, then turn out and cool on a rack.
- 8Cut the numbers of the new year out of paper, lay them on the cake as a stencil, dust with icing sugar and lift them off.
- 9At midnight or on New Year's Day, the head of the house cuts the first slice for Christ, the next for the house, then one for each member of the family from the eldest down.
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Questions and answers
How long does Vasilopita take to make?
About 85 minutes: 30 min prep and 55 min cooking.
What ingredients do you need for Vasilopita?
11 ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, orange zest, vanilla extract, plain flour, baking powder, orange juice, salt, coin, icing sugar.
How many servings does this Vasilopita recipe make?
12 servings. The servings buttons above the ingredients rescale every amount.
How many calories are in a serving of Vasilopita?
About 477 kcal, with 7.7 g protein, 62.9 g carbohydrate and 21.9 g fat. This is an estimate from the ingredients, not a lab analysis.
Which diets does this Vasilopita recipe suit?
It is vegetarian.
What cuisine is Vasilopita?
Vasilopita comes from Greek cuisine.
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