Vasilopita

The cookbook mentions that this cake or bread is eaten on New Year’s Day but as there is no mention of the significance of eating this bread, I dug around on the internet for background information.  What I learned (from American websites) is that it represents St. Basil’s way of re-distributing jewels collected by a village to pay a ransom that in the end they did not have to pay.  All of the jewels were baked into the cake and villagers each received a piece of the cake which miraculously contained his or her jewel(s) forfeited for the ransom.  In modern times, a coin is inserted into the cake batter and this whole event, cutting, distributing and eating the cake takes place just after midnight and naturally, the recipient of the coin is lucky for the year.

There are two versions of this cake, one is a yeast bread and the other a sweet cake leavened with baking powder; both versions are in the cookbook.

The sweet cake with baking powder has plenty of sugar (2 cups for 4 cups of flour) and rose nicely and evenly with 4 teaspoons of baking powder.  It is flavored simply with orange rind but I have seen other recipes with a bit of vanilla added in as well.  To finish, I dusted the cake with powdered sugar before removing the springform ring and it looked great. Most recipes I have seen have loads of sugar but I think the cake would not suffer if you eliminated some of it. 

The bread version is very rich with lots of eggs and butter.  In my hands, it was very dense and moist, and rose well.  I made only one loaf, halving all of the ingredients (the recipe as written makes two) and put it in a round springform pan to give it a round, tall shape.  The recipe called for only vanilla as a flavoring and I followed it as written but it can be made with orange rind to flavor as well.  The bread version (especially toasted with a bit of butter) was on our breakfast menu while it lasted, while the cake version complimented a cup of coffee or tea in the middle of the day.

I did not discover the tradition of adding the coin before I baked these but we enjoyed them and felt lucky anyway!

Vasilopita Cake


 

Prep time: 20 minutes

Baking time: 45 minutes

Serves 9-12

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

3 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 cup milk

Grated peel of one orange

Garnish: blanched almonds and/or powdered sugar

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 350o. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and mix until well blended.  In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add flour mixture and milk to the creamed butter, alternating between the milk and flour.  Add grated orange peel and continue mixing until smooth.  Pour into greased 10” springform pan.  Decorate with blanched almonds if desired.  Bake at 350o for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Once cool, sift powdered sugar on top, if desired.  Remove from pan when completely cool.

 

Vasilopita Bread


 

Prep time: 5-6 hours, including rising times

Baking time: 1 hour

Serves: 20+

Ingredients for 2 loaves:

2 cups milk

2 tsp yeast

1 cup butter

6 eggs plus 1 egg for glaze

1 ½ cups sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla and/or grated peel of one orange

8 cups flour, approximately

Sesame seeds to garnish

Instructions:

Prepare yeast the night before by dissolving it in 1 cup of scalded and cooled milk and mixing in 1 cup of flour.  The following day, beat together eggs, sugar, butter, 1 cup of warm milk, salt and vanilla (and rind of one orange).  Add the yeast mixture, mix everything together, then incorporate the remaining 7 cups of flour, one cup at a time, to make a soft dough.  Turn the dough out onto a board and knead, adding additional flour if necessary.  Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size.  Punch down and let rise again. Divide dough and place in loaf or round pans, greased and floured, and let rise a third time, doubling in size.  Beat one egg and brush over loaves then sprinkle sesame seeds on top of the loaves.  Bake at 350o for approximately one hour, until brown. Allow bread to cool for about 10 minutes and remove from pans.

 

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