Vasilopita is a traditional Greek cake served on New Year's Day, with a hidden coin inside to bring luck to the person who finds it!
Greek Vasilopita cake is a delicious butter cake that's fluffy and airy. Infused with sweet flavors of vanilla, brandy, Mahlep powder, nutmeg, and orange.
Most of the time, it's coated in icing sugar but other toppings are often used as well.
Table Of Contents
Vasilopita translates as Saint Basil's pie (Vasilo-Pita). And it's pronounced Va-see-lo-pee-ta.
Greek Vasilopita Tradition
The tradition of the Greek Vasilopita cake is that it contains a hidden coin inside. This coin will bring luck to everyone who finds it.
The cutting of Vasilopita: the cake is cut into pieces in a particular order that goes like this: 1st piece is cut for Saint Mary, 2nd for Jesus, 3rd for the home, 4th for the land or business (if we own any). Then we cut a piece for each person of the family beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest.
Vasilopita is mostly served on New Year's Day, however, it can be served all throughout January. When schools and businesses open again for the New Year, they cut a Vasilopita cake for good luck.
Ingredients and Substitutes
To make a Greek New Year's Cake you need the following ingredients:
- Butter
- Icing Sugar
- Milk
- Orange Juice
- Orange Zest
- Vanilla Extract
- Ground Nutmeg
- Mahlep Powder
- Brandy or Cognac. In Greece we use Metaxa.
- All-purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
Ingredient Substitutes:
- Brandy or Cognac: you can also use scotch, an almond liqueur, or if you want to skip alcohol, you can substitute it with a bit more orange juice.
- Mahlep powder: you can use ground cardamom, Mastiha powder, or ground cinnamon.
How To Make
To make Vasilopita Cake beat the butter with the icing sugar until very airy and fluffy. Just like when making a buttercream. Then mix in the vanilla, mahlep, nutmeg, orange zest.
Combine flour and baking powder and add to the creamed butter alternately with the milk. When the milk is finished, combine orange juice and brandy and add this alternately with the flour. Adding liquid alternately with the flour helps to keep the batter airy and fluffy without making it either dense or liquidy.
Use a flour sifter to add the flour. This way you incorporate more air into the cake batter.
Add batter to a lined 10-inch Springform pan and bake. Then allow the cake to cool down to room temperature. Remove the pan's ring and slice the top of the cake to make it even. Press the coin inside the cake and overlap the cake on a plate. Now it's time to decorate it!
New Year's Cake Decorations
The classic and easiest decoration for New Year's Cake, Vasilopita, is icing sugar dusted on top. It's a custom to write either the New Year's number or a Happy New Year on top. You can do this by using paper numbers, or some melted Baker's Chocolate and a Cake Decorating Pen.
Recipe
Greek New Year's Cake - Vasilopita
Equipment
Ingredients
- 250 grams (8.8 ounce) butter softened
- 250 grams (8.8 ounce) icing sugar + extra to add on top
- ⅔ orange zested
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon Mahlep powder
- 3½ tablespoons brandy or scotch
- 5 medium-sized eggs
- 125 ml (½ cup) milk
- 100 ml (⅓ cup + 2 tablespoons) fresh orange juice
- 425 grams (3 + ½ cups) all-purpose flour
- 4½ teaspoons baking powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 small coin
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175°C / 350°F.
- Combine flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- Beat butter with icing sugar. Using an electric mixer with the whisk attachment on cream butter and sugar for at least 10 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go. Beat until very airy and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time. The mixture will look slightly curdled but that's ok.
- Add the orange zest, vanilla extract, ground nutmeg, and Mahlep powder.
- Combine brandy with orange juice.
- Add the flour (with a flour sifter) alternately with the milk. When the milk is finished add the orange juice mixture alternately with the flour.
- Add the batter to a lined 10-inch Springform pan.
- Bake for about 40-45 minutes. Test with a toothpick to see if it's baked in the center.
- Let the cake cool down to room temperature.
- Add the coin. Remove the pan ring. Slice off the top of the cake to flatten it. Press the coin inside the cake. Then overlap the cake on a serving plate with its bottom side facing upwards.
- Decorate. Place paper decorations or numbers (see Notes below) and dust with icing sugar. See alternative decorations in the post above. Carefully remove the paper decorations and you're ready to serve!
Notes
- Decorate with the icing sugar on the day you're serving the cake. If the icing sugar sits for a while, it can become moist and any shapes you have made will disappear.
- I used cookie cutters to make shapes on paper then cut them and use them to decorate the top of the cake.
45 min is never enough for me, no matter what cake I used and even stopped using the springform and started using glass rectangular dish to make it more even, the middle will never have toothpick come out clean. I used to have a 4 cup flour recipe and the same thing happened even with more flour. I am not sure why I need over 1 hour to cook it thoroughly
Hello Stacy, adding more flour is not the solution in cake recipes it can only ruin a recipe. What's probably the case here is the oven. Ovens bake differently and have different strengths. This can vary from -10 to + 10 minutes more or less. Especially when you use convenction ovens rather than conventional ovens. Does your oven use a fan function? This circulates air and results in more even baking also speeds things up. And you probably know this but just mentioning it to make sure, that you never open the oven before the first 10 minutes of baking have past to prevent the batter from loosing air and collapsing.
Dear Fotini, I cook a lot of your recipes - they are fantastic but I have to let you know that today I made your Vasilopita cake and its amazing. The cooking time was exactly as you wrote and the texture of the cake and the flavour are delicious.
Thank you so much and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Glad to hear this Nikki, Happy New Year!
I was very intrigued by the Mahlep powder as my in-laws are 100% greek. Never heard them mention it. In my area there are a few Greek markets so next time I am in there, I am keeping the name for further
searching.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Mahlep is used a lot in holiday baking like Greek Koulourakia or Tsoureki (Easter cookies and Bread). It adds a unique sweet note I'm sure you'll like it once you try it! Happy New Year!