Vasilopita is a traditional New Year’s Day cake in Greek
New Year’s Eve is approaching and apart from the food and drink, the Vasilopita is the center of attention. Vasilopita pronounced vah-see-LO-pee-tah, is the Greek lucky new year’s cake that has a coin hidden in it and is cut at midnight. It is tradition for each family to have their own vasilopita and a piece is cut for each family member. If the coin is in your piece, you supposedly have good luck for the rest of the year.
Typically a gold-plated coin or a silver coin will be inserted in the Vasilopita, there are coins made and sold just for that reason. Whoever gets the coin, not only gets to enjoy good luck for the whole year but also gets some sort of gift such as money and/or a charm.
The history of the Vasilopita traces back to the legend of St. Basil the Great, the Archbishop of Caesarea. One year, during a time of great famine, the emperor levied a large and excessive tax on all the residents of Caesarea. As these people were already very poor and did not want to end up in prison, they gave up whatever little they had such as coins and jewelry, which included family heirlooms.
Once St. Basil learned of what had happened, he fearlessly called on the emperor to repent, which he did, and returned all the coins and jewelry to St. Basil. St. Basil was then tasked with returning everything to the residents of Caesarea, but he did not know what belonged to who. St. Basil prayed hard to the icons of Christ and the Theotokos/Virgin Mary. He followed by baking the coins and jewelry into a large “pita”.
He called on the people of the town to come to the cathedral for prayer. Then he blessed the pita and divided it amongst everyone. By the grace of God, everyone received their respective coins and jewelry in their piece of pita.
The texture of this cake is very much like a pound cake when baked in a 9-inch cake pan, with the added scent and flavors of orange. The final dusting of confectioners’ sugar on top gives it that extra bit of sweetness. Feel free to decorate your cake with some almonds in the shape of a cross as well. The fun part is seeing who the lucky family member is to receive the coin and be blessed with extra luck in the New Year! Who will get the coin in your family?
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/k17DIht10kY
- https://cooklikeagreekblog.com/vasilopita-greek-new-years-cake/
- https://www.olivetomato.com/vasilopita-the-greek-lucky-new-years-cake-a-lighter-version/
- https://www.mamazillafood.com/en/recipes/cakes/greek-new-years-cake
- https://readloud.net/
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