VASILOPITA

looks very nice indeed!

Happy new year !

I hope you enjoy the vasilopita, and I hope you are the one who finds the coin :o)

hope you don't swallow it,as a child in the long distant past my mother used to add the old sixpences to to her Christmas pudding I did swallow one of those,she never used them afterwards,especially the one i swallowed.!!

Happy New Year to you too! :)

Happy 1:1:11 !! Hope you find the coin!

Thank you all. There is a lovely story behind the VASILOPITA, which I will write later. Cooking lunch for family now so no time....Just a quick peek at my favorite site.

oh that is beautiful ~ please tell me how you make it and what a lovely tradition!
perhaps i will have a go ~ christmas cake all gone !
im very much looking forward to your blog to tell the story.

Happy New Year Alex. May I wish you health and happiness for your family and success in your business. Love the cake...duh! last in the queue again! But a tradition I hope you will follow for many, many years to come.

One of the versions of the VASILOPITA:

In the 4th century a greedy eparch demanded extra taxes from the already exhausted people. St. Vasilios begged the people to give all they had, every last coin and jewellery to save themselves. Then he smoothed the anger of the eparch and managed to change his mind. The treasure was then given to St. Vasilios who baked a cake (pie) for each family, in which a jewel or coin was hidden inside.

Thanks Hywel, I hope you had a nice day and a great New Year to come. No coin yet....

Stickitoffee, this cake is made anyway you like. In the years past people made this cake with whatever was available to them. There are loads of different ways of making it and I usually change it a little every year...but if you want I will send you this recipe.
Just don't forget the coin!!!

lovely story ~ many thanks.

Bj....you made me giggle. I put a 2euro coin in the mix. Don't think anyone will swallow it. (I hope)

Happy New Year Margo...Hope you enjoyed your day.

oooh yes please i would love the recipe ~ whichever one you like!!
i will do the coin too!

Hello BF, and what a clever girl you are, baking such a beatiful cake, Oh it made my mouth water, Happy New Year to you and your family Alex, thank you for the lovely Christmas Card.

have you put pieces of chocolate flake around the edge?

Looks lovely the coin in the cake is like our christmas puds over here :O)

Looks very yummy :o) Happy New Year.

looks delish Alex, happy newyear to you and your family :o) x

Ah, my BF is back. Tell me all about your trip!!! Had lots and lots of fun??? Take lots of nice pics to show us??? I have so much fun making Vasilopita every year, always make it different. Coin not found yet!!!

Scrumptious! Happy New Year Alex...

Happy New Year to you too Rbtkew...hope you had a great day.

Hi Alex, yes I am back, I put photos on a blog. I love the look of your cake, are you going to post the recipe for it then we can all try and make one, I wonder were the Euro has gone,!!!!!

My daughter found the 2euro coin this morning for breakfast. She will be the one to enjoy lots of good luck this year.
I was just looking at your blog...nice, very very nice. Need to have another look.
Will post recipe in a minute then...

hope you enjoy the blog, and thank you for posting the recipe in a bit, I hope your daughter gets lots of good luck,

RECIPE FOR VASILOPITA (this year):
Ingredients:
1 cup of butter
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
vanilla extract
grinded orange peel
4 1/2 cups self raising flour
2/3 cups fresh orange juice
a handful of walnuts or as desired

Mix the butter with the sugar until nice and creamy then add the eggs, the vanilla and the orange peel. When the mix is smooth add the flour and the fresh orange juice in turns... Bake at 180C (or how you bake your cakes)

Topping this year was:
butter cream frosting with loads of orange peel....
the sides are graded chocolate

thank you BF, added to my favs.

many thanks for that alex

You're welcome Yorkshire and Sticki. I hope yours turns out as yummy as mine.

so do I!

VERY WELL ALEX
You should knew Eleni. My wife

Maybe one day I will visit Xanthi!!!

Alexandramou:

That looks so, so yummy!!! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you too Delonix. It was so so yummy. All gone now.

Alexandramou:

I'm sure it went fast! :>)

Thanks for the recipe though...I'm going to make this cake soon.

Υου must tell me how it turned out. You know what I really miss...good old maple syrup. The real stuff is so expensive here.

Alexandramou:

I'll let you know.

Maple Syrup is very expensive here too. Most of it is grown up in the state of Maine....which is about 3,280 miles/5,279km from San Diego (across U.S. from us)

i love maple syrup. there is one made by tate and lyle which is not the real thing but its not bad

I was using "golden griddle" but they stopped bringing it over....we don't really like pancakes and French toast without it. We are using honey at the moment but it's just not the same...;o(

nothing you can get over the internet??

I'm sure there is but I don't feel comfortable ordering food on line. I'll just have to search all the super market's.

hope you find some.

Thanks Stickitoffee.

Hi Alex, I spotted your delicious looking cake and decided to investigate as I have just started baking again after years of steering clear due to weight increase. I have copied your recipe in to my book and am wondering about your cup sizes. Are these the American cup sizes? I always get confused by recipes asking for cupfuls of butter. Do you pack it in and smooth the top? When I was a child my mother always put silver threepence coins in the Christmas Dumpling. The Dumpling and Christmas cake were made in April when eggs were cheap and plentiful. Sherry or brandy were added over the year to keep them moist. The coins were well wrapped up in greaseproof paper after a good scrubbing to make sure we were not poisoned. If you found a coin you were granted a wish which you had to keep secret or it would not come true. The whole family got involved on baking day, helping to chop fruit etc. and carefully line tins with several layers of greased greaseproof paper and brown paper was tied round the outside to stop the cake burning. The cake tin was a half size biscuit tin, approx. 12"square and 6" deep. Biscuits were bought loose in those days. I'm looking forward to tasting this cake.

Alex, I ordered manuka honey online and got it the next day! Amazing service, couldn't believe it, now, I am a granny and I do a lot of shopping online now, and as my son says, 'get with it ma' !!! It's fine to order online, really.(if you really need something)

what a lovely story scotsgran, i remember mum making the christmas cake and we all had a stir ~ i did the same when my children were little ~ it took so much longer in those days.
that must have been a huge cake ~ 6" deep tin!!??

It is such a shame that young families live at breakneck speed nowadays. I baked with my children too. When I went in to have a thyroidectomy I was in for my birthday. My husband and children made me a huge chocolate cake and brought it in to the hospital. They decorated it with chocolate butter cream and maltesers. As soon as he set eyes on it the surgeon said "You can't have that" but he was only teasing. Sister made a pot of tea for hubby and I and the kids were given orange juice. I was not fit so they blew out the candles. The staff finished the cake later on. What is too often missing in the NHS nowadays is TLC, it goes such a long way towards patients recovery. I was very heartened to hear that the new hospital built in Larbert in Central Scotland has employed a ranger to get the locals, patients and staff out in the fresh air to enjoy the 70 acres of grounds. Somebody is getting the message.

that is not what you expect in hospital ~ so what a lovely surprise for you and a ranger ~ now that is such a good idea. clever thinking on someones part ~ or perhaps its just common sense!!! and doesnt cost much either but the benefits will be immeasurable
both my boys sat on kitchen work tops or held onto me from when they were tiny ~ smelling all the herbs and spices, licking out the bowls ~ having a go ~ now they are both better cooks than me and both do most of the cooking in their own homes. thats my own claim to doing something right!!

My grandchildren are learning to cook by helping my daughter. It is so much easier to let them go off to uni if you know they can feed themselves. My son is a dab hand at ironing too. He learned in the RNVR when he was a student.

oh dear ~ ironing is not my favourite ~ nor my sons strangely enough!
one of them has even been known to buy a new shirt rather than iron one!

Nor mine I have been struggling with a huge load of washing and still cannot see the bottom of the basket. I will try again tomorrow. LOL does your son have more money than sense or was he just trying to impress someone special. We made the kids work for their pocket money.As soon as they passed the housekeeping test at Brownies and Cubs they were expected to wash their socks and underwear every evening before going to bed. They also had to iron their own shirts or blouses. He perfected the art of ironing by reading the huge book provided by the Navy which gave instructions on everything from washing the floor to running the ship.

ah, the navy trains them well! but sounds like he had already had his training from his mum!
at that point my son did have more money than sense ~ he wasnt living at home then, he was working ~ he could have been wanting to impress ~ not sure! he wouldnt be allowed to do it now ~ he is married!

lol!

Hi Scotsgran, I use my US measuring cup. I just look at the grams....usually 1 cup of butter is 250g. I mostly judge by the way the mix looks....sometimes I add a little more of this or a little more of that.
I do the same as well, wash the coin and wrap it up!!!
Good luck with the cake, let me know how it turns out.
I try to get my kids to help out with the cooking.....it's basically just my little boy who loves to help now. The teenagers just want to go see their friends or play on the computer. Oh well.
I like your story...

Thank you Vasilopita. I may well try it this weekend. I made 8 Banana cakes to use up bananas I had bought before Christmas and there are still a few of them in the freezer. There are scares here about imported eggs containing toxins which have been used in commercially prepared food especially quiches and cakes so I am glad I have started baking again using local free range eggs. we do not use a lot of cake unless we have visitors but my husband does like a slice with his afternoon cuppa.

i love making cake but we dont eat so much now there are only 2 of us, just a slice a day is very nice tho.
if you make Vasilopita scotsgran ~ can you let me know about the translation of the amounts ~ i have cups here but i dont know if they are australian or american or somewhere else?? are 'cups' standard??

Stickitoffee.... 250g is one cup.
Good luck.

ok thanks alexandra, i can check my 'cups' now!
im longing to try it ~ just got to have people round to help me eat it!

LOL....I love cakes, cupcakes, chocolate, sweets sweets sweets...yum yum.
I have to stop baking for a bit as my waste is getting bigger. I made this lovely sweet yesterday "Milfe"
I ate three pieces today! Scrumptious

Looking at the recipe I should think it will freeze well. I tend to make cakes in a 2 pint loaf tin and if freezing it, cut it in half. I will need to look out my ring tin which has not been used for years.