This is another version for the New Year’s Cake. There are so many versions and I think that each cook has her/his favorite recipe. Well, as long as it is tasty and there is a coin hidden inside the cake, it is a Vasilopita, and if you really like it you can make it any time you feel like, minus the coin!
Ingredients 500 gr. self raising flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 250 gr. butter or margarine 3 eggs 1 – 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups sugar ½ cup brandy Zest of a large orange 1 cup fresh orange juice A coin (wrapped in a piece of tinfoil) 1 cup walnuts cut up in little pieces 1 cup chocolate drops Powdered sugar for decoration
Directions
Separate the eggs and beat the whites until you have a quite stiff meringue. Sift the flour with the baking powder. If you are using the walnuts and the chocolate drops, you can add them to the flour too.
Beat the margarine with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and beat well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract, the orange zest and the soda in the brandy and mix well.
Now add the flour, the orange juice and the meringue a little at a time until they are all finished.
Pour the batter in a prepared tin and push in the coin. Bake the cake at 180o for about 40 minutes. Do the test with the toothpick, and if it comes out clean, the cake is done.
Take the cake out of the pan and let it cool. Dust the top with powdered sugar and decorate it in any way you like.
The cake is cut just after midnight after greeting the New Year, and whoever finds the coin in his piece, is supposed to have good luck throughout the year!
Happy New Year to the whole world!