Vasilopita

Celebrate New Year’s Eve (or indeed any special occasion) with a festive Greek cake, that contains a secret hidden coin. The person who finds in the coin in their piece of delicious cake will enjoy a blessed New Year!

Ingredients

1/4 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup (250g) butter, room temperature
2 cups (450g) white sugar
3 cups (370g) white spelt flour
6 free range eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup (250ml) whole milk
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
2 tbsp brown sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180å¡C (160å¡C fan-forced). Grease or line a large (approx. 20-25cm) round springform cake pan with butter. Wrap a 50 cent coin in aluminium foil and set aside. Grind the macadamia nuts in a mortar and pestle (into various sizes) and keep for later.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light in colour. Add the flour and mix until the batter looks like breadcrumbs. Then add each egg one at a time and continue to stir through.

In a separate bowl combine the baking powder and milk. Add this to the cake batter and mix to combine.

In another small bowl, combine the lemon juice and bi-carb soda, then add this to the cake batter and mix well.

Pour the finished batter into the pan, insert the coin and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven and sprinkle the macadamias and some brown sugar over the top, then return the cake to the oven and continue to bake for 20-30 minutes more or until cooked.

Cool the cake on a rack for 10 minutes and serve.

Note

Get the kids to help grind the nuts with the mortar and pestle – they will love it!
If you don’t like macadamia nuts, you can replace them with almonds.
Serve with a nice big dollop of vanilla ice cream.
This recipe was created by Meagan Wilson foråÊKidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder. Follow Meagan atåÊThis Whole Family