No No No it’s not New Years it’s February.
My Dad seen this recipe in a book and he wanted to have it baked on his birthday. According to the history behind the cake called Vasilopita traditionally, it’s made with a single coin baked into it and legend has it the person who is served that slice will have good luck in the coming year. I actually didn’t read that part until writing up this recipe! God knows how I missed that but what a sweet and interesting tradition.
The cake is especially for the those people who loves nuts it has a mixture of pistachios, almonds and walnuts yummy! I think our whole family are lovers of nuts so I was looking forward to trying this.
I made a slight mistake eeek, I added all the nuts into the mixture instead of putting half of them on top! I only noticed after and was like shoot!!!!!! it actually wasn’t my fault as the book forgot to mention that step in the book! however there was a small photo illustrating it but you generally read the method. Anyway I didn’t mind the nuts being inside the cake it gave it a nice crunchy texture.
- 125g - soft unsalted butter
- 1 tsp - lemon zest
- 275g - caster sugar
- 3 - eggs (I used medium)
- 75g - self raising flour
- 150g - plain flour
- 1/4 tsp - bi carb
- 125ml - milk
- 1 tbsp - lemon juice
- 2 tbsp - pistachios finely chopped
- 2 tbsp - almonds finely chopped
- 2 tbsp - walnuts finely chopped
- 2 tbsp - pistachios coarsely chopped
- 2 tbsp - almonds coarsely chopped
- 2 tbsp - walnuts coarsely chopped
- 1. Preheat the oven at 175°C and line a 9" tin.
- 2. In a bowl add the butter, zest, sugar and beat with an electric mix until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating between. The mixture may curdle but don't worry.
- 3. In another mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl make sure it's mixed. Sift the dry ingredients and milk into the other bowl, in two batches, then stir in juice and nuts (don't use the topping nuts).
- 4. Place mixture in the baking tin. Add the topping nuts over the cake.
- 5. Bake for 30-45 minutes and then cover with foil and check with a cake tester whether it's cooked.
- 6. Once cooled dust with icing sugar.