Almond Vasilopita Cake: Greek Lucky New Year's Cake

Every year I bring you a different version of vasilopita that I love, and this year it’s almond vasilopita cake. It’s a Greek lucky New Year’s cake, also known as St. Basil’s cake, with a coin baked inside. It’s traditionally served on New Year’s Eve, and whoever finds the coin is sure to have luck the entire new year. This almond version is one of my favorites because the almond adds a little bit of heartiness to the soft cake, it’s not too sweet, and the cardamom and orange flavors put it over the top. You’re going to love it!

Why you’ll make this all year

A beautiful, soft, almond-flavored cake full of Greek tradition and fun!

The Wet Ingredients:

Unsalted butter -softened

Confectioner’s sugar

The Dry Ingredients:

All-purpose flour

Almond flour -this adds heartiness to the cake.

Baking powder

Baking soda

Zest of an orange -this adds so much freshness.

Salt

Ground cardamom seeds or ground mastiha.

Almond slices

Swapping cardamom for traditional flavor

If you prefer more traditional vasilopita flavors, swap out the cardamom for mastiha/mastic gum. You can grind the mastic in a grinder, food processor, or with a mortar and pestle. Then, add a quarter teaspoon to the dry ingredients. I don’t recommend using more because mastic will come across as bitter if you use too much. Let me know which you prefer!

How to make Almond Vasilopita Cake: Greek Lucky New Year’s Cake

Preheat the oven to 350 °F, 180 °C.

Line a 10-inch cake pan with parchment paper and spray the inside with pan spray or brush with melted butter.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla, and almond extract on low speed until combined.

Increase the speed to high and beat until thick, pale, and fluffy -about 3 minutes.

Beat the eggs into the butter mixture one at a time until fluffy.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat until smooth.

Add the yogurt and beat on high speed until incorporated.

Whisk together the flour, almond meal, salt, baking powder, cardamom, orange zest, and almond slices until combined.

Add the flour mixture to the mixer in a few batches until just incorporated.

Then, pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Insert the foil-wrapped coin into the batter.

Bake on the center rack of the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes. The cake is ready when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean or with some crumbs attached.

Run a knife around the edges of the cake to release it from the pan and set it aside to cool completely.

Invert the cake onto a cake platter and remove the parchment paper.

Flip the cake back over and dust it with lots of confectioner’s sugar.

Decorate and Serve

The traditional way to decorate this cake is with lots of confectioner’s sugar. To add interest and beauty to it, I like to place a lace stencil on the top of the cake before dusting it with confectioner’s sugar. It creates a beautifully embroidered design. You can also top the cake with the following year’s numbers, fruit, curd, preserves, or anything else you prefer. Though no matter how you decorate it, it pairs perfectly with tea and coffee. So, be sure to have those hot and ready. Enjoy! Kali Orexi!

For the Wet Ingredients:

For the Dry Ingredients:

For the Tradition and Decoration: