Vasilopita with Pine Sugar and Velvety Swiss Buttercream

One of the first recipes I had uploaded onto this site was aromatic sugar from a fir tree. It could have been the first actually…

I really love aromatic sugars and make them often during the year such as with lemon or with the ‘Buddha’s hand’ fruit or fingered citron as it is sometimes known; and generally with any citrus fruit or with even lilacs and daffodils etc for aroma.

One of the easiest to make is with Pine because we are surrounded here with a pine forest where we live in the park.

When I had uploaded that first recipe I said I would make a cake at some point using aromatic sugar..and finally the time arrived to do so..

I had been searching for some lost recipes from my mother for ages and the other day I found her old hand written recipe notes ..some of them we will be seeing soon..

I found amongst the recipes, quite timely I think, a recipe for Vasilopita (St Basil’s Pie or King Pie) which is made at this time of year - it is a New Year’s Day cake or pie that is traditionally eaten in Greece on St Basil’s Day 1st of January) and in Eastern Europe which usually contains a coin which is lucky for the recipient who receives the slice in which it is.

Foteini Georganta had asked me to make one for her show on Epsilon TV, “Only For You” so I got to work.

I confess that it is not a classic Vasilopita that my mother used to make, she usually liked to make a kind of yoghurt cake that was fluffier, but I liked the look of this recipe so I decided to do this one.

I was horrified by the amount of sugar involved and the lack of liquid but said to myself OK, I have nothing to lose by trying it..And in the end I was right to choose it. And that’s because it is a Vasilopita that will make you proud as punch, heavy, stable, that won’t crumble and generally a very worthwhile recipe as long as you are not in a terrific hurry.

I used in the cake but also in the buttercream, pine sugar, but you don’t need to use this, you could put any type of aromatic you wish or even some essences like vanilla if you don’t want too much work to do.. I am simply giving you a way to make your cake more interesting…

In the recipe I have put orange and vanilla essence but if you use pine sugar don’t add these and let the pine sugar do it’s job.

Diffuculty: 3

Duration:3 hours and some patience

Serves:20

Ingredients

For the Vasilopita

320 gr Cow’s butter at room temperature

1/2 tsp crystal salt

1 kg sugar

8 eggs medium at room temperature

1tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp orange essence

50 gr cognac or sweet wine

1 kg cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

Some currants

For the Swiss Buttercream

200 gr egg whites

200gr sugar

500gr cow’s butter at room temperature

For the decoration

1 egg white

Pine twigs

Caster Sugar

Method

For the Vasilopita

Put greaseproof paper in the base of a round baking tray with a diameter of approx. 34cm.

Butter and flour the base and sides of the baking tray.

Pre-heat the fan forced oven to 140C. YES! AT 140C!

Beat the butter with the salt until it gets fluffy in the mixer.

Put the sugar into the mixer in two stages once the mixture is blended start to add the eggs one by one into the mixture while the mixer is running.

It is essential that all the ingredients are at room temperature to mix properly. It will take a while for all the ingredients to blend well and make a soft cream.

Put the vanilla and the orange essence in and the cognac or sweet wine..if you have any from Kanava Roussos use that..

In the meantime, while the liquid is blending into the mixture, put sifted flour into a bowl with the baking powder and the baking soda.

Keep a little of the flour mix aside (2 tbsp) and add what else is left of the ingredients put them into a bowl with the currants.

Put the flour and other ingredients into the mixer in two stages. We first add half of the flour mixture into the mixer and then when that is fully mixed in we stop the mixer and add the second amount into the mixer bowl with a spatula folding it into the mixture with a spatula.

Then add the small amount of flour with the dried fruit (currants) etc.

Put all the mixture into the round baking tray.

Put the coin in somewhere.

Level out the mixture in the tray with a spatula.

Bake for one hour and 20 mins, turn off the oven, leave the baking tray inside leaving the door of the oven slightly ajar (with a tea towel if necessary). Leave the tray inside until it cools down. Only THEN take the baking tray out of the oven and take the cake out of the tray.. If you take the cake out too soon the centre of the cake may drop!

The sugar will have made a nice crust onto which we can put the caster sugar or the Swiss buttercream whichever you prefer really.

For the Swiss Buttercream

Put the egg whites and the sugar into a metallic bowl or saucepan.

Put a saucepan with a little water on a low heat.

The opening of the saucepan should be smaller than the bowl with the egg whites and the water should not be high enough to touch the bowl and should be simmering rather than boiling.

Beat the egg whites with the sugar by hand until they stiffen slightly.

Put the bowl on top of the saucepan and continue to beat the mixture by hand continuously. The goal is to cook the egg whites without them turning into an omelette!

Continue the whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved. You can tell by running your finger carefully through the mixture making sure first it’s not too hot. Try to do it once or twice if not sure.

When the mixture is ready we put it into the mixer and start to beat it on a medium speed.

Mix it until the mixture has cooled right down and slowly start to add the butter spoon by spoon.

It will require quite a lot of mixing until the entire mixture blends sufficiently but be patient as in the end you will have a wonderful velvety Swiss buttercream.

The amount you will have is sufficient to cover 12 large cup cakes or one large Vasilopita. Of course you can flavour it with whatever essence or aroma you wish or you can colour it with food colouring or you could put pralines or nuts or chocolate.. the Swiss buttercream recipe is from the site Scranline!

For the decoration

As my recipe has pine sugar I thought I would go a step further with the decoration and decorate the cake with some pine tree branches that when turned upside down look like little pine trees!

It’s easy to do..

Dip the pastry brush in egg white and coat the little branches.

Sprinkle them with caster sugar and leave them to set overnight.

Decorate the cake with them the next day.. with the same method you could use leaves, flowers etc.

Bon Apetite!