For New Years I decided to go all in with the "lucky foods." I've never done that before, we don't have any traditions for that day besides staying up late.

Anyways, I googled traditional New Years foods and found all kinds of stuff including something called a vasilopita cake.  It's a traditional Greek cake for New Years and the recipe reminded me of one I use to make orange marmalade cake.  Except minus some very tedious steps...

Anyways, I made the cake and it is AMAZING.  It's so fluffy and MOIST.  My family kept going on and on about.  I make some of my cakes from scratch and some from a doctored mix.  But even my best scratch recipes don't give me a crumb this moist and fluffy. 

I don't know anything about the science behind baking.  I just follow the recipe and pray it turns out awesome.  This one blew me away though and I NEED TO KNOW what it was I did to make the cake so amazing!

Here is a link: http://www.mygreekdish.com/recipe/vasilopita-cake-greek-new-years-cake/ 

And the recipe just in case that doesn't work:

Once starting to prepare this vasilopita recipe, make sure that your butter is at room temperature before using. It is very important to mix the butter and sugar thoroughly until the butter is really fluffy and creamy, like whipped cream, and the sugar has dissolved. Give this step some extra time and the result will definitely reward you.

In many vasilopita recipes, the eggs are added whole to the cake mixture but with this recipe the egg whites are beaten into meringues and combined towards the end with the rest of the dough. This is the secret to a more fluffy and airy vasilopita. To avoid the egg-y smell, which can ruin the flavour of your vasilopita, add the egg yolks one at a time, allowing each one to be absorbed from the mixture.

Once done mixing the rest of the ingredients, use a marise spatula to incorporate the flour and the meringue. Using an electric mixer will result the vasilopita to loose it’s fluffiness. Just add the flour (sifted) and the meringue and blend with light circular movements, trying not to overwork the dough.

Also very important is not to open the oven under no circumstances, before 30 minutes of baking, as this will result your vasilopita to deflate. Finally don’t forget to insert the coin through the base of the cake!

If you prefer to make a vasilopita using a tsoureki dough, here is a no fail tsoureki recipe, for you to succeed on your first time. Enjoy!

This sounds really good!  I've never made an orange flavored cake so I would like to try this one.  To make a vanilla cake I would substitute milk for orange juice and up the vanilla to 2 or 3 teaspoons.  I think the batter sounds really rich from the eggs and butter and is tender from the yogurt.  I would change the flavor via the liquid and the extract.  Everything else should probably remain the same.

It's mostly (probably) the thorough creaming of the butter and sugar. If people would do that the right way every time it would really improve the texture of their cakes. Folding the meringue in at the end keeps air in the batter and gives it more lightness too.

The only issue with switching out the orange juice would be that there's so much of it, and since it's an acid it might have something to do with the leavening. Self-rising flour has baking powder in it already, so if you take out an acid it COULD affect the way the batter rises, but you never know. If you're not controlling the amount or type of baking powder that's in the batter you don't know exactly what you're working with.

If it was me I'd try switching out the orange juice with water to see what happens. If the acid in the juice is key to the texture you'll find out pretty fast. I wouldn't substitute milk because that would introduce some fat into the equation, and that's just another variable to deal with. I'd use water and vanilla instead of the orange zest and orange juice and see how it works. You might decide that you do need milk instead of water, but who knows.

If you don't get the same amount of rise in the water version you could add a little vinegar to the batter to replace the acid and see if that works.

@costumeczar - ah, good point.  How about we split the difference with skim milk?

Avinegar or lemon juice in water or milk to replace the orange juice -- it's already got yogurt so milk should be ok -- but water is the closer replacement

AI've been a scratch baker since I stated baking with my Mom at 13. About 100 yrs. ago...hee hee. If you want to know about the science behind baking, may I recommend "The Cake Bible" book by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Invaluable. Best $$$ I ever spent. Recipes and great instructions, tips on baking AND the science behind it. I did know tho, from my Mom, and Home EC classes, which, sadly doesn't get taught anymore, beating the butter...a lot!...,incorporates air...which helps your cake rise. So when adding beaten egg whites, you have to fold in carefully as to not remove the air from the batter. I'm posting a Vasilopita cake I've made....devine, and I think, much easier than yours. Less steps, and you use your mixer. No OJ, but orange zest, so a little more subtle orange flavour. If I wanted a plain/vanilla cake, obviously eliminate the OJ, and add a good 2 tsp of quality vanilla extract....Mexican or Madagascar. Even some vanilla bean would be a nice touch. My Mom-in-law was Polish, not a be baker, but she made the Polish version of this cake for celebrations, especially New Years. But it contained yeast, which allowed a good rise....hmmmm, I can taste it now, buttery, moist...yum. I also bake in a bundt pan. Here's the recipe I use:

Vasilopita — Orange Scented New Year’s Cake

1 cup butter, softened 2 cups sugar ( I use ultra fine sugar, the kind used in making alcoholic drinks, or grind your sugar fine ) 6 eggs, room temp 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup of milk, room temp ( I use unsweetend almond or rice milk ) 2 tablespoons cognac or brandy ( I use Cointreau, orange flavoured liqueur) 1 tablespoon grated orange zest (from about 1/2 an orange)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and generously grease and flour a 10-inch round cake pan. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light, about 3 minutes. Add cognac and zest. Add the eggs, one at a time. Begin adding the flour, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with flour.

Pour batter into prepared pan and place in oven. Bake for 5 minutes then drop foil wrapped quarter into cake if using a coin for New Year’s Day. Continue baking for another 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

AYou ladies are awesome!

I'll make it again using water for the OJ and some vinegar for the acid. I worried about the acid in the juice having an affect on the cake. I have the best buttermilk biscuit recipe and when I tried to make them using regular milk they weren't anywhere close to as good. I attributed the flop to the lack in acid since I used regular milk but again, I don't get the science behind baking :-P

Would 1 TBSP be enough?

Should I use all purpose flour and add the leavening myself?

Thank you again ladies! I really really appreciate the help!

Michell

Only change one thing at a time so that you'll know what was responsible for what difference!

I'd put at least 1 tsp of vinegar in, maybe up to 1 Tbsp. No more than that.

If you want to switch out the self-rising flour don't use AP flour, use cake flour or a pastry flour like White Lily (is that what it's called?). It's in a bag...Self-rising flour is usually lower-protein than an AP flour would be, so that would affect the final texture too. I'd stick with the self-rising unless adding the vinegar to the water doesn't work. Maybe then I'd try self-rising flour plus a little baking soda and the vinegar instead of the regular flour plus more leaveners.

AI tried again. I replaced the OJ with water and added 1tsp lemon juice (I was out of white vinegar and didn't think rice or red wine vinegar would work here ;) ).

Everything else I kept the same. The cake came out crumbly. It tastes amazing and is really moist but I couldn't ever make anything with this, like ice and decorate it. It fell apart when I removed it from the pans. It has so many eggs I can't imagine why it was all crumbly ? Any ideas?

So basically it was too soft? hmmm...Try it with water and no extra acid. I'd say that it might be too much baking powder but if you used self-rising flour you can't adjust that. Also make sure it's cooled completely before you take it out of the pan.

Or...try removing like 1/4 cup of the self-rising flour and substitute AP flour.

I agree there may have been too much acid.  It's the acid that works against the gluten that keeps the cake tender.  I am surprised that 1 teaspoon of lemon juice is too much vs. a whole cup of orange juice.  If you look at jchuck's recipe it's similar but uses 1 cup of milk instead of orange juice.  Without the orange juice you're missing not only acid but sugar. I wonder what role that extra sugar plays.  Jchuck's using rice milk aleviates the fat issue but adds the sugar.  I'm interested to hear how just using water would come out, I just think it's a missed opportunity for flavor.

an idea is to try the best buttermilk you can find -- it has this powerful/wonderful emulsifier in it -- maybe with a couple tablespoons of water?

idk -- this is a very specific formula and sometimes it's that way or no way kwim -- 

i hope you are making 1/3 (1 egg) or 1/6 (2 eggs) of a recipe at a time in order to keep costs down 

Buttermilk then?  And leave out the acid?

I made the full recipe because I was teaching a 4-H cake decorating class and was showing the girls how to torte, fill, crumb coat and final ice a cake and I thought hey why not?  Lets try that new recipe again.  I ended running to the grocery store to buy some mixes instead.

I really like this recipe.  But could it have to be made just the way it is for it to work?  I don't mind playing around with it.  We raise chickens so I have, literally, a never ending source of fresh eggs.  It's butter that kills me.

I'll give it another shot with the buttermilk and see how that goes.  Maybe switch out the SR flour for AP and add leavening and cut back on the baking powder?  This is all actually really fun :D  Just a real bummer when it doesn't come out right.  But if I can get a working scratch white cake that tastes as amazing as this recipe did I'll be over the moon :)

Thank you ladies for all your help.  It is so greatly appreciated!

Michell

yes buttermilk already has some acid and it has phospholipids that are the best at creating an emulsification between fat and water particles --

you can easily do 3 or 6 different tests at one time -- by dividing the ingredients by 3 or 6 -- then just keep everything well marked but you can make cupcakes out of it for test purposes --

divided by 3 then you can have three different tests running at once --

• 375g butter (13 ounces)  4.3 ounces
• 3 cups sugar 1 cup
• 6 eggs (divided into yolks and whites) 2 eggs
• zest of 2 oranges optional
• 1/2 cup orange juice 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons or scant 3 tablespoons
• 200g yogurt, strained (7 ounces) 2.33 ounces
• 1 tsp vanilla extract lil bit
• 750g self-rising flour, sifted  (26.5 ounces) scant 9 ounces

i think my math is right ;)

Have I mentioned how AWESOME you are??? 

Test batch #1 going into the oven soon :D

Quote:

merci beaucoup from all of us

Buttermilk is slightly acidic itself, so if you substitute that for milk in recipes you need to adjust leaveners. It usually makes things rise more than they would with milk, so if too much acid was the reason the second cake was too soft then it might have the same effect.

If you go with the buttermilk get the fat-free buttermilk to avoid adding more fat. Real buttermilk is fat free, but the cultured kind they sell can be fat free or full fat versions.