St. Basil's Cake/ The history of the special dessert and the simple recipe

2026-01-01 13:18:00, Shëndeti CNA

St. Basil's Cake (Vasilopit?s - from Greek, meaning "cake or cake or pie of St. Basil") is an important traditional part of the celebration of St. Basil's Day, on January 1.

A special cake, containing a hidden coin, is cut and shared among family members. Whoever gets the piece with the coin hidden inside is considered to have the blessing of Saint Basil. Depending on regional and family tradition, mainly in Albania pie, kulaç, sweet bread or more recently kek are used.

Saint Basil was born into a wealthy family and distributed everything he had to the poor and children.

The history of Saint Basil's dessert

During a time of famine, the emperor exacted an exorbitant tax from the people of Caesarea. According to his order, each family had to hand over their valuables - money and/or jewelry.

Upon discovering this injustice, Saint Basil fearlessly defended his flock, calling the emperor to repentance, while the people gathered what they could from the wealth that each had. The emperor died and was unable to take what they had gathered. The saint faced a daunting task, as the leader of the people: there was a large amount of goods and this had to be returned to everyone. It was impossible to return everything to every inhabitant. He prayed, then prepared a large amount of cake and put the treasures inside it. After calling his people to prayer, he blessed and cut the cake, offering a piece to each. Miraculously, each person received their valuables in their own piece of cake.

To commemorate this miracle, Saint Basil's cake (Vasilopita) is made on the feast of Saint Basil, every year after his death.

Recipe for St. Basil's cake

There are different recipes for St. Basil's cake, depending on local traditions. We are presenting one of them:

Ingredients:

-1 cup softened butter

-1 cup sugar

-4 eggs

-2 cups flour

-2 teaspoons of baking powder and a little soda

- grated orange and lemon peel

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-powdered sugar for dusting

Beat the eggs with the sugar and add the melted butter, mix well and add the grated skins, flour, baking powder, vanilla and mix well. Pour the mixture into the pan, place the coin wrapped in aluminum foil inside and bake at 150 degrees for 45 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes in the oven and then decorate as desired.