Happy New Year & The blessing of luck in everything

HAPPY & HEALTHY

NEW YEAR

2015!

And a New Years Story!

It's about the traditional new years cake with a coin hidden inside - the coin posses the "magic" power to give luck to the one who will be blessed with the good fortune to find it, and therefore enjoy a yearlong favor from fortune herself, wealth and abundance. The cake is cut in equal pieces, one for each person in the family and any visitor present at the happening. The blessing of luck in everything, you can imagine, everyone wishes to have that coin. If you want to know the winner of the year the story behind the tradition and the recipe scroll down. :)

New Year Cake. Photo source: cookoo.gr

'The lucky happy winner of this year is tatatataaa the precious home, which means that all living in my nest will be blessed with abundance. That is the best winner in my opinion and I'm very pleased with that. 

This may not be the best start on the health road by eating cake, however it's a wonderful tradition that I cherish and if you like to try you have the recipe bellow. You can do the same and enjoy the fun while eating the Sant Basils cake wondering who will be the lucky one. Do you have any tradition that you wouldn't change easily or simply decide to keep? 

The Story of the New Years Cake - St: Basils cake

This cake is made in honor of a beautiful act by St. Basil for his tax burden flock.

One year, during a time of terrible famine, the emperor levied a sinfully excessive tax upon the people of Caesarea. The tax was such a heavy burden upon the already poverty stricken people that to avoid debtors’ prison each family had to give up its few remaining coins and pieces of jewelry, including precious family heirlooms. Learning of this injustice upon his flock, St. Basil the Great, the archbishop of Caesarea, took up his bishop’s staff and the book of the holy Gospels and came to his people’s defense by fearlessly calling the emperor to repentance. By God’s grace, the emperor did repent! He canceled the tax and instructed his tax collectors to turn over to St. Basil all of the chests containing the coins and jewelry which had been paid as taxes by the people of Caesarea. But now St. Basil was faced with the daunting and impossible task of returning these thousands of coins and pieces of jewelry to their rightful owners. After praying for a long time before the icons Christ and His All-Holy Mother, St. Basil had all the treasures baked into one huge pita (bread). He then called all the townspeople to prayer at the cathedral, and, after Divine Liturgy, he blessed and cut the pita, giving a piece to each person.

Miraculously, each owner received in his piece of cake his own valuables. They all joyfully returned home, giving thanks to God who had delivered them from miserable poverty and to their good and holy bishop St. Basil the Great! In remembrance of that miracle from God as a result of St. Basil’s love and defense of his people, Orthodox Christians have observed the tradition of St: Basils new years cake (vasilopita) each year on January 1st.

New Years Cake  

Ingredients 

1 cup butter (226 gr)

1 tbsp butter, for greasing cake pan

2 cups white sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar, for sprinkling

3 cups flour

6 eggs

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup warm milk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 orange (the zest)

1 tbsp fresh orange juice

How to:

Sieve the flour and baking powder together in a bowl. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. 

Add the eggs, one at a time, so that each egg is fully incorporated before you add the next. Add the vanilla and grated zest. Finally add the flour and the milk, a little at a time. 

Grease with butter and line with greaseproof paper a 30cm (12 inch) baking tin. Empty the mixture in. Add the traditional coin. Bake in a preheated oven at 170ºC (340 F) for about 1h and 10 minutes. Garnish with sieved icing sugar. 

Bake and have fun with the coin, and who knows this year may be miraculously more wealthy in what ever you need.

I wish you all the best and hope the new year will be filled with abundance and success for each and everyone of You, besides the health that I consider be the true wealth! 

For that reason, to be healthier, and to create a better year ahead I will be sharing a How I/we if a couple, Plan a New Year which is something I decided to start again with as a tool to be focused and reach my goals. More about that in my next post.

posts connected to the new year intentions 

thank you for sharing!!! 

I would love to hear from you and your thoughts :)