Happy New Year!

It’s amazing how so many different cultures have chosen to associate specific cakes with so many different holidays. What is it about cake that says “celebration”? Why is it so easy for us to assign significance to certain cakes, but not certain granola bars or types of chicken? I was worried that baking a cake every week would take away the “special-ness” of cake, but so far, I have not found that to be true. For me, or for any of the many people I have been fortunate enough to share these cakes with.

Many cultures apparently have a certain cake they bake in celebration of their New Year. The New Year’s cake in this book is Vassilopitta, or St. Basil’s Day Cake, a citrus and almond cake with many variations from the Greek culture, baked to celebrate both the New Year and the life of St. Basil, one of the founders of the Greek Orthodox Church, who is said to have died on New Year’s Day. Traditionally, a gold or silver coin is baked into the cake, and whoever finds the coin in his or her piece will be lucky throughout the year.

I baked this cake for New Year’s Day brunch (and by brunch, I mean whatever you call the meal you eat at 3:00 p.m. cuz you woke up at 2:00…). The recipe made a giant amount of batter, so I actually ended up with two cakes. We ate our pieces while the cake was still warm, as the recipe suggests, and it was excellent with our (attempted) omelet, turkey bacon, and orange slices. I saved a few pieces of the first cake for myself and took the rest to Tim and Maureen, and the second cake went to work, where it got rave reviews.

Dr. Robinson says she believes how some spends New Year’s Day is a predictor of the year to come. “If you spend the day squandering money, then the year will be one in which money will flow away from you. If you spend the day passively watching football, you will spend the year observing the action instead of taking part in the game.” I don’t know what that means for me. Randy and I slept in late after our night of partying like rockstars, made brunch together, spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies and playing Wii Fit, and then made dinner together. Nothing dramatic or exciting or novel, but quiet and satisfying and filled with a simple sort of happiness. I know it won’t be a quiet year—there’s so much to do if I want to graduate and move by the end of 2012. And Randy and I won’t physically spend the year together, since we’re living 800 miles apart. I will, however, be doing a lot of cooking, what with all these cakes to be made… As for the deeper meaning, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.