The New Year's cake is cut and shared on New Year's Eve. After "crossing" it with a knife, we begin to cut the pieces by saying who each one is for. The first pieces are cut for Christ, the Virgin Mary, St. Basil, the house and the poor man, while the rest are cut for family members and guests. Also, every year my mom (in Thrace) makes a cheese pie with homemade dough, in which she places a coin and we cut it on New Year's Day at the lunch table. 

Below is the recipe for my favourite Vasilopita:

VASILOPITA 

Ingredients

- 1/2 tsp. cardamom

- 250 g sugar

- 100 ml whole goat's milk, lukewarm

- 100 ml fennel seed tea

- 18 g dry yeast

- 700 g hard flour

- Orange zest, from 1 orange, unpeeled

- 4 eggs

- 120 g ghee butter at room temperature

- 30 white, unsalted almonds, cut in half

- 1 egg yolk for the spread

Procedure

In a food processor, blend the cardamom and sugar until the sugar looks like icing sugar.

In a bowl, add the fennel seed tea, warm milk, yeast and sugar and mix slowly.

Add the orange zest, flour, eggs and mix with the hook of your mixer very well.

Then add the ghee butter, and beat the mixture for another 5 minutes.

In the bottom of a round cake tin, lay a sheet of parchment paper and pour the mixture into it.

Now place the coin that you have wrapped with foil (a coin).

Cover the mould with a towel and set it aside for 2 hours, until it doubles in volume.

To decorate

Use the egg yolk and almonds to create your desired designs.

Preheat the oven to 160°C in the fan and bake for about 50 minutes.

Before taking the king cake out of the oven, check if it is cooked well by plunging a knife into the centre of the cake.