Mataroa partners with Pavlos Kyriakis

Greek brand Mataroa Mediterranean Dry Gin has partnered with chef Pavlos Kyriakis to create a vasilopita, a traditional Greek New Year’s cake.

The sweet cake is baked not only for the first day of the new year, but throughout January. The brand said that the addition of Mataroa gives a ‘modern touch’.

Kyriakis has previously worked at Spondi and The Zillers, which are both one-Michelin-starred restaurants in Athens.

The collaboration continues Mataroa’s partnerships with figures from the bar and dining industry, including Popi Sevastou, Tito Karipidis and Konstantinos Theodorakopoulos.

Last week, the brand created a Christmas menu for The Zillers, with Milan’s Officina bar crafting the cocktails using Mataroa gin as the base.

Kyriakis’ vasilopita recipe is below.

Mataroa vasilopita

Ingredients

• 100g raisins
• 100g Mataroa Mediterranean Dry Gin
• 10 eggs
• 5g salt
• 550g of cow’s milk butter
• 450g sugar
• 150g orange juice
• 2 oranges (for zest)
• 2 lemons (for zest)
• 4 vanilla sticks
• 1.15kg wheat flour
• 100g sliced almonds
• 100g icing sugar

Method: In a bowl, put the raisins in the gin to soak. Separate the egg whites from the yolks and beat the egg whites with the salt until they become a meringue. Put the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl and whisk for about 15 minutes.

Add the egg yolks one at a time and continue whisking until the mixture is uniform. Add the orange juice, the zest from the orange and lemon, the pulp from the vanilla and the raisins that have been soaked in the gin, together with the gin.

Add 1/4 of the meringue and 1/4 of the sifted flour and mix with a spatula. Once integrated, continue in the same way until the flour and meringue are incorporated. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Put the mixture in a buttered pan and put it in the oven. Immediately lower the temperature to 170°C and bake for 1 hour.

Remove from the oven, garnish with the sliced almonds, which you have previously roasted slightly, and sprinkle with icing sugar.

Once done, you can then cut the cake – an ancient Greek custom, offered by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the gods during great rural festivals, that the brand says is ‘one of the few that has been preserved to this day’.