Karithopita (Greek nut and spice cake)

For the cake:

1T. vinegar

1c. milk

1c. vegetable oil

1 ½ c. sugar

3 eggs

1 T. vanilla

2 c. flour

3 t. baking powder

½ t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

½ t. ground cloves

1 ½ c. chopped walnuts

For the syrup:

2 c. water

2 c. sugar

1 t. lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 pan and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk the vinegar into the milk and set aside several minutes to make sour milk. In a large bowl, combine oil, sugar and eggs. Beat well. Beat in the vanilla and sour milk. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves. Add the dry ingredients to the sour milk mixture and mix well. Beat in the walnuts. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in the pan while you make the syrup.

To make syrup, bring syrup ingredients to a boil in a saucepan over med-high heat. Boil mixture 5 minutes. Pour the hot syrup over the cake. Let the cake absorb the syrup before cutting into squares or diamond shapes to serve. Makes 36 servings.