BLOOD ORANGE PORTOKALOPITA
Portokalopita is a sticky, zesty Greek orange cake made from layers of shredded filo, a citrus scented batter, and a syrup soaked through after baking so every forkful is gloriously syrupy and citrusy. It often includes yoghurt for tender crumb and orange zest and juice for that characterful tang. Originating in Greece, particularly popular on the islands and in mainland households, it’s a modern twist on traditional Greek syrup cakes, commonly served at celebrations and family gatherings.
My recipe has been one I go back to over and over again. Translating literally to orange cake, the key to this cake that makes it so different is that there is no flour, and instead it’s structure comes from dried out filo pastry, that gives the cake a super unique layering, so with every bite it feels moist, whilst have a bit of structural bite. For this recipe I use blood oranges because the colour and flavour is just insane when they’re in season, but classic oranges will also work incredible well, just swap the 3 blood oranges for 2 oranges as classic navel’s tend to be a fair bit larger than blood oranges.
BLOOD ORANGE PORTOKALOPITA
〰️
BLOOD ORANGE PORTOKALOPITA 〰️
Time: 2 hours + 20 minutes
Serves: 8-10
Cake:
500g filo pastry
3 small blood oranges
3 blood oranges, zest
200g Sugar
4 Eggs
250ml Milk
200ml extra virgin olive oil (neutral is fine)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking Soda
Syrup:
250ml water
350gm sugar
3 blood oranges, juice
2 cinnamon sticks or 1 tbl gr cinnamon
6 whole cloves
3 star anise
Syrup:
Put water, sugar and spices in saucepan and bring to boil. Once boiling, add orange juice (make sure you’ve removed the zest of the blood oranges before juicing, as the zest goes in the cake).
Bring to boil once again. Take off heat and leave to cool in fridge, you want the syrup cold.
Cake:
Preheat oven to 100 degrees Celsius (Fan forced)
Arrange the filo sheets in an accordion style on a baking tray. Squishing together vertically, before putting into oven to dry out for one hour.
Boil whole oranges for 1 hour. Chop boiled orange before blitzing together with sugar, eggs, milk, oil, zest, baking soda & powder
Increase oven to 160 degrees Celsius.
Once filo is dried, use your hands to break up the sheets and place into a bowl. Add 1/2 the mixture from the blender to half of the filo and stir. Add the other half and stir.
Line a 25cm x 30cm tray with butter and light flour. Add cake ingredients and cook at 160 degrees for 45-55 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
Take the cake out, spike it heaps with a skewer and use a ladle to slowly pour cld syrup over the top of the hot cake. Leave to allow cake to absorb syrup and enjoy!