Yields:
12 Servings
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 1 Hr 10 Mins
Cook Time:
45 Mins
Total Time:
1 Hr 55 Mins
This recipe has been inspired by my recent trip to Santorini where I tasted the most delicious Orange Syrup Cake (Portokalopita) from the most wonderful patisserie in Oia. I was very surprised to find that no flour was used and that dried and flaked filo pastry is the key ingredient. This is a fluffy and colourful sponge made with fresh oranges and drizzled in a fresh orange and cinnamon syrup. Delicious!!
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
- For the syrup
- To decorate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 120°C/100°C Fan/300°F/Gas mark 1/2.
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Unwrap the filo pastry from the plastic sleeve; ruffle the sheets and place in a large baking tray and bake for 1 hour or until dry.
- For the syrup, place the water, orange juice, sugar, the orange zest and a cinammon stick into a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved and the syrup has thickened. Set aside to cool.
- For the cake mixture, pour the vegetable oil into a large bowl, add the sugar, the eggs and whisk. Now add the yogurt, orange juice, the zest and the vanilla extract, whisk well until the ingredients are fully combined and the mixture is smooth. Add the baking powder, and whisk lightly.
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Crumble the dried filo pastry into small pieces using your hands. Add the filo gradually into the cake mixture while whisking so they don’t stick to each other.
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Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas mark 4. Oil the base of a baking tray (approx.20x30cm) and pour in the mixture and top with the quarter of orange slices. Bake in oven for 40-50 minutes until, nicely coloured and cooked through. Check that the sponge is cooked by inserting a skewer, the cake is cooked through if the skewer is clean.
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To finish the orange cake, ladle the cold syrup slowly over the hot cake. Allow each ladle of syrup to be absorbed, before ladling again. Allow the cake to fully absorb the syrup, cut into squares and serve cold. Enjoy!
