With the exception of fresh slices soaked in Grand Marnier, that my mother would serve at dinner parties and I would covet as leftovers, orange flavored desserts were never my favorite. Greek orange cake, featured in cookbooks and displayed on bakery shelves, never captured my fancy… until this summer. While on a weekend getaway to the port town of Gytheio, my husband and I relished the hotel’s complementary breakfast buffet. The kitchen served a handful of traditional Greek dishes, in addition to the standard fare, which is how I took my first bite of Greek orange cake, known as “portokalopita”.
With a wonderfully light texture, hints of orange and cinnamon, and soaked in a light syrup, the cake was delicious! Following our return from Greece, I set out to replicate the recipe. With a few modifications to one found on All Recipes, I developed a version of my own, with a tad more vanilla and cinnamon, due to my brain’s obstinate desire to somehow connect this dish to French toast. Wonderful as a dessert, this cake is also a great option for brunch or afternoon tea.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 16 ounces phyllo dough
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 orange
- 5 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1.5 cups orange juice
For the syrup
- 1.5 cups water
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 halves of a juiced orange
- 2 cinnamon sticks
Preparation
- Open the phyllo packet and spread out the sheets of phyllo, allowing them to dry. This drying process will stiffen the dough allowing for easy crumbling later in the recipe
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees
- While the dough is drying and the oven is heating, prepare the syrup by combining the sugar, water, cinnamon sticks, and the rind from one juiced orange (set the juice aside for the cake) in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for 8 minutes
- Set the syrup aside and let cool
- In a large bowl, combine the Greek yogurt, eggs, sugar, baking powder, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract, and olive oil
- Zest and juice the orange. Add the zest to the bowl of wet ingredients
- Combine the juice from this orange and the one used for the syrup and top off with additional orange juice until you have 1 and 1/2 cups of orange juice. Add to the bowl of wet ingredients
- With a whisk or mixer, blend all of the wet ingredients together and set aside
- Shred the phyllo dough and place them in a greased baking pan
- Add the wet ingredients to the shredded phyllo in the pan
- Using a spatula or spoon, stir to thoroughly combine the wet ingredients with the phyllo
- Cover the top of the cake with thin slices of fresh orange
- Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes
- Pour the cooled syrup over the hot cake and let soak in
- Serve at room temperature and enjoy with family and friends
