Earl Grey Portokalopita (Greek Orange Filo Cake)
Portokalopita is a classic Greek orange cake that swaps flour for dried filo, giving it a texture that’s soft, almost custardy, with lightly crisp edges running through it. Once baked, it’s soaked in a generous orange syrup, which gives it its signature richness. I’ve added Earl Grey to the syrup, which lifts the citrus with a gentle bergamot note and rounds everything out beautifully.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hou5 15 minutes, plus overnight resting
- Yield: 12 1x
Ingredients
Scale
For the syrup:
- 2 oranges, juiced
- 300g caster sugar
- 250ml water
- 4 Earl Grey tea bags
For the cake
- 2 x 270g packs filo pastry
- 3 large eggs
- 175g caster sugar
- 200g full-fat Greek yoghurt
- 2 oranges, zest and juice
- 150g salted butter, melted (or 120ml vegetable oil)
- 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 130°C / 110°C fan.
- Combine the orange juice, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the tea bags, reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, discard the tea bags and leave the syrup to cool completely.
- Scrunch the filo sheets loosely and spread them out over a large baking tray in a single-ish layer. Bake for 10 minutes, turning once halfway through, or until dried and crisp but not coloured. Transfer to a rack to cool, then repeat with the remaining filo. Alternatively, you can leave the sheets out at room temperature for a few hours until fully dried.
- Once cool, break the filo into small pieces with your hands – they can be sharp, so be careful!
- Turn your oven up to 180°C / 160°C fan. Grease and line a 23cm springform tin, or use a 20cm square tin if you’d prefer to serve it straight from the dish.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, yoghurt, orange zest and juice until smooth. Add the melted butter, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder, then whisk again until fully combined.
- Add the dried filo in stages, folding it in gently with a spatula so it doesn’t clump. Continue until evenly incorporated.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until deeply golden and set with no wobble in the centre.
- As soon as it comes out of the oven, pierce it all over with a skewer or toothpick, then gradually ladle over the cooled syrup, letting each addition absorb before adding the next, until it’s all used.
- Leave to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate in the tin overnight. The next day, remove from the tin, slice and serve.