Helen Goh’s blood orange portokalopita

This beautiful and unusual cake was introduced to me by my friend Kathy Tsaples, who owns a wonderful deli called Sweet Greek at Prahran Market. The filo pastry is left to dry out the day before, then shredded and soaked in a deliciously fragrant custard made with puréed boiled orange, yoghurt and cream. As it comes out of the oven, it is doused, as with most Greek cakes and pastries, with a spiced sugar syrup. The result lands somewhere between a bread-and-butter pudding and flourless orange cake. In other words, heavenly.

Serves 6-8

275g filo pastry
3 blood oranges (one for boiling, one for juice and zest, one for slicing)
zest of 1 large lemon (reserve the juice for the syrup)
3 eggs
150ml oil (vegetable or canola)
150g caster sugar
120g Greek yoghurt, plus extra for serving
120ml pouring cream
½ tsp vanilla extract
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

For the sugar syrup
250g caster sugar
250ml water
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 blood orange
1 cinnamon stick
3 whole cloves

1. The day before baking the cake, unwrap the filo and spread out on a large baking tray to dry out, uncovered, for 12-24 hours. Turn the sheets over from time to time to make sure they dry evenly.

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2. In the meantime, place one blood orange in a small saucepan and cover with water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, then turn heat down to medium-low and simmer for one hour. Leave to cool in the water overnight.

3. The next day, slice the boiled orange into quarters and flick out any seeds. Place in the food processor and process to a fine purée. Add the finely grated zest from one of the remaining blood oranges (reserve the juice for the syrup in step 5), the lemon zest, eggs, oil, sugar, yoghurt, cream, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Pulse a few times to combine, then pour the mixture into a large bowl.

4. Working in batches, tear or crumble the dried-out filo pastry into pieces and add to the bowl containing the yoghurt and orange mixture. Stir to prevent the sheets of filo from clumping together, then leave to soak for about 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.