Culinary Explorer

A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.

Discover Culinary Explorer
Rhodes Fanouropita (Φανουρόπιτα Ρόδου)

Rhodes Fanouropita (Φανουρόπιτα Ρόδου)

Created by

Rhodes-style Fanouropita is a simple nistisimo cake for Saint Fanourios: olive oil, orange juice, raisins and walnuts, baked plain so it can be blessed, shared, and kept moist for days.

Desserts
Greek
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
50 min cook•2 hr total
Yield1 round 26cm cake, 10 to 12 servings

Rhodes-style Fanouropita is the olive-oil and orange cake baked for Saint Fanourios, the saint people ask when something lost must be shown again. It is nistisimi, a fasting cake, with no eggs, butter, or milk. Its plainness is the point: olive oil gives the crumb, orange gives the scent, raisins and walnuts make it generous enough to carry to church and share.

The whole cake depends on restraint once the flour goes in. Whisk the oil, sugar, orange juice, and zest until the mixture is glossy, then fold in the flour only until it disappears and bake at once. The orange juice wakes the leavening. If the batter waits, the lift is spent in the bowl, not in the oven.

I keep this as the Rhodes register because the saint's story is tied to the island, though every Greek kitchen has its own hand for Fanouropita now. Some count seven ingredients, some nine. I keep the nine-ingredient habit here because it is the one most often sent to me from island families, and I don't change what makes it itself.

On Rhodes, the veneration of Saint Fanourios is tied to a late medieval icon found in a ruined church, and his feast is kept on 27 August. The name Fanourios is heard through fanerono, meaning 'to reveal,' which is why families bake Fanouropita when asking for something lost to be shown. Its seven or nine ingredients are popular devotional counting rather than church law, and the eggless, dairy-free batter belongs naturally to the Orthodox fasting table.

The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.

Discover Culinary Explorer

Ingredients

all-purpose flour

Quantity

500g, plus 1 tablespoon

plus extra for dusting the pan

baking powder

Quantity

12g

baking soda

Quantity

4g

ground cinnamon

Quantity

6g

ground clove

Quantity

1g

fine sea salt

Quantity

3g

extra virgin olive oil

Quantity

240ml, plus more for the pan

sugar

Quantity

220g

fresh orange juice

Quantity

300ml

orange zest

Quantity

from 2 unwaxed oranges

finely grated

raisins

Quantity

120g

walnuts

Quantity

100g

coarsely chopped

sesame seeds (optional)

Quantity

15g

for the pan and top

icing sugar (optional)

Quantity

1 tablespoon

for dusting after cooling

Equipment Needed

  • •round metal tapsi, 26cm
  • •parchment circle cut to fit the pan
  • •wire cooling rack

Instructions

  1. 1

    Prepare the tapsi

    Heat the oven to 170°C conventional, or 160°C fan. Oil a 26cm round metal tapsi, line the base with parchment, oil the parchment, and dust the sides with a little flour. If you're using sesame, scatter half over the base so it bakes into the crust.

  2. 2

    Mix the dry

    Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, clove, and salt in a large bowl until the spice color is even. Take 1 tablespoon of this dry mixture and toss it with the raisins and walnuts in a small bowl.

  3. 3

    Whisk the wet

    In a second bowl, whisk the olive oil, sugar, orange juice, and orange zest for about 1 minute, until the sugar feels less gritty and the mixture looks glossy and loose. It will not become creamy like butter cake batter. This is an oil cake, and it knows itself.

  4. 4

    Fold the batter

    Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and fold with a spatula only until no dry flour remains. Fold in the raisins and walnuts. The orange juice has already woken the leavening, so the batter belongs in the oven now, not after a long rest. That is how this fasting cake rises tender instead of heavy.

    Stop as soon as the flour disappears. Beating makes the crumb tight, and Fanouropita should cut cleanly but stay soft.
  5. 5

    Bake until set

    Scrape the batter into the prepared tapsi and smooth the top. Scatter over the remaining sesame if using. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until the top is deep golden, the edges pull slightly from the pan, and a skewer comes out with only a few moist crumbs.

  6. 6

    Cool and share

    Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then turn it out carefully and cool completely on a rack. Dust with icing sugar if you like. If you're taking it for a blessing, keep it whole under a clean cloth and cut it afterward into small pieces for sharing.

Chef Tips

  • •Use fresh orange juice and olive oil that still tastes alive. Old oil turns bitter in a cake and no amount of cinnamon hides it. Λίγα και καλά, a few things, and good ones.
  • •Do not worry if your aunt counts seven ingredients and your neighbor counts nine. That count travels by household. What must stay is the fasting character: no eggs, no dairy, and a moist oil-and-orange crumb.
  • •If your raisins are dry, soak them in a little warm orange juice for 10 minutes, drain them well, and use that soaking juice as part of the measured 300ml. Wet raisins thrown straight in make damp pockets.
  • •Fanouropita keeps well for 4 days, wrapped tightly at room temperature. It is better the next morning, which is why the pot of Greek coffee knows it by name.

Advance Preparation

  • •Bake the Fanouropita 1 day ahead; once completely cool, wrap it tightly and keep it at room temperature.
  • •Toast and chop the walnuts up to 3 days ahead, then keep them in an airtight jar.
  • •For Saint Fanourios day on 27 August, bake the night before and keep the cake whole until after the church blessing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 115g)

Calories
500 calories
Total Fat
25 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
21 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
300 mg
Total Carbohydrates
64 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
27 g
Protein
6 g

Note: Chef personas and recipes are created with AI assistance. Cook with care: follow safe food-handling practices, check doneness with a thermometer when needed, and adapt for allergies and your kitchen.

Where cooking meets culture.

Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.

Discover Culinary Explorer

More from Greek Syrup Cakes

Browse the full collection
Greek Macedonian Myrmigkato (Μυρμηγκάτο Μακεδονίας)

Chef Dimitra

Greek Macedonian Myrmigkato (Μυρμηγκάτο Μακεδονίας)

Myrmigkato from Greek Macedonia is the home cook's ant cake: a lemon-syrup sponge scattered with dark chocolate, plain on purpose and generous enough for coffee or a crowded table.

Macedonian Yiaourtopita (Γιαουρτόπιτα)

Chef Dimitra

Macedonian Yiaourtopita (Γιαουρτόπιτα)

Northern Greece's everyday yogurt cake is tender, lemony, and soaked just enough, with strained sheep's-milk yogurt giving the crumb its quiet tang.

Melitinia Santorinis (Μελιτίνια Σαντορίνης)

Chef Dimitra

Melitinia Santorinis (Μελιτίνια Σαντορίνης)

Santorini's Easter melitinia are open flower-shaped cheese sweets, filled with fresh mizithra, honey and mastic, with tiny pinched rims that hold the custard high.

Melopita Sifnou (Μελόπιτα Σίφνου)

Chef Dimitra

Melopita Sifnou (Μελόπιτα Σίφνου)

Sifnos gives Easter its own cheesecake: fresh mizithra, thyme honey, eggs, and cinnamon baked without a crust until the center trembles and the top freckles gold.