Rhodes Fanouropita (Φανουρόπιτα Ρόδου)

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.