Fanouropita
On 27 August the Greek community make this cake to honour Saint Fanouris, the patron saint for lost things. People make this cake to encourage the saint to help them find what they are looking for. I love making this cake, not only because of its cultural heritage, but because it only uses basic cupboard ingredients and is vegan.
Ingredients
- 4 cups plain flour
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1⁄4 teaspoon allspice
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 cup orange juice (fresh)
- 1⁄4-1⁄2 cup brandy
- 1⁄2 cup Corinth raisins
- 1⁄2 cup Greek walnuts, lightly crushed
- icing sugar (to decorate)
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan force and line a round cake tin with baking paper.
- Step 2 Combine the flour, cinnamon, allspice, baking powder and baking soda in a medium-sized bowl.
- Step 3 Add the olive oil, caster sugar, orange juice and brandy to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until well-combined and the sugar has dissolved.
- Step 4 Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, beating on medium until the batter is thick and voluminous.
- Step 5 Stir the raisin and walnuts through the batter with a wooden spoon and pour into the prepared cake tin. Bake for 45-60 minutes (or until a knife comes out clean). We recommend testig it after 40 minutes, as it can dry out easily.
- Step 6 Leave the cake to cool completely. Decorate by lightly dusting over some icing sugar.
“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” Laurie Colwin
Which cultures most strongly influence your own cooking? And how have these foods shaped your identity? The pandemic has shifted everyone’s needs and made us consider what we really ‘value.’ Now, more than ever, as we assess what is fundamentally important to us, we have an opportunity to explain values to our children and how ‘values literacy’ supports their well-being. For World Values Day 2020 I share how to introduce values to children through mindful cooking.
