Tahinopita (A Greek Lenten Cake)

evelyn/athens's Note:

This is a great breakfast cake, with a very spicy flavour. Nutritious too. Please note that there are no eggs or fat (other than the oil in the tahini) in this cake, which makes it denser than normal. If you are looking for a light cake, this recipe is not for you. Very satisfying with a cup of coffee or tea.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 cake

• 1 cup tahini (make sure you combine it because sometimes it separates and the oil floats to the top)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 orange, grated, zest of
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 dash salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon clove
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup walnuts (broken into small pieces)
• 1/2 cup sultana raisin

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180C).
2. If this cake is to be Lenten, then grease a loaf pan with olive oil, otherwise, use butter, and dust pan with flour.
3. Prepare all dry ingredients in a bowl to have on hand.
4. Beat tahini, sugar and orange rind until fluffy and creamy (about 8 minutes on high).
5. Gradually add orange juice alternately with dry ingredients.
6. Stir in walnuts and sultana raisins.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes (until tester comes out clean).

Reviews

[Benas]

Very interesting and tasty! I ended up baking it for almost 1 hour, covering the pan with foil after 40 minutes. I can only recommend to line the bottom of the loaf pan with greased foil or parchment paper, or to use a silicone pan, because the cake stuff to the bottom and was a bit difficult to remove. Otherwise, this is delicious! The taste is very reminiscent of halvah, but the orange and spices add many more layers of flavor.

[Kittencalskitchen]

This is an excellent tahinopita Ev! I pretty much made as stated only I increased the sugar to 1-1/4 cups, fresh orange juice is a must for this! Thanks hon...Kitten:)

[Roosie]

I like the flavor of this- the batter smelled funny, but the flavor is really nice and wonderfully nutty (or seedy, I guess since tahini is made from sesame seeds) and has a lovely hint of orange. I did find, however, that despite tasting moist, it is rather crumbly. It takes a bit of work to eat, though. I guess its just because of the high content of tahini... I did have to tent the bread with foil after about 40 minutes as the outside was browned and the inside still gooey. It was done after about 55 minutes. I did have to substitute the sultanas with flame raisins (they are dark, but nice and sweet). I also substituted the flour with whole wheat pastry flour and the sugar with Sucanat. It rose wonderfully. I was a bit concerned that it would be a tad overspiced, but the tahini flavor is so strong, I think that you need a lot of spices to show up at all. As it is the flavors are perfectly balanced between the tahini, orange and spice flavors. I think this would be excellent with some slightly warm orange marmalade spread on it. Thank you for a very unique cake!