Ever stumbled upon a slice of lemony sunshine disguised as cake and wondered, “What sorcery is this?” Meet lemonopita, Greece’s cheeky little lemon pie/cake that likes to blur the lines between sponge, syrup cake and citrus cloud dessert.

Lemonopita is a syrup soaked, citrus scented cake that’s as light in texture that you can find, as well as tip toeing the line of bright and sour, as well sweet.. The texture is plush and moist, because of the layers of crumple dried filo sheets taking the place of any flour. The sheets when dried and crumbled in your hands, layers the cake, creating paper thin layers for your spoon to cut through.

Lemonopita is loved across Greece, but it’s especially rooted in the islands and coastal regions where lemons grow like little sunbeams on trees. While you’ll find variations everywhere from Athens bakeries to family kitchens in the Peloponnese and the Aegean islands, island communities often champion citrus forward desserts, so places like Kefalonia, Corfu and other Ionian/Aegean spots lay strong claim to citrusy cake traditions. Like many Greek desserts, the recipe shifts by family and locale, but the lemon heart stays the same.

My version of the cake leans heavily on recipe adaptation from Portokolopita, the orange version which I do with blood oranges where they’re in season in winter. The combination of extra virgin olive oil, milk and filo is really what makes the base of the cake, keeping it so moist and giving it just the right amount of bounce and rise in the oven, whereas other version tend to be a bit more dense and with less rise, I have tried to keep everyone happy here.

The cake creates close to 10 serves, as you don’t need a lot as it’s quite rich despite being very airy, so don’t be worried when you’re making it and it doesn’t seem like a lot. You’ll know you’ve nailed it if you get little holes appearing on the top whilst it cooks, creating natural spaces for you to pour the syrup in and let it soak it all in from top to bottom.