Once again, the Barefoot Contessa (show) comes through. I love simple cakes, and I love cooking with yogurt, and I happen to have a huge pile of fragrant Meyer lemons from a friend's backyard.
The only reason to modify an Ina recipe is lack of ingredients -- or excess. Two small lemons made for far more than the 2 tsp of zest called for. But why hold back? I put all the zest in, and it was fine. It's hard to bake something too lemony.
Next, my favorite source of cooking/baking yogurt, Pavel's Russian yogurt, was unobtainium in the full-fat version. I wouldn't dream of baking with lowfat yogurt, so I put in a cup of Fage Greek yogu....oh dear, it was 2%, wasn't it? Hmm. So much for that rule. Well, for what it's worth, I used 7 oz of 2% Fage yogurt, and another (approximate) ounce of lowfat Pavel's.
I skipped the step of pouring a warm lemon-juice-sugar combination over the cake, and then glazing it with yet more sugar and lemon juice. On the show, Ina makes a blueberry syrup and pours it over the cake instead of glazing it -- now that would be yummy. But there is no shortage of sugar in my life, and I see no need to add any extra.
In fact, another mod I made, one I now routinely do with baking, is to shortchange the sugar measurement. I have yet to underdo the sugar.
I also baked it in three mini-loaf pans, instead of one 8"x4" pan, as it's easier to give away (see previous note about ample sugar in life). It made for a beautiful little loaf, springy and with a pale yellow color.
The cake itself....I'm not sure! It's a little heavy, a little greasy, almost. I was surprised that the recipe called for a full 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, and I had a hard time getting it all mixed in. I might try 1/3 next time. Maybe it really did need the cooked lemon-sugar mixture poured over? Or, the correct kind of yogurt. But the lemon flavor was wonderful, thanks in no small part to my friend's wonderful Meyers, and to my new Microplane grater (the Fine version, Whole Foods, $15.99).
As it is, I give the recipe a B+, and me a B- for execution. I'm sure I can improve both grades next time around.
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