because I need to eat more fruit

Somebody and I watch a lot of the Food Network. A lot. More than any other channel except maybe TNT, because they know drama. Well, the Food Network knows food, and we find it fascinating. One of our favorite chef's is Ina, who hosts the Barefoot Contessa. I like watching her show and envying her kitchen, but I had never tried one of her recipes until this past weekend. She made this Lemon Yogurt Cake as part of an Asian themed meal, but we tried the other parts of the meal and didn't like them as much as we liked this cake. We call it Lemon Bread because then we don't feel at all guilty that we've been nibbling away at it all week.

Lemon Yogurt Cake Bread

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (We couldn't find any made from whole milk, so we settled on one made with lowfat milk)
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
3 extra-large eggs 2
teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze: 1 cup confectioners' sugar 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch loaf pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. (We poked lots of holes with toothpicks to help the "bread" soak up the sugar. It's basically sugar bread. Yum.) Allow to cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

We tried the glaze, but we now prefer the cake without it. Also, not using glaze further advances our plan to pretend this is really healthy. At first I thought it actually was, but then I remembered how much oil we used and, well, you just can't get around an entire half cup of oil.

Enjoy!