Yoghurt cake with ouzo-lemon syrup

Cake Challenge.
I find baking a bit of a challenge - I have two different approaches: One, I blithely throw myself into the recipe, cut a few corners, 'improve' the recipe a bit and wonder why it doesn't work, or, two, I slavishly follow the recipe and still mess it up! btw, confessions of an Australian, I can't make ANZAC biscuits....well I can, if you like the traditional 'concrete style' biscuit.

I've decided to take a step back from the dreaded biscuit challenge and start with cakes. I absolutely love any dessert with lemon, and a lemon cake made with yoghurt is perfect. I have a recipe for such a cake drizzled with an ouzo-lemon syrup from "The Olive and the Caper" by Susanna Hoffman (see below).

I would like to try and alter the recipe a little (since I actually made it successfully the first time) by replacing some or all of the butter with olive oil and adding honey. I think the syrup can be changed as well by replacing some of the sugar with honey. I will add the results of this experiement at th eend of this blog. Until then, here is the original cake recipe, which is delicious!

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup yoghurt
1 tablespoon chopped lemon zest
1 3/4 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
ouzo-lemon syrup

1. Grease and flour a 10 inch cake tin and preheat oven to 180 celsius.
   
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy, then beat in the egg yolks. Add yoghurt, zest, then flour, baking powder and salt (pre-sifted together).
3. In a seperate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff ( I add a pinch of creme of tartare), then mix in half the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture and then carefully fold the remaining egg whites into the mixture.
4. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for about 45 minutes until a skewer/knife inserted into the middle comes out clean and the sides of the cake come away slightly from the pan.
5. wait 5-10 minutes and then release the springform sides and invert the cake onto a plate - yes it's upside down.
6. spoon a third of the ouzo-lemon syrup over the cake and let it soak for 5-10 minutes. Repeat 2 more times. Then set the cake aside for at least an hour before cutting.

Ouzo-Lemon Syrup
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup ouzo
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest

1. put all ingreedients into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer vigourously for 10 minutes until it thickens. Cool and use (or store in the fridge).