I have been wanting to make a certain cake from the latest issue of Fine Cooking magazine since I received the copy in the mail. It’s the Very Vanilla Layer Cake with the Very Vanilla Frosting.

It’s really striking a chord with me, but I can’t justify a 3-layer cake with a foot of frosting on it, right now – I’m trying to be good and lose a pound or two. Yesterday, my resolve was waning and I grabbed the magazine and headed into the kitchen – and saw another recipe for a yogurt cake.

Now, I’m not one of those folks who pretends that if you put something in a dessert that all of a sudden it’s ‘healthy.’ It’s not. It’s still dessert. However, the yogurt cake was much smaller than the layer cake. I wasn’t getting something more healthy, I was just getting less cake. That works for me.

The recipe is Key Lime Coconut Yogurt Cake.

I was all out of key limes, but I did have a bottle of Fior di Cedro that has been sitting on the liquor cabinet since we brought it back from Rome – 4 years ago. Fior di Cedro is a liqueur along the lines of a Limoncello. Cedro is a citrus that hails from Calabria and has a smooth and mellow taste. We tried it at a specialty liquor shop when we were in Rome and grabbed a bottle. Time to use some of it! I mean, really. Four years to keep something like this is ridiculous!

I added 2 tbsp to the batter in place of the lime juice and the zest, and then made the syrup with it in place of the lime juice. I have to admit this came out pretty good.

The cake itself is ridiculously light and tender and it had juuuuust a hint of the Fior di Cedro flavor. Nonna snuck in and had a slice at 10am.

Methinks the recipe will work for any number of variations, so stay tuned…