I put a custom UILabel in my UINavigation bar like this:
UILabel *navTitle = [[UILabel alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 200, 44)];
navTitle.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
navTitle.text = @"TEST";
navTitle.font = [UIFont fontWithName:@"GothamNarrowBook-Regular" size:28];
navTitle.textColor = [UIColor whiteColor];
navTitle.textAlignment = UITextAlignmentCenter;
self.navigationItem.titleView = navTitle;
But when it shows up on the emulator, its aligned too high:

I have had no luck with adjusting the frame. Any ideas?
You can put label inside another view, and insert this another one as titleView. That will allow some kind of flexibility.
You can also try to adjust position of the frame:
But remember, that NavigationBar has different height in landscape mode, so you have to use autoresizingMask accordingly.