Confession: Book Club Edition

I’ve been part of a book club for almost 3 years now (no, that’s not the confession…I’ll get to that in a minute).  I realize that being in a book club sounds a wee bit middle-aged….but it is actually really fun. We meet once a month at someone’s house (we take turns hosting) and whoever hosts makes the entrée with the other members bringing appetizers, sides, and desserts. We hang out, drink wine, catch up/gossip, and yes, discuss the book selection for that month.

Book club meets tonight.

My confession is this….. I didn’t read this month’s book.

I didn’t even buy it. I am a bad book clubber.

Now, I don’t usually do this. But I was really busy this month and time just slipped me by. By the time I remembered, I knew it was no use (and to be honest, I wasn’t feeling the selection anyway….)

But I did a bake a (hopefully) yummy treat to contribute to the book club feast….a variation of Ina Garten’s Lemon Yogurt Cake (by way of one of my favorite food bloggers—smitten kitchen).

Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, is one of my personal heroes. She is smart (she was at one point a nuclear energy analyst for the White House Office of Management and Budget!), seemingly down to earth, and an awesome home cook (e.g., not a trained chef). I am obsessed with her show on Food Network and have THREE of her cookbooks (one of which my wonderful mother got signed for me when she was on a book tour a few years ago). Her recipes almost always turn out amazingly. I want her to take me under her wing and teach me everything she knows. Love. Her. (Plus her house is swwweeeeetttt!)

I decided to go with smitten kitchen’s variation because I love the blueberry-lemon combination. You can find the details of how to make it here.  I ended up using greek style yogurt instead of the regular variety because the grocery store was out of the latter when I went to get the supplies yesterday. Hopefully this does not adversely affect the moistness of the cake..…I’ll let you know.

Update: The cake was a hit at book club. Everyone commented on the "light and moist"-ness of the cake. I do think it was probably a tad bit dryer than if I had been able to use the regular yogurt so next time I will definitely try to go that route. I think next time I might also make more of  a glaze for the top per Ina's original recipe (rather than the lemon syrup that smitten kitchen used). All in all, I'd recommend!