Friends + Books + Cake + Peonies = Happiness

A month or so back I posted on facebook and asked if anyone nearby was part of a book club.

I always hear about book clubs but noone I know is in one.

30 minutes later I had started a book club with a great variety of friends.

Some who knew each other, some who didn't.

Some I see regularly, some I haven't seen in years and years.

Our first book was The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, which despite some rave reviews, I thought was sort of meh.  You know, meh, like, whatever.

It did give me an excuse to try making a layer cake.  

I've never made a layer cake before and I've never frosted a cake before.

Weird, isn't it?  But cookies and bars, those are more my thing.

I'm short on patience, so these multiple step things don't usually get crossed off my list.

I made the Lemon Drop Cake from Baked. (you can google the recipe)

Their cookbook has been all over the internet and I'm eager to try out more of their recipes.

I used my easy lemon curd recipe instead of theirs because mine is... easier and I love the flavor.

The overall result was a very tasty cake.  

The lemon buttercream frosting was the huge hit here.

The cake was a bit crumb-y, not crumby as in bad, as it has really good flavor, 

but a bit crumbly.  I may have overcooked the cakes as I used 9 inch rounds

instead of the suggested 8 inch rounds.

I somehow didn't take a picture of the sliced piece.

I've already got them all cut up and in containers, I've been a bit spastic lately.

These are the lovelies.  

We'll be getting together once a month and I'm so excited about this club!

This is the beauty of facebook, without which, this group would never have gotten together.

Alicia (far right) and I went to school together from kindergarten thru 12th grade 

and hadn't seen each other since.  I think.

She once broke her wrist at my roller skating party.

She fell out in the rink but didn't make much of a fuss about it.

She's a quiet girl.  We thought she was fine.

My mom found out later that it was actually broken.

Poor thing was watching me blow out candles as she sat in silent misery.

Actually, I might have already blown out my candles.

But I'm sure there was silent misery.

Alicia and Connie both brought me peonies for hosting our first meeting.

I.love.peonies.

I wanted to have them at our wedding but I got married in December and 

and there were just no peonies to be found.

They have such a gorgeous vintage look to them.  

Each is so unique.

They make me happy. 

Such a dreamy, romantic flower.

In other totally unrelated news, my baby army-crawled over to this bookshelf 

and pulled himself into standing position yesterday.

I was glad I had my camera right there.

It was the weirdest thing, looking at my Peanut standing there.

I'm just not ready for this.

P.S.  Any books you'd like to suggest?

P.P.S.  Some of my friends may read this and wonder why in the world they weren't invited to our book club.  Consider this your invitation.  Contact me if you want in!