Well, today I finally had the chance to cook something for myself!!!

This recipe comes from Giada de Laurentiis and is featured in the Food and Wine May 2014 issue!

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/.....o-strawberries

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur (used 1 capful of almond extract)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest (used lemon zest, but any other kind of citrus would work)
1 pound strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 tablespoons Prosecco
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Lightly sweetened whipped cream, for serving

1.) Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter a deep, 9-inch round cake pan. In a bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat the ricotta, 1 1/2 sticks of butter and 1 1/2 cups of the sugar at medium-high speed until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until just incorporated, then beat in the amaretto, vanilla and orange zest. Beat in the dry ingredients in 3 batches just until incorporated.

2.) Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs. Transfer to a rack to cool for 20 minutes; unmold and let cool completely.

3.) In a bowl, toss the strawberries with the Prosecco and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and let stand at room temperature until juicy, about 30 minutes.

4.) Dust the pound cake with confectioners’ sugar. Cut into wedges and serve with the strawberries and whipped cream.

Make Ahead The cake can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

The only thing that I did differently from Giada was - instead of leaving the strawberries whole and soaked in prosecco...(theyre more of a side topping, if anything) was actually pureeing the strawberries plus, adding in some of my blackberries that I had frozen since forever and then pureeing it all - then, added 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/2 squeezed lemon and 1/2 cup prosecco, and boiled it down to a thicker jam-type consistency. And for good measure, I also added one packet of gelatin to stiffen it up...so basically, it acted as a jam filling.

You will also have MORE than enough batter to put this in two cake tins (as I did) and make this into a two layer cake...unless, of course, you have a deeper-dish cake pan or maybe one of those springform pans would work as well!

If I were also to do this over, I would probably shorten the cooking time to more like 45 minutes, not 50....and use a touch of flour and butter in BOTH my pans (the cake on the top I didnt use flour - just butter, straight up- and as such, stuck to the pan grr!!! >_< )

Other than THAT, it came out tasty :3