Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Here's a classic recipe for you. I honestly have no idea who gave it to me. I didn't even realize I had it until I was looking through some old recipe cards. I found 3 scraps of paper with fragments of a recipe scribbled on each one. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the recipe was for! I pieced it all together and here it is. The thing about this cake is that people always think you went to a great deal of trouble to make it. Not so much!


1 8.5oz can pineapple slices
5 tbs butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
12 maraschino cherries

2/3 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of a 9x13x2 pan. Butter the bottom and up the sides, place the paper in the bottom of the pan, then butter the paper.
Drain pineapples, reserve juice. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, brown sugar, and 1 tbs reserved juice. Arrange pineapple slices in prepared pan. Place cherries in the center of each pineapple slice. Pour butter mixture over pineapple and cherries. Set aside. If the amount of reserved pineapple juice is less than 1 cup, add water to make 1 cup. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until fluffy. Sift together dry ingredients and add to mixing bowl alternately with pineapple juice, beating well after each addition. Pour batter over pineapples. Spread evenly. Bake 35-45 minutes or until golden. Cool 5 minutes.
Invert onto serving plate. Remove parchment paper. Cool completely.

Tip:
Using the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan isn't really necessary, but it'll insure that none of the pineapple slices will stick to the pan.