Pineapple Upside-Down cake

This is a specialty of my mom. It's in a lot of demand at family gatherings - including, too often these days, funerals. She's making a few for my cousin's bridal shower tomorrow, and I wanted to throw the recipe up on the Internet for safe keeping.

The base of the recipe is another recipe, the Marigold Glory Cake, which was one of my grandmother's favorites. This is a pretty basic and versatile white cake, great for eating by itself, making layer cakes, or with the addition of other ingredients a whole host of other cakes.

Marigold Glory Cake (from my grandmother)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup vegetable shortening (oleo and part butter)*
1 and 3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 and 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon salt (lesser amount if using butter)
1 and 1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Put all ingredients in mixing bowl and mix until smooth.

*My grandmother's note: I prefer to cream sugar and shortening and mix in balance of ingredients alternating flour and milk and ending with flour and baking powder mixture.

To make basic Marigold Glory Cake, pour into greased cake pan and bake in oven for 45-50 minutes.

To make a Maple Walnut Cake, add chopped walnuts and maple flavoring to the batter and bake as above.

To make Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, mix the batter as for Marigold Glory Cake, but prepare the cake pan in this manner:

- Grease the cake pan bottom and sides (I always use the residual butter on the butter wrappers, but you can also use shortening on a paper towel),
- Coat the bottom and sides of the pan with brown sugar.
- Dab with butter (apply pats of butter about one every four square inches.)
- Put cake pan in oven to melt butter.
- Remove cake pan and let cool.
- When cooled, pour one 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple on top of brown sugar.
- Add batter to prepared cake pan.

Bake as for Marigold Glory Cake, above.

When done, immediately turn out onto a cookie sheet or other platform. With enough practice, you'll be able to do this without having the cake tear itself apart!