Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I just love cookbooks! In fact, I have a small collection of them. The ones with stories about the recipe or the area of the country from which it comes are expecially fun and interesting to me. And church cookbooks are the best ever!!! Church ladies really know how to cook....no matter what part of the country they are in. On New Year's Day I baked a pineapple uside down cake using a recipe from a cookbook that was given to me in 1969. I was a new bride and the dear lady who gave it to me would one day become godmother to each of my children. She is in heaven now but I still think of her often. This cake recipe came from a Church of God cookbook and I've cooked this cake off and on all my married life. Can't tell you what year the cook book was written, or the name of the cookbook itself because the covers have long since been lost. It has nothing but desserts and some of them are fabulous. In fact, I used to make a red velvet cake with a recipe from this book and when Charlie worked at the prison he would take one of those red velvet cakes to work with him every year during the Christmas season. Rumor has it that there have actually been fights over the last piece of that cake! When Charlie saw that pineapple upside down cake on New Year's evening that was the biggest whoop I'd heard from him in a long time. So I thought you might like to have the recipe for your collection. Here goes:

3 tbsp. butter

3/4 c. brown sugar

1 can sliced pineapple

3 eggs

1 c. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. sifted flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

cherries for garnish

Melt butter in skillet with heatproof handle. Sprinkle in brown sugar. Drain pineapple; reserve 1/2 cup syrup. Arrange pineapple slices in skillet; place in warm oven. Beat eggs until thick and fluffy; gradually beat in sugar. Add reserved pineapple syrup and vanilla. Sift flour, baking powder and salt; beat into egg mixture with spoon until smooth. Pour over pineapple. Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minuites or until tests done. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Yield: 8-10 servings.

I never bother with the whipped cream and, as you can see, I cook it in an iron skillet. The pictures are so bad I'm ashamed to post them but going to anyway. Hope you enjoy it!

Sharon