Cranberry Upside-Down Cake

This was the hands down winner of "Best Dish" at dinner tonight. The recipe is adapted from Alice Water's cookbook, The Art of Simple Food. This cookbook is full of wonderfully detailed recipes for straightforward food, and a good helping of philosophy thrown in.
The Top:
1/2 c. Butter
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
5 c. fresh cranberries
1/2 c. Orange Juice
In frying pan over medium heat, add cranberries and juice, cook until cranberries pop. Then add butter and brown sugar, stir until butter melts and sugar is incorporated and mixture is bubbling. Place in a buttered 11" round cake pan.

The Cake:
1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 c. buttermilk
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1.4 tsp. salt
Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla and eggs and incorporate. Mix last 4 ingredients together, and add them alternating with the buttermilk--starting and ending with flour, until well mixed. Spoon batter on top of the cranberries in the cake pan and bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool cake for 15 minutes and invert onto serving platter. The fruit can be varied--apples, pears, pineapple (the classic), rhubarb, peaches. All are marvelous.