cherry cake squares

We love cherries here at this house! The season just never seems to last long enough.
I wanted to make cherry hand pies one day. Well, I could never find the pie filling and I came home with cherries in heavy syrup. So I decided to try this cake and see if it would come out good with what I had one hand!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
2 cans (15 oz) dark sweet cherries in heavy syrup

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350
In mixer, beat butter and shortening until blended
Add sugar, baking powder and salt
Scrape the side of the bowl
Beat in eggs and vanilla until just combined
Beat the flour in
Reserve about 1.5-2 cups of mixture for the second part of baking
In a 15x10 pan, spread out the mixture to cover the bottom
Bake for about 12-14 minutes
With a slot spoon, spoon out the cherries onto the top of the crust
Pour a little juice over the berries, about 1/4 cup worth
Take the reserved mixture and put it on top of the cherries
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean