One of my go-to cakes for the fall is an Italian apple cake, so I thought I would adapt the recipe and turn it into a Pineapple Butter Cake. This cake is basically a very light butter cake batter that surrounds the tasty morsels of pineapple sautéed in butter…….sigh. In this case, Butter = Love!
I think that’s actually in the foodie dictionary somewhere (well, it should be if it’s not!)
My wife loves pineapple, but like anything else, she only eats a little bit of it, and then I’m stuck with what’s ever left…..sigh. That’s why our neighbors greet me drooling when I knock on their doors; they know it’s time for dessert! But with fresh-cut pineapple, I felt a little strange walking it over, so I decided to make a cake with what I had left.
Ingredients to make a Pineapple Butter Cake
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make this OMG delicious cake. In chef speak, we call this the Mise en Place, which translates into everything in its place.
It’s a good idea to start all of your cooking adventures by gathering the ingredients first. Not only does it make the cooking process go more quickly it ensures you have everything you need on hand.
Do I have to use Pineapple to make this butter cake?
No, you don’t. This is a very forgiving cake recipe and can be used with a variety of fruit. These are some of my favorites.
- Apple
- Mango
- Peach
- Blueberries
- Pears
**You don’t have to cook berries or stone fruit for this cake, but any firmer fruits like apples or pears would benefit from sauteing with butter. You can also mix different fruits together if you don’t have enough of any one variety.
The first step in making this cake is to melt the butter for the cake, reserving 6 tablespoons for the cake batter. After melting the butter, add the pineapple (fresh, frozen or canned) to the butter and cook over medium heat for 7-10 minutes.
**If you use canned pineapple, don’t add the juice from the can, only the pineapple.
While the pineapple and melted butter are cooling, you can move onto the next step.
What do I do with any leftover butter/juice in the saute pan?
Don’t add the extra liquid to the cake batter, it will make the batter too thin.
What you can do is spoon any leftover butter/juice over the cake after it comes out of the oven, before it fully cools.
If there is a lot of extra juice, heat it over high heat to reduce the juice to a reasonable amount.
Whip the two eggs and one egg yolk in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.
Add the 6 tablespoons of reserved melted butter, sugar and vanilla to the bowl and whip together until smooth.
Next, add the pineapple (without any of the butter from the pan) and the flour mixture to the egg mixture and fold together just enough to mix.
Pour the cake batter into a buttered pan. The batter may seem a little loose, but trust me, as long as you follow my recipe, it will turn out great.
Chef Dennis Tip**
Use parchment in the pan before you add the batter. It will be much easier to remove the finished cake from the pan.
Don’t expect this cake to rise very much. There isn’t enough flour vs butter in the cake to get much of a rise. I use standard 9-inch baking pans. An 8-inch cake pan will give you a taller cake.
This cake is easy to make and is sure to please your family or guests. If my wife liked coconut, I may have added some a little coconut (½ cup) to the batter! Can anyone say Pina Colada? Tropical beaches, boat drinks, a little Jimmy Buffet on the radio….sigh, it just doesn’t get better than that!!! But there I go again, getting off topic…….let’s get back to the pineapple cake. I hope you enjoy it.
These are some of my favorite kitchen tools that I use in my home kitchen for baking.
More Cake Recipes You’ll Love!
Pineapple Butter Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 ounces unsalted butter 1 stick
- 2 cups pineapple chopped
- ⅔ cup all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 large whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest grated
- Confectioners sugar to dust
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Butter a 9” round cake pan (use parchment in the bottom of the pan for easy removal after baking)
- In a large frying pan over medium heat, melt the butter, reserve 6 tbs for later. Add the pineapple and cook for about 10 minutes. **do not use any of the juice from the frying pan only the pineapple
- In a small bowl mix together flour, salt and baking powder.
- In a large bowl beat the whole eggs and egg yolks until blended.
- Add the reserved melted butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest.
- Stir in flour and pineapple.
- Spoon into prepared pan, smoothing the top.
- Bake until cake is browned, 30-35 minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Invert cake onto plate to remove the pan and then invert again and return to rack to cool completely.
- Before serving
- Dust with confectioners sugar
Nicole
I was searching for a pineapple recipe because I have bagged frozen pineapple I need to use but I have 2 questions. Will the cake suffer from using frozen pineapple, and is there any way to incorporate the buttery juice from the cooked pineapple into the batter? It seems like it would add so much flavor. Thanks.
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Nicole
it won’t suffer from using frozen pineapple. As for the extra juice you really can’t add any additional liquid into the recipe without reworking all the other ingredients. I would save it and use it as a glaze for Chicken. Season it up a little more and it will add a lot of flavor to grilled or roasted chicken.
Erin Madsen
Chef, could this be made a day in advance? We are hosting 50 people for an event at our home and I am looking for desserts which I can make in advance. This will also be my first cake made in the tropics at sea level. We moved from Utah to Peru.
Thank you,
Erin
Chef Dennis Littley
It absolutely can be made in advance, it will just get more moist and delicious! I would more suggest refrigerating it overnight. I’m at sea level so you shouldn’t have to make any changes, and hopefully the humidity won’t give you any trouble.
Hannah
Hi Dennis! Can I use crushed canned pineapple? Or does it have to be fresh pineapple?
Chef Dennis Littley
You can use canned pineapple, just be careful not to get any extra juice into the batter
Nicola Rivera
Thank you for this recipe. I made this over the weekend…it was so delicious. I followed the directions and it came out wonderful. I’m now making for a potluck at work today and I am attempting to double the recipe and bake in a 9×12 pan…the presentation won’t be as nice but I’m sure it will taste delicious. Fingers crossed.
Chef Dennis Littley
thanks for the nice comment and review Nicola, just make sure to watch your baking time. That is generally the biggest problem with doubling a recipe.
Deborah E Kearney
Made this cake today. It was a little sweet for my taste. Oh, it is delicious though. I was wondering how much sugar could be removed without affecting the texture.
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Deborah
you could try cutting it back by 1/3 of a cup to see how that works for you. It gets tricky when you start adjusting ingredients with baking, so I wouldn’t try more than that amount, otherwise, the entire recipe would have to be reworked.
Deborah Kearney
Thanks. I removed 5 tsp from the sugar. The cake turned out wonderful. Your butter cake is the best I’ve ever eaten.
Marlene
I made this cake yesterday. It did not raise as high as the one in the photo and wasn’t as cake-y … but it was very good. Probably a little moister than it was supposed to be because I didn’t fully drain the pineapple in the butter … got most of it but definitely not all. Also, I added a little extra lemon zest than called for and a heaping tablespoon of shredded, unsweetened coconut. The shreddy texture of the coconut was a nice addition. I served it with frozen vanilla yogurt. Pineapple is quite sweet, so next time I will probably reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup and I also will probably add 3/4 tsp of vanilla instead of the full teaspoon. But as it, the recipe is good … I’m just tweeking it to my own preferences. Next time I’ll do a better job draining the butter which will probably result in a cakier finish. Thanks so much!
Chef Dennis Littley
You’re welcome Marlene, and thanks for your feedback on the recipe.
Anya
How to make a non-baker look like a seasoned one. Give her an easy scrumptious, no fail recipe.
I made this cake an hour ago and my family has devoured it, It’s completely gone!
Because I read a lot of the comments I squeezed much of the juice our of the pineapple before putting it in the fry pan. My eggs are beautiful large eggs so I ended up adding more flour to the mix and in Entebbe Uganda it’s not easy to just pop out and pick up ingredients so I used brown sugar instead of white and it was still spectacular. This was a dry run for an event on Saturday where I’ll be serving it to 25 guests. A great big thank you Chef Dennis. I’m truly grateful in the land of juicy pineapples.
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Anya
I’m happy to hear that you and your family enjoyed the cake. I hope your guests on Saturday are impressed with your baking skills! Thanks so much for the feedback and using my recipe.
Veronica
Had a fresh pineapple that needed to be used so I made this cake this morning for Sunday brunch (to RAVE reviews)! I doubled the recipe and used a 9″ sprngform pan, baking for 55 minutes; perfection. So moist and simple, the pineapple shines. Tasted AMAZING paired with home-smoked bacon. Will definitely use this as my go-to potluck shareable!
Chef Dennis Littley
Thank you! And now you’re making me hungry Veronica! I do love this cake and think I need to make one soon!
Liza
This was decious and easy to make. This pineapple butter cake will be added to my needed repatoir. It was a big hit with my family. I love how you get a fresh taste of pineapple in every bite. Thank you so much for this recipe.
Chef Dennis Littley
Thanks Liza, it is one of my favorite cakes!
jabeve
Hi Dennis,
I made this cake a few hours ago, and it hardly rose. The finished cake is only about 3/4 in high. I also could not get it out of the pan. I will just cut it in the pan, and hope is is not too heavy. What could I have done wrong, as I followed the recipe without any alterations. Thanks
Chef Dennis Littley
the only thing I can think of is that the baking powder was old. I’ve made this cake for years and have never had that happen. I’m sorry that it didn’t work for you
Jessica
A little story and context. It was my fiancee’s birthday yesterday. He loves coconut, so I WAS going to make him this really complicated recipe for coconut cake. However, after having a mini meltdown from not being able to find any coconuts (I eventually did find one, but that’s beside the point), I managed to calm myself and search for inspiration.
That’s when I remembered that he LOVES pineapple. He even loves it on pizza! I considered an upside-down cake, but I wanted it to be more special and unique than that. So I searched to internet and came across this recipe. Long story short, I made this cake with a coconut glaze/icing, and now it’s his new favorite cake (pushing down key lime cake to 2nd place).
Some notes on my experience:
1) Pairing this with a coconut frosting or glaze is a good call if you like that sort of thing. If you want an actual frosting consistency, add the liquid to the powdered sugar a little at a time. Having too much liquid will give you a light glaze instead. If this happens, adding in some shredded coconut to it will thicken it up enough to spread (and give it an interesting look. My fiancee even preferred it this way to actual frosting, since having it as a glaze didn’t overpower the pineapple flavor.
2) I did try to make my own coconut cream (for the frosting) with the coconut I eventually found. My takeaway from that is to just buy coconut milk and boil it down to a cream. It’s not worth the headache, and I still had to use imitation coconut flavor anyway.
3) I messed with the recipe just a smidgen. Along with the mentioned ingredients, I added a little imitation coconut, the juice of half my lemon, and about a teaspoon or more of pineapple juice (I cut up a fresh pineapple and reserved two cups of chunks. I let the remainder sit in a container overnight and poured in the juice that collected on the bottom. next time, I may squeeze the remainder of the chunks for more juice).
4) If you’re going to add extra liquids, make sure to add in more flour. I added a half cup or more flour to make up for my extra flavorings, and it still needed an extra 25 minutes in the oven to bake up. My advice would be to make the batter just as the recipe calls, study the batter’s consistency, and then add your flavorings. Then add in flour and baking powder slowly until your batter thickens up to the way it was again. Then bake up and test with a toothpick until it comes out with maybe a few crumbs, but not wet.
5) Taking this out of the pan was a bit of an ordeal. May sure your cake is completely cool or almost completely cool before trying to remove it. The bottom of my cake stuck to the pan. Luckily, it wasn’t much and the top was just fine.
6) This does make a thin cake, about an inch and a half. So if you want a layer cake, you’ll need to make about 1 batch per layer you want, as you won’t be able to cut this thing in half.
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Jessica
thanks so much for your story and your input! I’m happy to hear that the cake was a success!
Dazz
Delicious! Made with fresh, ripe pineapple. Will be making it again real soon.
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the cake!
Bri
Really simple to make and so delicious! I will add coconut next time because I love it but it’s perfect as it is too.
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this delicious cake and adding coconut will only make it better!
Jessica
Hey, I know this post is old and the odds of you responding are slim..but I just finished my batter…was i suppose to drain the pineapple after cooking? There was a ton of juice and it made the batter really thin…i m going to add more flour, but I’d still like to know for the future.
Thanks!
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Jessica
I’m sorry for not being clearer in the instructions, I have corrected them. You shouldn’t use any of the juice from the frying pan with the pineapple. Thats why we reserve most of the butter until later.
Joy
Thank you so much Chef Dennis! I made your pineapple cake exactly as specified in the recipe with the exception of using frozen (defrosted) pineapples as opposed to fresh ones, it was all I had on hand 🙁
As tasty as it was, I know the flavors will be 100x better with fresh ones, so I will surely be making another one soon.
One suggestion for the Pina Colada enthusiast… whip up some coconut milk whipped cream, it is a subtle addition to the already perfect cake. Happy baking! :))
Chef Dennis Littley
Hi Joy
thanks for the suggestion of Coconut milk whipped cream that sounds like a delicious addition! I’m happy to hear you enjoyed my recipe.