How to make a sinfully delicious and rich Pineapple Butter Cake
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 feel a little strange walking it over, so I decided to make a cake with what I had left.
What do I need 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 followed 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.
My preferred cake pan for all my baking is the 9-inch Chicago Metallic Professional Grade Cake Pan.
An Off-set Spatula is also one of my favorite kitchen tools for baking. You’ll thank me every time you use it!
More Cake Recipes You’ll Love!
Pineapple Butter Cake
Ingredients
- 4 ounces unsalted butter 1 stick
- 2 cups pineapple chopped
- ⅔ cup all purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 large whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp 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 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
Notes
Nutrition
Taylor
Hi Dennis!
I was hoping to make this recipe to mail to a friend for her birthday, do you think it would hold up cushioned and packed carefully (whole) in a box?
Will this last at room temp for a few days before it arrives or is it so moist that it would get mouldy/fall apart?
Thanks for the advice!
Taylor
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Taylor, I don’t think this cake will ship very well, its too moist. Sorry
Vixenvena
Delicious! Just needs more pineapple!
Simon Cryer
Hi. You mentioned pina colada in the intro and I wondered whether you could swap out vanilla essence for rum flavouring (even actual rum!) for a more cocktail-y taste?
Chef Dennis Littley
Yes you can.
Sharon Carnes
Absolutely delicious and so easy, it was a bit with the teenagers too. They want it with strawberries, would I still use the whole stick of butter?
Chef Dennis Littley
if you’re using a fruit that doesn’t need to be slightly cooked, like berries, I would eliminate two teaspoons of butter.
Roni
I’ve made this cake a few times to raves and when I found myself with a bounty of fresh peaches yesterday, my first thought was “BUTTER CAKE”! Pineapple is my favourite but peach was a huge hit with my guests. Served with homemade raspberry ice cream, the buttery, fruity cake and sweet/tart ice cream combo was irresistible.
Chef Dennis Littley
I’ve made it with peaches and it was awesome! I’m happy to hear you’ve been enjoying the recipe
Konna
This looks delicious. Could I reduce the amount of sugar? If so, by how much? Thanks!
Chef Dennis Littley
I have never made it with less sugar, but you should be able to cut the amount down to 2/3 of a cup without any problems.
Konna
Thanks! Made it with the smaller amount of sugar & it is delicious!
Chef Dennis Littley
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the cake!
Rachel Kachur
My entire family is so glad we found this recipe. It is beyond delicious and so easy to make. It’s now our go to cake. Thank you!
Isira Fernando
Hi chef, can i use self-raising flour for this recipe?
Chef Dennis Littley
there isn’t much flour or baking powder in this recipe so you should be okay with self rising flour
Michelle
I made this tonight with fresh pineapple. It was heavenly! My daughter asked me to make it again for her birthday! Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Angie
Hi Chef Dennis,
I would like to bake this cake using 6 cups of pineapple (we didn’t use an entire pineapple for our party). Would this work out in a 9″ x 13″ cake pan by tripling the recipe? Or shall I use 3 – 9″ cake pans?
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Angie
a 9×13 will hold as much as two 9 inch cake pans. This is a very thin cake so you may be able to make a deeper cake using 3x’s the recipe. I’ve never made it this way, so I can’t be sure how it will turn out, but I think it would work.
carol langevin
love this cake . So easy to make. I always use fresh pineapple. Freezes well.
Judy
My cake turned out quite flat. Delicious but flat. What did I do wrong?
Chef Dennis Littley
the cake does not rise much because there is so little flour. If it didn’t rise at all it could have been the age of your baking powder
Wendy T
I previously made this in a cake pan, per the recipe, and was very pleased. I’m currently in the middle of baking it again, but this time I’m going to try making muffins… Here goes!
Emma
I made this for Christmas and added a thin layer of marzipan. Thought I would regret it. But it was wonderful and everyone loved it
thank you
Regan
Absolutely wonderful! Crumb is perfect, flavour is lovely. Thank you for posting this!
Nancy Britnell
Wow, what a delicious little cake. The flavours were just popping and bright. I made it exactly as written and I so appreciate when a recipe turns out perfectly. I think it’s my new favourite cake. I’m dying to try it with ripe mango too. Thanks for the inspiration😁
317537
Rave reviews. Later made pineapple upside down cake. Nope, nope they wanted this butter pineapple cake lol
Mary Pantohan
I am going to try your pineapple butter cream cake. I have been a cook for 47 year’s and just retired. I never liked baking but since I move home to Hawaii I started to bake and am surprised I’m pretty good at it. Now I want to bake every thing I can think of and use our local fruits
Joe
I measured out the butter according to the instructions but never ended up using the reserved butter. I used fresh pineapples and that for some reason didn’t juice up too much when I poached It in the butter (I did kind of put some palm sugar into the butter mixture too to caramelize it ) it ended up making a bit of clarified brown butter with pineapple essence, I ended up just putting that in the flour instead of the reserved butter and it turned out great ! It’s either that or I didn’t measure the butter correctly lol I measured half a cup of butter and reserved 6 tbl spoons measured out on a scale.
Cyn
I just tried your pineapple butter cake. The taste was lovely, but I found the cake was soft like lemon squares. Is it supposed to be like that? I baked it for 30 minutes the top was a nice brown color so I figured it was done. Please advice.
Chef Dennis Littley
Its a very moist cake and yes it will be more like lemon squares
Cyn
Thanks for the reply. This cake actually tasted and texture was better the next day!!
Judy
Can we use an 8 inch square pan instead?
Chef Dennis Littley
that should work fine.
Linda
I loved your pineapple cake. Super easy to make and oh so easy to just eat another slice !
Jacob McCrory
Do you need to make any adjustments for altitude? I’m at 4300′
Chef Dennis Littley
I have not done any high elevation baking, but a friend told me she generally raises the temperature 25 degrees and cuts back the sugar and baking powder slightly. This is not a high rising cake so I don’t think either of those will be an issue.
Ginac
Delicious! I used a combo of frozen mango and pineapple. So easy and so good I had to post a comment. My first post!
Lisa Melin
Very rich and delicious. And easy to make. I used the leftover butter and juice to make a glaze with confectioners sugar and sprinkled slivered almonds on top. Pineapple heaven! Thank you for a new favorite recipe!
Lori Grevstad
We always have leftover pineapple following pizza night and I’m getting tired of pineapple smoothies. This looks like a great solution – cannot wait to try it! Does it freeze well?
Chef Dennis Littley
it’s a really moist cake and probably won’t freeze as well as others. I have not tried it because it is also a small cake that only lasts 2 days in our house.