The Best Pineapple Cake (2024)

This super moist pineapple cake recipe is the best I’ve ever had (and I don’t use the word ‘best’ lightly)! It’s made up of soft pineapple cake layers, filled with a pineapple cake filling, and topped with a stabilized pineapple whipped cream frosting. It may sound fancy and complex, but trust me when I say that each element of this cake is SO EASY to make!

What makes this the best pineapple cake recipe?

When I first thought of making a pineapple cake, I wanted to do something other than a pineapple upside down cake. Something different, but it still had to have pineapple as the star of the show.

Now I know claiming something as ‘the best’ is quite bold, but hear me out. This recipe has three elements, and each element is packed with pineapple, making it the perfect pineapple dessert!

Pineapple Cake Layers

First is the super soft pineapple cake layers. They’re made up of flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, canned crushed pineapple, vanilla extract or essence, and fresh lemon juice.

The combination of flour and cornstarch (as a cake flour substitute), results in a super soft and lush crumb, and the canned crushed pineapple provides heaps of additional flavour and texture, with little bits of pineapple throughout the cake layers.

Pineapple Cake Filling

The pineapple filling for this cake is in my opinion, the star of this cake. It is packed with pineapple flavor and slightly tart too, which cuts through the sweetness of the cake (although this cake is not overly sweet at all – some may find it not sweet enough!).

The filling is made up of canned crushed pineapple, sugar, cornstarch, milk, lemon juice, butter and optional yellow gel food colouring. I adapted the recipe from my eggless lemon curd, which I absolutely love as sometimes I find the egg yolks in curd fillings a bit strong!

Pineapple Whipped Cream Frosting

When thinking about a frosting for this cake, I wanted it to have pineapple in it, but also wanted it to be light. My stabilized whipped cream frosting came to mind as well as my cream cheese frosting recipe, though I wasn’t sure whether the pineapple would go as well with the latter.

I decided to experiment with the whipped cream, and folded canned crushed pineapple (with the juice removed) into the whipped cream, and boy was it good!! I was sold on the first try so decided to stick with it.

Do I have to use Canned Crushed Pineapple?

I do highly recommend using canned crushed pineapple for this recipe as it provides great texture throughout the cake. You also want to stick to a crushed pineapple that’s in pineapple juice, rather than syrup. However, if you can only find crushed pineapple in syrup, it’ll still be fine – your cake may just be a little sweeter 🙂

You could use pineapple slices, pineapple rings or fresh pineapple, but then you would need to cut them into smaller pieces (or blend them into chunks without making the pineapple too smooth otherwise this may affect the texture of the cake in particular).

How to Make Pineapple Cake

All of the elements of this pineapple cake come together really easily!

Pineapple Cake

First is the cake batter. Begin by Preheating your oven to 160 °C (320°F)with the fan on (if your oven doesn’t have a fan option, then you will need to increase the baking temperature to 175°C/350°F) and grease two 8 inch cake pans (I use myhomemade cake release). Also line the bottom as this cake is prone to sticking to the bottom of the cake tin.

Sift together the all purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside for now.

In a large bowl combine the white sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, crushed pineapple, vanilla and lemon juice. Using a whisk, mix until well combined and no lumps remain.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and using a spatula, gently fold until just combined. Do not overmix.

Evenly distribute the batter into the two cake tins. Drop the cake tins lighly on the counter to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 30-33 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Once baked, allow them to cool in the cake tins for about 20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool before frosting.

Pineapple Cake Filling

While the cake is baking, make the pineapple cake filling. In a saucepan combine crushed pineapple, white sugar, cornstarch, milk and lemon juice. Mix everything well and then place it over a medium heat, continously mixing until it becomes thick in consistency. It may look like the filling is curdling as it’s heating up, but don’t worry it will come together once the cornstarch is activated.

Once thick, take it off the heat immediately and add in the butter and gel colour (if you’re using it). Stir until the butter is completely melted and incorporated. Transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool.

Pineapple Whipped Cream Frosting

Prepare the whipped cream once everything is cool and the cake is ready to assemble. Before beginning, your mascarpone and whipped cream should be cold.

In a large bowl, combine the mascarpone, icing sugar (also known as powdered sugar or confectioners’ sugar) and vanilla. Mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds, and then turn up the speed to a medium high and mix until well combined. If using a stand mixer use the whisk attachment.

Add in the whipping cream and mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds (to allow everything to combine without the cream splattering), and then turn up the speed to a medium high and whip until you reach stiff peaks. Keep a careful eye on the mixture as you don’t want to overwhip the cream.

To finish, add in the crushed pineapple, and using a spatula, gently fold it in until just combined. The frosting is now ready to use.

Assembly

OPTIONAL: Begin by trimming off all the caramelised edges on the top, bottom and sides of the cake layers. Also level the tops if the cake layers have a slight dome.

Place your first cake layer onto your cake stand, and spread out a generous amount of the frosting on top.

Place some of the frosting into a piping bag with a 1A round tip, and pipe a border/dam around the edges of the cake layer to hold in the pineapple filling. Fill the middle with half of the pineapple filling.

Place the next cake layer on top and cover the top and sides with more frosting. If you have a cake scraper, you can use it to smooth out the sides.

For the top, pipe a decorative border around the top edges (I like to use a 1A piping tip – see video for demonstration) and then fill the middle with the remaining pineapple filling. Enjoy!

How do you store pineapple cake?

This cake can be left out at room temperature for a few hours (if the weather isn’t too hot), but after that it will need to placed into an airtight container and refrigerated due to the whipped cream. The cake will last upto a week in the fridge.