Coconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe {Fruit Layer Cake} (2024)

A pineapple coconut sugar mixture bakes on the bottom, then gets flipped over to be on the top of thisCoconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Top with a homemade whipped cream and sprinkle with coconut. A light, fresh cake!

Coconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Box cake mixes with pudding are some of the most popular, easy cakes to make. It’s hard to mess up a box cake mix! This cake recipe uses pudding in the mix to make a fluffy textured cake.Coconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake has the delicious pina colada flavor. You’ll love the simple frosting on top!

How to Make Pineapple Cake Layers

This from-scratch pineapple cake gets its flavor from pineapple juice and instant pineapple cream pudding mix. If you can’t find pineapple pudding, use coconut cream or even vanilla. Whatever flavor you like best will work!

• Can you use butter instead of shortening? The short answer is yes, but note that it will change the texture of the cake slightly. Cakes with shortening tend to be lighter and have a more delicate crumb than cakes with butter. We recommend shortening for this cake.
• Be sure to reserve the pineapple juice when you drain the crushed pineapple for the topping. That is the juice you’ll use for the actual cake batter.
• Beat the cake batter on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Don’t forget to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Sometimes the shortening gets cold from the eggs or milk and sticks to the side of the bowl. Keep scraping the sides of the bowl while you beat the batter so all of the ingredients get well blended.
• We used 8″ cake layers for this cake which gives you a nice, tall cake. You can use 9″, but lower the baking time. Please also note that if you use larger cake pans, the cake will not be as tall as the cake shown here.
• You can bake this cake in a 9×13 pan if you’d like. Cook at the same temperature. Check the cake at 35-40 minutes to see if it is done yet. It will most likely need more time. Try to just turn the oven light on and peek in to check it instead of opening the oven door. Opening the oven door during baking can sometimes cause a cake to fall.

Coconut Pineapple Topping

This cake recipe is from an old Pillsbury Bake-Off Cake Cookbook. It was called “Flip-Flop Pineapple Cake”. It gets that name because of the coconut pineapple “topping”, which actually bakes on the bottom of the cake pans.

To make the topping, pour the melted butter in the bottom of the cake pans, then add the sugar, coconut and crushed pineapple, spreading it in the pans evenly. Pour and spread the batter gently over the pineapple coconut mixture. Once the cakes are baked, you’ll flip the cakes so that the sugary pineapple & coconut is now the topping, like an upside-down cake.

This cake is delicious as it is and doesn’t 100% need the whipped frosting. But sometimes upside down cakes don’t look very pretty. You can serve it with just a dollop of whipped cream or you can make a simple whipped cream frosting to cover the top and sides of the cake.

Whipped Cream Frosting

ThisCoconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake has a three ingredient frosting of whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Use a clean, grease-free, cold stand mixer bowl with the whisk attachment to whip up these three ingredients until the cream has stiff peaks. Whipped cream comes together most easily if the bowl is cold and if the heavy cream is really cold.

Frost the cake, then decorate the top with extra coconut or pineapple if you’d like. Be sure to store the cake in the refrigerator since it has fresh whipped cream.

Other Pineapple Cake Recipes

• Pineapple Snack Cake
• Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake
• Hummingbird Cake Recipe
• Best Carrot Cake

Tools to Make this Cake

• Grated Coconut: One of my favorite brands.
• Stand Mixer: A hand mixer will work, but I always find it easier to make cake batter and whipped cream with a stand mixer.
• 8” Round Cake Pan: These are my favorite pans!
• Straight Icing Spatula: The long straight spatula makes it easy to smooth frosting.