Pineapple & Coconut Upside Down Cake
Home » COOK » Recipes » Baking » Cakes »If you ask me to name a tropical fruit, one of the first things that comes to mind is pineapple! So I thought, why not make that retro, kitsch classic – pineapple upside down cake for my sister’s Cocktails & Dreams Hen Party. I thought it would go really well with the whole Hawaiian/Tropical theme I had going on!
I’ve got lots more Luau Party Food recipes for you to try out – right-click and open them in a new tab to read next!
I figured this would be an easy enough cake to make – just put the pineapple and cherries on the bottom, pour over cake batter and bake! I took a quick peek online and found varying recipes that I then tweaked a bit :D I also cheated by buying a cake mix rather than make from scratch (it’s fine, I have no regrets!)
The huge tweaks I made to this cake was the addition of macadamia nuts, desiccated coconut, pineapple juice and mashed banana. However, as I was getting everything ready for the cake, I was reminded that one of the hens doesn’t like banana, so that was omitted in the end.
You’ll also need some cherries and a can of pineapple rings, plus a cake mix. I used Victoria sponge, but any sponge mix would do – even if you make your own with the usual butter, flour, eggs, sugar and vanilla :) I was just being lazy! Oh, and you’ll also need (not pictured!) butter and soft brown sugar.
For quite an impressive looking cake, the steps are very simple! I loved how my upside down cake turned out – and was ever so proud of it! Only thing is, because of the coconut, my husband point blank refused to eat it – he hates coconut with a passion!! His loss :D
Start by creaming together the soft brown sugar and softened butter. You then spread this over the base of an 8″ cake tin (I’m so into silicone bakeware at the moment!)
Then, place whole rings of pineapple on top of the butter and sugar mixture, as you can see I managed to squeeze in six rings. I then popped a cherry into the centre of each pineapple ring. Doesn’t it look so pretty already?
With the top of the cake all sorted out (it’s at the bottom now of course, but it’s an upside down cake remember?!) Make up the packet cake mix according to the instructions. All I had to do was add eggs and water to my mixture.
I then folded in desiccated coconut, chopped the remaining pineapple rings into pieces and threw them in and finally chopped macadamia nuts. It was at this point I was also going to toss in some mashed banana. I can’t say how that would have turned out, but try it and see! Another thing I did, which probably screwed up the whole science of the cake, was pour in the juice from the pineapple rings – I hate waste!
I then poured the cake batter over the top of the pineapple and cherry layer, covered with foil (as I knew this would probably take a while to cook, owing to my tweaking!) and cooked according to the instructions on the cake mix packet….I did need to cook it for longer, and did it in 10 minute bursts until a skewer that I inserted came out clean. I’ve been making cakes for a long time so I tend to know what I’m doing, but this cake was a big old experiment! I’m glad with the way it turned out.
Once the cake was cooked through, I allowed it to cool and carefully turned it out onto a serving plate…Oh. My. Gawsh! It smelled wonderful, and I couldn’t resist quite proudly showing my mum and dad as they’d popped over when I was making it!
And to kitsch up the Pineapple & Coconut Upside Down Cake a little bit more, I put in some shiny, err, what do you even call these things?! Flouncy stick thingys? How fantabulous!!
A slice of this cake with a squirt of cream goes down a treat! Everyone loved it at the party, it was so moist and scrummy, and the little crunch of macadamia nuts was a nice surprise.
Enjoy!
Pineapple & Coconut Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 400 g packet Victoria sponge mix or your favourite vanilla cake mix
- 567 g can pineapple rings in juice reserve the juice
- 6 glacé cherries
- 100 g desiccated coconut
- 50 g macadamia nuts chopped
- 1 medium banana mashed (optional)
- 50 g unsalted butter softened
- 50 soft brown sugar
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar together and spread onto the base and up the sides of an 8" cake tin. I used a silicone pan which didn't need lining, but you may need to line a regular pan.
- Lay out approximately 6 pineapple rings onto the base of the tin, and then put a cherry into the hole. Chop up the remainder of the pineapple rings.
- Make up the cake mix according to the instructions on the package.
- Fold in the coconut, chopped macadamia nuts, mashed banana (if you are using it), chopped pineapple and the juice from the pineapple
- Pour the cake mix over the pineapple and cherry layer and bake according to the cake packet instructions. You may need to cover the cake with foil to prevent burning, and you may need to cook for a little longer due to the looseness of this cake batter by the time you've added extra juice.
- Check to see if it is cooked by inserting a skewer. If it comes out clean, then the cake is cooked through.
- Allow to cool and turn out onto a serving plate.
- Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.
Christina
April 25, 2022 @ 3:46 pm
Made this cake for my daughter’s 17th birthday luau. Must say it was the hit of the party! Everyone love loved it!! Thank you for sharing.
Michelle
April 25, 2022 @ 3:49 pm
That’s awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it as much as we did!
Felicity Smith
May 2, 2014 @ 1:09 pm
love this – very 80s :)
Michelle Ordever
May 2, 2014 @ 6:41 pm
Isn’t it though?! It was such a good cake!!