Pineapple Upside-Down Cake With Fresh or Canned Pineapple
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This made-from-scratch upside-down pineapple cake is amazing! Juicy pineapple and brown sugar layer on top and tender soft vanilla cake on the bottom! Truly mouthwatering and best ever!
This is the only upside-down pineapple cake recipe you’ll ever need! It’s super easy to make and comes out perfect every time!
Making this upside-down pineapple cake is super easy. It’s a one-bowl recipe that doesn’t even require a mixer – the ingredients mix together easily by hand with a spoon!
You can use fresh or canned pineapple for this recipe. I love using fresh pineapple, it’s so delicious! Cutting pineapple into chunks is really easy if you follow my simple method on how to cut a pineapple.
Many upside-down pineapple cake recipes use a boxed yellow cake mix, but this one is totally from scratch! Why use a cake mix when making your own is so easy? And the taste difference is huge! Homemade from scratch is a clear winner!
How To Make Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Step 1: Prepare the pineapple layer
Melt butter in a 9×13 inch non-stick baking pan, then sprinkle with brown sugar and add a layer of pineapple chunks.
Step 2: Make the batter
Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar and salt) in a large bowl. Add the liquid ingredients (vegetable oil, milk, eggs and vanilla) and mix until smooth. You can mix it with a spoon – no mixer needed!
Step 3: Pour batter over pineapple layer
Pour the cake batter into the baking pan so it evenly covers the pineapple layer.
Step 4: Bake the cake
Bake the pineapple upside-down cake for 1 hour at 350F.
Step 5: Invert the cake
Once the pineapple cake is baked, loosen the sides of the cake from the pan by running the knife around the pan, then put a large platter or baking sheet on top and flip the cake over.
Now the pineapple layer is on top and the pineapple cake is a propper UPSIDE-DOWN pineapple cake :)
Slice the pineapple upside-down cake into squares and enjoy! It is delicious warm or at room temperature!
If you have any pineapple chunks left over after making this cake, use them up to make pineapple salsa, bacon-wrapped pineapple, pineapple pizza or pineapple shrimp stir-fry. Here’s to non-stop pineapple yum!
If you like this easy pineapple upside-down cake, you will love these other easy cake recipes:
Cherry Crumble Cake – so tender and delicious with a sweet cherry filling!
Orange Bundt Cake – full of orange flavor and super moist!
Chocolate Truffle Cake – this is the king of all cakes, chocolate cake with chocolate cream and chocolate truffles on top!
Cinnamon Roll Cake – cinnamon roll in a cake form, this is the easiest way to get your fix of homemade cinnamon rolls!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake – it’s like a giant chocolate chip cookie in a cake form, amazing!
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake With Fresh or Canned Pineapple
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 3 1/2 cups fresh or canned pineapple chunks if using canned, drain them
- 2 2/3 cups flour
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Pour melted butter in a non-stick 9x13 baking pan and distribute evenly so the bottom of the pan is coated with butter. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the melted butter. Add the pineapple chunks to the pan and distribute them in an even layer.
- Put flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and mix with a spoon to combine.
- Add oil, mil, eggs and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix all the ingredient thoroughly until smooth (you can mix by hand with a spoon or with an electric mixer).
- Pour the batter evenly into the pan over the pineapple layer.
- Put the pineapple cake in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
- Remove the cake for the oven and run a knife around the sides of the pan to make sure the cake sides are separated from the pan.
- Put a large platter or baking sheet over the cake pan and quickly flip the cake over. Carefully lift the baking pan off the inverted cake.
- Pineapple upside-down cake can be served warm or at room temperature.
Quick, easy, and absolutely delicious! Thank you!
Love this recipe. Made it for the first time tonight. I was looking for a recipe to use some fresh pineapple in. Definitely will be making this again.
Did this recipe last night and is gone today between 5 people. It is amazing. Thanks Melanie for the recipe!!! Will be looking at your other recipes also!!! Thanks
This recipe is delicious. First attempt and it was perfect!
Could I use this cake recipe for cupcakes?
Yes! Just reduce baking time to 40-45 minutes.
Made this cake today and it was so yummy! Won’t last last long at out home and the kids took several pieces home! Such an easy recipe with fresh fruit!
Hey I love this recipe. I substitute the milk with pineapple juice from the can.
Do you know if this recipe is good for a bundt pan?
Yes, it should work in a bundt pan!
I’ve been looking for a good upside down pineapple cake recipe and I finally found it. I made this today following all directions and it came out wonderful. It made the whole house smell so good. I can’t wait for the family to dig in tonight. Thank you.
This looks lovely and the reviews make it look even more promising! Do you think frozen pineapple will work?
You can use frozen pineapple!
thinking of using coconut milk instead of milk. Any suggestions
I think it will work with coconut milk, just substitute regular milk with same quantity of coconut milk.
Best pineapple upside down cake I’ve ever mad. Can’t wait to make some for the holidays. I think it’s so much better tasting without the cherries.
This is as close to my grandmother’s recipe that I have found. Almost every one I’ve seen uses pineapple rings and marischino cherries. So happy to see a recipe that doesn’t use them…my grandma never did.
First attempt at this cake last night and it gets 5 STARS…..A+++++!! Delicious flavor, easy to make, followed directions to a T and it came out perfect! A must try!!
I made this cake and it is amazing. I’m making it today with fresh peaches and I’m betting it will be awesome as well. Thank you for sharing.
First time I have made with fresh pineapple. Very good! I enjoyed it because it wasn’t real sweet. Great cake!
I had a can of pineapple that I needed to use up so I looked online and found your recipe. I just made it and it was easy and tasty! I can’t wait to try some of your other recipes. The air fryer cauliflower and mushrooms look amazing. Thank you for posting your recipes!
This recipe is incredibly tasty! I did two things different: coconut milk instead of regular (I was out) and an 10×11 pan (I don’t have a 9×13). I think I should’ve played around with a foil cover and added more time overall, as the pineapple layer didn’t caramelize all the way, but that is totally on me. It still came out beautifully tender and I’m probably going to eat it all.
I tried this recipe today, but with a few tweaks, mostly out of curiosity. I baked it in a bundt cake pan, and I used coconut milk and coconut sugar, because I wanted to see how it came. Well, flavor wise it was delicious, and loved how the caramelized pineapple top came out. Texture wise, I baked it for an hour, and it actually came out extremely moist, resembling the texture of bread pudding. I wasn’t expecting that. I don’t know if my tweaks ended up creating that texture by mistake. But other than that, I love it. It came out nicely sweet, even with me using a pretty tasteless pineapple (that was actually the main reason I was looking for a pineapple cake recipe, so I could use my pineapple and make it taste good)
Can this be frozen for future use?
Yes
The cake seemed too easy but WOW talk about perfect. I like the size so you can feed a number of people. My go to recipe from now on. Thank you!