Pineapple Cake with Toasted Coconut Frosting

My husband and I both like crushed pineapple in our baked goods, on pizza, and in sauces, but we don’t much care for large chunks of pineapple, either fresh or canned.  I know it makes no sense, but people are rarely logical creatures.  (That’s what I tell myself anyway. ;)

I buy canned pineapple when it’s on sale, purchasing several tins at a time so that my purchase will carry me through until it goes on sale again.  It’s usually a good strategy but somehow, this time, I ended up with a couple of tins of pineapple rings instead of the crushed pineapple I usually buy. I need to be more careful about reading labels!

The pineapple rings aren’t a big deal really—other than causing me to be annoyed at myself for carelessness.  I can throw them in my food processor, pulse it a few times, and voilà!  Crushed pineapple.  Yesterday, though, I decided to chop it a little more coarsely and use it to make a riff on my harvest cake.

The cake turned out pretty well, even if I do say so myself. My husband certainly liked it!  It’s what he had for breakfast this morning. 

 I’m so glad that I took the time to make notes because I’ll definitely be making this one again.

To make Pineapple Cake with Toasted Coconut Frosting, you'll need:

• 1-1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger 
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice (reserved when draining the pineapple)
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk (I use the low fat kind)
• 1-1/2 cups pineapple (I chopped it by hand but you can use crushed pineapple or tidbits).  If using canned pineapple, make sure it's well drained.

• 6 Tablespoons (3/8 cup) shredded coconut
• 6 Tablespoons (3/8 cup) sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg white
• 2 Tablespoons cold water (not pictured)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add in the egg.  Mix until well combined.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger.  Add 1/3 of this mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, stirring until well combined.

Add the pineapple juice, half of the remaining flour mixture, the evaporated milk, and then the rest of the flour mixture, in the order given, stirring well after each addition.

You should have a thick batter.

Stir in the pineapple.

Transfer the batter to a buttered or oiled 9-inch-square cake pan and spread it until it’s evenly distributed around the pan.

Bake on the middle rack of a 350˚F oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

While the cake is baking, spread the coconut on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven to toast.  Watch it carefully.  It’ll brown quickly.

As soon as the coconut is lightly browned, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool.

Allow the cake to cool completely.

When the cake has cooled, make the frosting.

Combine the sugar, cream of tartar, salt, egg white, and water in a heat proof bowl.  Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk the mixture by hand until the sugar is dissolved. 

Switch to an electric hand mixer or a rotary beater and continue beating the frosting for 5 to 7 minutes, until it stands in peaks. 

Remove the frosting from over the water and continue beating it until the frosting stiffens to stand in smooth billowy peaks. 

Mix in the vanilla and the toasted coconut.

Spread the frosting over the cake. 

Place the frosted cake under the broiler until the frosting is browned.  Watch carefully!  There’s a very slim margin of time between browned and burned.

Allow the frosting to cool and set.  Slice the cake with a non-serrated blade and clean the blade after each cut.


This frosting recipe is adapted from the Seven Minute Frosting recipe in The Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham, pub. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1984.
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