Pineapple Juice Cake

This cake is not overwhelmingly pineapple-y flavor; instead, it creates a wonderfully nice and beautiful hidden pineapple flavor that gives you a little kick start to Spring.

And honestly, if you want more pineapple flavor, you can do what I did and add pineapple on top of the cake.

I mean, why would you not?

Makes Two 8 inch round cakes

Takes: about 1 hour and 30 minutes with baking time

Difficulty: 1 out of 5

Prep:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (170 degrees C) and grease two 8 inch round pans well and place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of each pan (this will make taking the cakes out later easier).

Ingredients:

Cake

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter - room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup pineapple juice (no added sugar)

Optional: You could add small cut up pieces of pineapple into your cake, but do not add too much, because it will change your texture. I would say no more than 1/2 cup.

Frosting

*This recipe is not mine - it came from The Tough Cookie's Less Sweet Flour Buttercream. The Tough Cookie does a fantastic job at explaining how to make this recipe and I really enjoyed their post and I really enjoyed the frosting flavor, which was not too sweet, and the texture, which was fluffy, easy to pipe, and did not crust.*

Topping/Filling

1/2 cup - 1 cup Chopped Pineapple

Instructions:

*I unfortunately did not take enough photos for this cake to post them, but I promise to add some at some point!*

- Step 1 - Mix Together all Powdered Ingredients

In a medium sized bowl, mix together 2 1/4 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

- Step 2 - Cream Together Butter and Sugar

In a large bowl cream the 1 cup of butter until fluffy - about 3-4 minutes.

Once the butter is fluffy, add the 1 cup of sugar and mix until light and fluffy - about 2-3 minutes.

- Step 3 - Add the Eggs and Vanilla

Start adding the 3 eggs, one at a time, to the butter and sugar mixture until each egg is completely combined.

Once the eggs are added, add the 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and mix until combined.

- Step 4 - Alternate Adding Dry Ingredients and Pineapple Juice

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter batter and mix until just starting to combine. Add 1/2 the pineapple juice and mix for about 10 seconds. Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, and again, just mix until just combined.

Then add the last of the pineapple juice, mix for about 10-15 seconds and then add the remaining dry ingredients.

Do not over mix, if you still have some remaining dry ingredients stuck to the bowl, take a spatula and finish mixing everything together.

- Step 5 - Fill the Baking Pans

Spoon the equal amounts of the completed batter into the two prepared pans and bake for about 30 minutes - or until a toothpick comes out clean.

- Step 6 - Let the Cakes Cool and Decorate as Needed

This cake was so light in pineapple taste, that I did decide to add some fresh pineapple slices between the two layers of cake with The Tough Cookies Buttercream, which made also beautiful decorations on the outside; as you can see below.

*I do apologize that I do not have photos at the moment, but I promise I will be making this cake again and when I do, I will be adding photos as well.

Let me know if you have any questions and I would be happy to help.