Tropical Pineapple and Coconut Spice Cake
Ingredients
Ingredients To Be Creamed and Mixed:
- ½ cup butter, softened (1 stick)
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
Eggs and Vanilla:
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Dry Ingredients:
- 2½ cups flour (or 2¾ cups cake flour)
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon salt (¼ teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter)
Moist Ingredients:
- 1¼ cups half and half
- ¼ cup molasses
Coconut and Pineapple:
- 1¼ cups sweetened flaked coconut (see comment below)
- ½ cup crushed pineapple with juice
Frosting:
Toasted Coconut:
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350°.
- Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans.
- Click here for instructions on how to prepare cake pans for baking.
- Toast ½ cup of shredded unsweetened or sweetened coconut and set aside. Click here for instructions on how to toast coconut.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy; about 30 seconds.
- Add white and brown sugars.
- Beat on medium-high speed until lightened in color and texture; about 1 minute.
- Add eggs 1 at a time; beating on medium speed for 30 seconds with each addition.
- Add vanilla and mix in.
- In a measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the half and half and the molasses; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
- Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the molasses mixture in 2 parts to the butter and egg mixture. Beat on low speed scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.
- Once the dry and moist are combined, beat on medium-high speed for 1 minute.
- Add and mix in 1¼ cups sweetened flaked coconut and crushed pineapple.
- Divide the batter between the cake pans and spread evenly.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back from a light touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool on a rack for exactly 10 minutes then remove from pans.
- Click here to see how to how to remove cakes from pans.
- Cool completely on a rack before frosting.
- Frost with cream cheese frosting
- Sprinkle toasted coconut over the frosting.
- Serve.
Comments
Click here for instructions on frosting a layer cake.Refrigerate unused portions.
Note: You can use unsweetened shredded coconut in the cake, but it does have a different texture than the standard sweetened flaked coconut. If I had to describe the texture of the unsweetened shredded coconut I would say it makes the cake a bit drier and grainier.
I like using unsweetened toasted coconut for sprinkling over the frosting. It adds a nice contrast to the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting.