Pineapple upside-down cake reminds me of my childhood and the countless afternoons I spent watching my mother play bridge or mah-jongg with her friends and the Wednesday evening potlucks at our local church. She always brought one of three dishes to those potlucks: spaghetti pie, seven-layer dip, or pineapple upside-down cake. I miss it too, those comforting foods of middle America, but I’m no fan of margarine, cake mixes, and sweet cherries laced with vivid red food coloring.
So, upon waking with a wicked hankering for pineapple upside-down cake this morning, I took to my kitchen and whipped up this alternative which pairs pineapple with honey and one of my favorite flours for sweet treats: coconut.
Why coconut flour?
We minimize grain consumption in our home, and coconut flour makes a beautiful alternative to grain-based flours. Moreover, coconut flour is particularly well-suited to sweet treats and baked goods as it has a fluffy texture and is reminiscent of yellow cake when sweetened. Coconut flour is also rich in protein, fiber, and fat and, unlike grain-based flours, it doesn’t require soaking (wondering about why you should soak grains? Click here). In this recipe, its soft cake-like texture and faint coconut flavor complements the pineapple well. It’s a natural choice.
Coconut flour is dense and absorbent and it requires lots of liquid, usually in the form of eggs to produce a palatable result. As a result, cakes and baked goods made with coconut flour are typically denser in vitamins and healthy fats than those made from grain-based flours. You can learn more about baking with coconut flour here.
coconut pineapple upside down cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups coconut flour
- 1 cup blanched almond flour
- ½ teaspoon finely ground real salt
- 2 teaspoon ground ceylon cinnamon
- 2 cups coconut milk
- 1 cup honey (divided)
- 1 eggs (beaten)
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 12 rings pineapple (about ½-inch thick)
- ¼ cup dried cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Whisk coconut flour, almond flour and unrefined sea salt together. Beat in coconut milk, ¾ cup honey, eggs and vanilla and continue to beat them together until no clumps remain.
- Melt coconut oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet over moderately high heat. Whisk in remaining ¼ cup honey. When the honey and coconut oil foam and bubble, gently arrange pineapple into the skillet. Place dried cherries in the center of each pineapple ring and around the pineapple rings. Turn off the heat, pour in the cake batter and bake for forty-five minutes to one hour in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool for about five to ten minutes before inverting on a platter and serving.
Pat says
This popped up in Foodgawker recently and it sounded interesting so I bought the flours. I have never tried a cake with coconut flour. I saw the comments were from 5-10 years old and they mixed as to results. I made it with a few substitutions, regular milk for coconut milk and pears instead of pineapple. As to making the cake, I followed recipe but beat the egg whites separately till stiff then folded them into egg/honey/flours mixture. Baked it in a springform pan with foil in bottom to catch the oil/honey mixture on bottom. I baked it for 1 hour and 20 minutes and it baked beautifully. Four inches high. Looked good. But I threw it out because it was completely tasteless and the texture was off putting. I had hoped for a breakfast cake and didn’t expect it to be sweet. The honey added nothing. Needed sugar instead to help with texture. The honey coconut oil mixture for fruit needed brown sugar. Less coconut oil. Don’t waste time with this.
Jenny says
So you didn't actually follow the recipe and are pissed about the results? Nicely done.
Dallis Oswalt says
I would love to make this for my husband, but do you think I could sub thawed frozen cherries for the dried?
Jenny says
You could try and see how it goes.
Renee says
Because I have a smaller pan, I halved the ingredients and only used 4 eggs 1/2 cup coconut, 1/4 almond flour, 1/4 flour substitute, and it turned out good. It was a bit dry and will be excellent on the 2nd run when I add the pineapple juice. I also added coconut flakes on top and some rough granules of sugar in the raw. No need for baking powder, the mixture rises if you let it sit for a few minutes. I didn't bake it at high altitude as I live in the desert valley.