If you like tropical flavors, you’ll love this spring dessert from my childhood. We used to call it Pineapple Coconut Snack Cake, but I would consider it more of a bar, so I changed the name to Pineapple Coconut Cake Bars. We would enjoy it on Easter or Mother’s Day because it was my mom’s favorite. It’s buttery, moist and rich. It’s also kind of addicting, because everyone always asks for seconds. You can double the recipe if you need to.
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Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (5 oz or 142g ) all purpose flour, sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup (2 oz or 57g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup (7 oz or 100g) sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 8 oz (227g) can crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Topping
- 1/4 cup (2 oz or 57g) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz or 50g) sugar
- 1/4 cup (1 3/4 oz or 50g) packed brown sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/3 cup (2 5/8 oz or 78ml) heavy cream
- 1 cup (2 5/8 oz or 75g) sweetened coconut flakes
- 1/2 cup (1 3/4 oz or 50g) chopped toasted pecans
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Ingredients
Cake
Topping
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Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk melted butter, sugar, egg, egg yolk and vanilla until smooth.
- Stir in pineapple until well combined. Stir in flour mixture just until combined.
- Transfer batter to prepared baking pan. Bake until top is golden brown and toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.
Topping
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter with sugar, brown sugar and salt. Whisk in heavy cream.
- When mixture starts to bubble, turn heat down to low and simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Spread over warm cake. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting cake.