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 cake bar, so I changed the name to Pineapple Coconut Cake Bars. We would typically 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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Pineapple Coconut Cake Bars
Soft, ultra-moist pineapple cake topped with a buttery toasted coconut topping
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (142g ) all purpose flour, sifted
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 8 oz (227g) can crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Topping
- ¼ cup (57g) unsalted butter
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (50g) packed brown sugar
- â…› teaspoon fine sea salt
- â…“ cup (78ml) heavy cream
- 1 cup (75g) sweetened coconut flakes
- ½ cup (50g) chopped toasted pecans
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt until well blended.
- In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter, sugar, egg, egg yolk and vanilla until smooth & creamy. tir in the pineapple until incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan. Bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.
Topping
- In a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter with the granulated sugar, brown sugar and salt. Whisk in the heavy cream.
- When the mixture starts to bubble, turn the heat down to low and simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in the coconut, pecans and vanilla. Spread over the warm cake. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting the cake.