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Are you looking for the perfect dessert for a summer cookout? You will love this refreshing cake with pudding, pineapple, coconut, and real whipping cream! We add pineapple juice to the cake mix! It’s so easy to make and feeds a crowd. This is the perfect dessert for a family reunion or pot luck!
Related Recipe: Try our easy and delicious Chocolate Pudding Cake Recipe!
Hawaiian Pineapple Pudding Cake Recipe
This is a moist and delicious cake that our family loves. One cake mix actually makes two 9 x 13 cakes or one big cake in a jelly roll pan. Perfect for your big family parties!
Serving people
Ingredients
- 1 (15 ounce) box yellow cake mix, (Betty Crocker)
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 3 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
- 3½ cups milk, (cold)
- 1½ teaspoons coconut extract
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, (drained and reserve juice for cake)
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- ⅔ cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups flaked coconut, (toasted)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Make cake batter according to package directions adding in the vegetable oil, eggs, and using pineapple juice reserved from crushed pineapple in place of water.
- Pour into two greased 9 x 13 pans or one greased 18 x 12 jelly roll pan.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.Let cool completely.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the pudding mixes, milk, and coconut extract; beat for 2 minutes.
- Add softened cream cheese and beat well to smooth out all bumps, and then gently stir in pineapple with a spoon.
- Spread pudding mixture over cooled cake.
- Mix together whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until thick.
- Spread this over the pudding layer.
- To toast the coconut, spread it on a cookie sheet and bake at 325 for 5 to 10 minutes until barely browned.
- Sprinkle cooled coconut over the top of the cake.
- Chill cake for about 2 hours or until ready to serve.
Nutrition
Calories: 352 kcal · Carbohydrates: 36 g · Protein: 5 g · Fat: 22 g · Saturated Fat: 15 g · Trans Fat: 1 g · Cholesterol: 56 mg · Sodium: 299 mg · Potassium: 222 mg · Fiber: 2 g · Sugar: 26 g · Vitamin A: 443 IU · Vitamin C: 2 mg · Calcium: 103 mg · Iron: 1 mg
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.If you love this cake you’ll love our Pineapple Orange Cake Recipe (Pig Pickin’ Cake)!
Recipe adapted from: Taste of Home
Related recipe: Try our Gooey Chocolate Pudding Cake!
This looks so wonderful! Great recipe!
LUSCIOUS, and I adore that it starts with a cake mix (thank you!!). I am so glad you brought this to Treasure Box Tuesday- I have pinned and am sharing on Facebook this afternoon at 1:00 p.m. CST! ?
I just tried making this, and I’m not sure where I messed up because I followed the directions to a T, but my pudding part isn’t setting, and the cream topping is watery. Is there anything I can do to fix this? Smells wonderful though, and really hope I can figure it out! Thx!
Hi Jen, not sure what could have gone wrong. We like our pudding thick so we cut the milk back to 3 1/2 cups. We bought Jello brand, not store brands of pudding. As far as your cream top, be sure you use heavy whipping cream as directed. We beat it with a hand mixer until it was quite thick. We have never had a problem with this dessert. It’s always whipped up so nice and easy! Hope it all works out for you. You could always add cool whip, but not nearly as tasty! Hope this helps.
I just wanted to add a comment to “Jen” concerning her pudding part not setting. Did you by any chance use the “cooking” pudding instead of the instant pudding? I made a recipe once and the pudding wouldn’t set and I finally figured out that I hadn’t used instant pudding. I did however figure it out in time to put it on the stove top and finish the dessert.
Probably too late to the party, but here is my advice on whipped cream:
First . . . put your bowl and beaters in the freezer . . . they need to be ultra-cold. If you have a metal bowl, all the better!
Second . . . whip the cream until it is relatively stiff, then add the vanilla and sugar . . . vanilla first and mix well. Don’t put either ingredient into the cream until after the cream is whipped.
Hope these ideas help you!
This was so wonderful and so easy. My dd has gluten issues so I started with a Betty Crocker GF cake mix. I knew the cake would be thinner this way so I opted for two 9 inch round cakes. I put the pudding and whipped cream mix in between the layers and on top. Delicious! Making the cake this way yielded a ton of leftover pudding mix. I put it In Several ramekins and topped it with whip and coconut. This is also another option if you have a gluten issue and want to make a gf version and regular cake version.
This looks wonderful and I am anxious to make it but I think I am missing something. Why are we baking the cake in two 9×13 pans rather than just one. Are we do make this in two layers. ? Thank you and I will anxiously await your reply. Cant wait to make this one.
It makes 2 9×13 pans or one jelly roll pan (cookie sheet size). This recipe feeds a crowd.
Millie, You make two cakes because this is a dessert not only a cake. You only need a thin layer of cake so you can have room to put the rest of ingredients on top, I usually make just one 9x 13 pan and save the other half of cake mix for cup cakes. But if you have a large number of people, make two, it will go fast. I just use the cool whip from a plastic container instead of the mix of whipping cream, vanilla and sugar . I don’t mix the pineapple to pudding mix ( drain and use the juice for cake mix ) I just put pineapple it on top of pudding mix so the mix is not too thin . Good luck !
That was going to be my question to Jen also. The pudding has to be INSTANT
Funny story..I brought chocolate pie to my first Thanksgiving as a bride with my in-laws and I didn’t use the Instant. Mom-in-law recooked the filling and everyone had a good laugh.
I’m still married to their son 43years later.
Thanx. That tip really makes the difference
Hi! I was wondering how many days ahead can you make this? Thanks!
Also – can you freeze it!
It should be fine the day before. It could start to get soggy after a few days.
I don’t think it would freeze very well with the pudding.
My grandma’s been making this for over 50 year’s, my absolute favorite!
This sounds about how I make it! I use one 9×13 pan and remove from pan then assemble taking the cool whip over the sides like a traditional cake. I use sugar free pudding and lite cool whip. Comes out fantastic! The tricky part for me is after the pineapple layer then the pudding layer it’s hard to “frost” without disturbing up the pudding layer. Cake out of the box no juice, pineapple, pudding, the whipped topping. Simple and so great!
The heavy whipping cream never got thick. 1 hour later I just poured it on and hoped for the best. There has to be a better recipe that works. Trying to beat milk to it gets thick is insane. Never happened.
The heavy whipping cream never got thick. 1 hour later I just poured it on and hoped for the best. There has to be a better recipe that works. Trying to beat milk to it gets thick is insane. Never happened. The heavy whipping cream bled into he cake and it is like soggy wet bread. Nasty.
It should get thick in about 3-5 minutes. It’s how you add real whipping cream on SO many desserts. Not sure what went wrong for you. You say you tried to beat the milk. That will not thicken up. It has to be the Heavy Whipping Cream.
I have made this recipe more than 15 times. Always make it for my best friend’s birthday since she loves coconut, always a hit and since there’s two, I give her one to take home. Thank you for this recipe!!!