Easy Pineapple Bundt Cake (5 ingredients!)

Easy Pineapple Bundt Cake made with just 5 ingredients and SO GOOD! Canned pineapple with juice, a cake mix, eggs & butter combine for this deliciously simple bundt cake recipe!

Shared on Pinterest nearly 36,000 times for a reason! This bundt recipe is a keeper!

Enjoy a tropical flavored dish without the hassle and let your taste buds feel like they’re on vacation with this pineapple cake. A pineapple bundt cake with pineapple glaze is perfect for any day of the year or any occasion. Whether you just want a sweet treat or you want to present a cake as dessert at a party, this pineapple cake recipe is perfect.

Pineapple Bundt Cake with a Cake Mix

It’s an easy to make, fluffy and moist cake filled with pineapple flavors. Perfect for those of us that can’t get enough of this sweet and tangy fruit! Using canned pineapple and a box of yellow cake mix, we get a flavorful dessert without much effort. In fact, we only need a handful ingredients to complete this recipe making it a great minimal ingredient dessert that is sure to impress.

Pineapple Cake Recipe Ingredients

For the cake you will need:

• Boxed cake mix: You want to use 1 box of yellow cake mix (I used Betty Crocker) to be the base of your dessert.
• Butter: One stick of melted salted butter (½ cup) will make this cake flavorful and rich.
• Eggs: we use 3 large eggs in this recipe
• Pineapple juice: Use the juice in your canned pineapple or buy a bottle of pineapple juice. Either way, you’ll need ¾ cups for the cake batter.
• Canned pineapple: You can use 1 cup of crushed pineapple or 1 cup of chunked pineapple. The flavor won’t change, just the cake texture. I prefer crushed pineapple!

For the glaze you will need:

• Powdered sugar: We need 1 cup of powdered sugar to sweeten and thicken our glaze for the bundt cake.
• Pineapple juice: Using ¾ cup of pineapple juice, we get a flavorful glaze that packs a punch.
• Butter: We only need 1 TBSP of room temperature butter, but it’s enough to make this glaze rich and glossy.

How to Grease a Bundt Pan (the Right Way)

Getting a bundt cake out of the pan cleanly is the one step that trips people up most often, and it comes down entirely to how well you greased the pan before the batter went in. Here’s how to do it right every time.

Use baking spray with flour — the kind that has flour already mixed in, like Baker’s Joy or Pam Baking. Regular cooking spray works in a pinch but doesn’t coat the intricate fluted edges as reliably. If you only have regular cooking spray, follow it with a light dusting of flour, tapping out any excess.

Get into every single crevice. Use a pastry brush to work the spray into the grooves and up the center tube — the fluted sides are exactly where cakes stick and where most people miss spots. Take an extra 60 seconds here and you’ll save yourself a ruined cake. This is especially important if you’re using an intricate bundt cake pan, as gorgeous as they are!

Don’t skip the flour if you’re greasing with butter. Butter alone can cause sticking because of its water content. Butter plus flour is the traditional method and works beautifully — grease every surface generously with softened butter, then add a tablespoon of flour, rotate the pan to coat, and tap out the excess.

When to flip: Let the cake cool in the pan for exactly 10-15 minutes after coming out of the oven — not less, not more. Too soon and the cake is too fragile to hold together. Too long and it steams inside the pan and sticks. At the 10-15 minute mark, run a thin spatula or butter knife gently around the outer edge and around the center tube. Place your serving plate upside down over the top of the pan, hold both firmly, and flip in one quick, confident motion. Set it down and wait 30 seconds before lifting the pan — sometimes it needs a moment to release on its own.

Best Bundt Cake Pan

It’s best to use a good quality, heavy bundt pan when baking bundt cakes. I prefer this 12 cup, 10.5 inch non-stick bundt pan from Nordicware. It’s heavier than others and offers more even baking. Most bundt pans are non-stick but tend to not work as well as needed, so you’ll still need to grease even a non-stick pan.

What to Do If Your Glaze Is Too Thin

This is the most common glaze question we get, so let’s clear it up. The pineapple glaze for this cake is meant to be pourable — not thick like frosting. The whole point is that it soaks down into the holes you’ve poked and creates a moist, syrupy, pineapple-soaked interior rather than a coating that sits on top. If you’re expecting a thick drizzle and you get something that looks almost like juice, that’s actually correct.

That said, if yours is thinner than you’d like:

Cook it a little longer. Return the saucepan to medium heat and simmer for an extra 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. The butter will emulsify and the glaze will reduce and thicken slightly as it cooks.

Add more powdered sugar. Whisk in an extra 2-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar until it reaches the consistency you want. Add it off the heat so it doesn’t seize up.

Make sure the cake is still warm. The glaze needs to be poured over a warm cake — not hot, but warm — so it absorbs into the holes rather than pooling on the surface and running off the sides. If your cake cooled completely before you added the glaze, warm individual slices for 15 seconds in the microwave and drizzle a little extra glaze directly on each one before serving.

Troubleshooting — Why Did My Pineapple Bundt Cake Come Out Wrong?

The cake stuck in the pan. Almost always a greasing issue — see the full greasing section above. If it’s already stuck, don’t panic and don’t force it. Place the pan back on top of the cooling rack, cover with a damp kitchen towel for 5 minutes, and try again. The steam helps release it. Firm taps on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon can also help coax it out. If pieces break off, press them back gently — the glaze will cover a multitude of sins and no one will notice once it’s plated.

The center is gummy or raw. The toothpick test can be unreliable with bundt cakes because the center tube means you’re not always testing the thickest part. Use an instant-read thermometer instead — the internal temperature should read 200-205°F when fully baked. If the top is browning before the center is done, tent it loosely with foil and continue baking in 5-minute increments until the temperature is right.

The cake is dry. Overbaked. Bundt cakes have more surface area than a standard layer cake which means they can go from perfectly done to dry very quickly once they’ve passed their baking window. Start checking at 33 minutes rather than waiting for the 40-minute mark. The moment a toothpick comes out clean, pull it out.

The cake didn’t rise evenly. The batter wasn’t spread evenly in the pan before baking. After pouring in the batter, tap the pan firmly on the counter 3-4 times to release any air bubbles and run a spatula through the batter to even it out. Also make sure your baking powder is fresh — see the zucchini bread troubleshooting note for how to test it.

The glaze is too thin. See the full glaze section above — but the short answer is that it’s meant to be pourable, not thick. Pour it over a warm cake so it absorbs rather than pools, and cook it a minute or two longer if you want it slightly thicker.

The pineapple flavor isn’t strong enough. Make sure you used the juice from the canned pineapple rather than draining it — that juice is where most of the pineapple flavor in the batter comes from. For a more pronounced pineapple hit, add ½ teaspoon of pineapple extract to the batter, or make a second batch of glaze and drizzle it over individual slices right before serving.

Can I use fresh pineapple instead of canned?

Yes, you can use fresh pineapple instead, but as a result, you’ll need to buy bottled pineapple juice instead of using the juice in the can. This requires extra effort to slice the pineapple into small chunks for the cake, but there will extra fresh pineapple for you to snack on while you wait!

Do you eat pineapple cake warm or cold?

You can eat it either way, although room temperature or slightly warm seems best. Especially if served alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Yum!

How should I store crushed pineapple cake?

Keep your cake well covered or in an airtight container in the fridge until you’re ready to eat. Then slice a piece off and enjoy whenever you want. This will keep the cake from spoiling too quickly, giving you several days to enjoy the cake and savor the incredible flavors.

How to Store and Freeze Pineapple Bundt Cake

One of the best things about this cake is how well it keeps — and it actually tastes better on day two once the glaze has fully absorbed into the cake and the pineapple flavor has had time to deepen. If you’re making this for a party or a gathering, bake it the day before. You’ll be glad you did.

Room temperature: Wrap the cooled cake tightly in plastic wrap or cover with a cake dome and store at room temperature for up to 3 days. The glaze keeps the cake incredibly moist so it won’t dry out the way some bundt cakes do.

Refrigerator: Covered tightly, this cake keeps in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Let it come fully to room temperature before serving — cold bundt cake straight from the refrigerator can taste denser and drier than it really is, but 30-45 minutes on the counter brings it right back to life.

Freezer: This cake freezes beautifully for up to 3 months. Let it cool completely and make sure the glaze has fully set before freezing. Wrap the whole cake tightly in plastic wrap, then in a layer of aluminum foil, then place in a large freezer bag. To thaw, move it to the refrigerator overnight and then let it come to room temperature before serving. You can also freeze individual slices — wrap each one in plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag for grab-and-go portions that thaw in about an hour at room temperature.

Make-ahead tip: If you’re planning to freeze, hold off on adding the glaze until after the cake has thawed. A fresh glaze over a just-thawed cake tastes exactly like it was made that day.

More Delicious Pineapple recipes

• We baked this Pineapple Sheet Cake in a 9×13 pan and topped it with a cream cheese frosting!
• This Coconut Pineapple Cake combines 2 amazing flavors, crushed pineapple and shredded coconut. Yum.
• There’s pudding mix in this flavorful Pineapple Cake! Here’s another easy bundt cake!
• Sweet breads are delightful! Our Pineapple Quick Bread is moist and flavorful. This Cherry Pineapple Bread is also a keeper! More pineapple baking recipes!