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This light, sunny Angel Pineapple Cake comes together with just four ingredients and bakes up tender, moist, and full of pineapple flavor. Topped with fluffy Cool Whip and sweet coconut, it’s an easy dessert that looks prettier than it has any right to. You’re going to love how simple it is.
Why You’ll Love It
- Just four ingredients — simple pantry and freezer staples do all the work.
- No oil or eggs needed — crushed pineapple and its juice keep the cake tender and moist.
- Light but satisfying — angel food cake gives every slice a fluffy texture.
- Feeds a crowd — one 9×13-inch pan makes plenty to share.
- Pretty without fuss — Cool Whip and coconut make an easy, lovely finish.
Ingredient Notes
The angel food cake mix is doing a lot of the work here, so use the regular boxed kind—not an “add water only” version with extra flavors or one of those oddball specialty mixes. Plain angel food cake mix. Nothing glamorous.
For the pineapple, you want crushed pineapple in juice, not syrup, and you use every drop in the can. Don’t drain it. I know it feels wrong if you grew up being told to drain canned fruit over the sink, but leave it alone. The juice is part of the cake batter.
Cool Whip is what I use because it holds up nicely and keeps this whole dessert in the easy category. If you have a strong opinion about whipped topping, I hear you. I’ve had homemade whipped cream too, and it is lovely. It is also one more bowl to wash, and I have washed enough bowls in my lifetime. Let the tub have its moment.
Sweetened coconut flakes give the cake that old-fashioned pineapple-coconut flavor. I like the sweetened kind here; unsweetened coconut can taste a little too earnest, if that makes sense. We are making cake, not proving a point.
Ingredients
- 1 (16 oz.) box angel food cake mix
- 1 (20 oz.) can crushed pineapple in juice, juice included—do not drain it
- 1 (12 oz.) tub Cool Whip, thawed
- 1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut flakes, divided
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13-inch baking dish. Grease it well, especially around the corners. Those corners have a way of clinging to cake like they’ve got nowhere else to be.
Get out a large mixing bowl. I’m emphasizing that because the first time I made this, I used what I thought was a perfectly reasonable bowl. It was not. The batter puffed up while I stirred and came right over the side onto the counter. Pineapple batter is sticky in a way that makes you reconsider your life choices. Use the biggest bowl you have.
Add the angel food cake mix, 1/2 cup of the sweetened coconut flakes, and the entire can of crushed pineapple with its juice to the bowl. Stir until it is evenly combined. The batter will expand and get airy-looking—don’t panic. It’s supposed to do that. It may look a little strange at first, sort of foamy and lumpy at the same time, but keep stirring gently until there aren’t dry pockets of cake mix hiding around the edges.
Transfer the batter to your greased baking dish and spread it out as best you can. It doesn’t have to be perfectly even. It will settle and bake up just fine.
Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, until the cake is golden brown. Check the center with a toothpick—actually check more than one spot if you can, because angel food cake can be deceiving. You want those toothpicks to come out clean. Do not pull it early just because the top looks done. I’ve done that, and the middle sank down afterward like a sad little mattress. Still edible, mind you. But not exactly company cake.
Let the cake cool completely. Completely. I know this is the part nobody wants to hear. The topping can soften into a shiny puddle if the cake is still warm. It tastes fine, but it looks like a weather event.
Once the cake is cool, spread the thawed Cool Whip over the top in an even layer. Sprinkle the remaining 1 cup of sweetened coconut flakes all over. You can be generous with it. Coconut has a way of wandering off the spoon and onto the counter, the floor, your shirt… that’s just how it is.
Variations
You can certainly use less on the topping if your family is divided on coconut. Keep the 1/2 cup in the cake, though—that’s part of the flavor and texture I like best.
One summer I tried to get clever and add other things to the batter. I will not name names, but it involved a package of flavored gelatin and a truly unnecessary amount of enthusiasm. The cake came out an alarming color and had a rubbery little streak through the middle. It was information.
Honestly, this is one of those recipes that doesn’t need much tinkering. Pineapple, angel food cake, Cool Whip, coconut. Let it be what it is. There’s a lesson there, probably, though I’m not in the mood to unpack it.
Storage & Reheating
Cover the cake and keep it in the refrigerator because of the Cool Whip topping. It’s best cold, actually, so there is no reheating involved—thank goodness. I think it tastes especially nice the next day, when the pineapple flavor has settled in a bit and the topping is chilled.
Leftovers usually last two or three days. If you’re serving it later in the day, keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to put it out.
The coconut on top may soften a little after sitting Overnight, but that Never bothered me. If you are someone who needs every flake standing at attention, make it the same day you plan to serve it. I am not that person anymore. I used to be, maybe. Then priorities shifted.
Final Notes
There’s something almost funny about how a dessert this simple can become part of people’s memories. Nobody remembers whether there were matching napkins or whether the kitchen was clean—which it almost certainly was not. But the cool Pineapple Cake after supper, eaten from paper plates on the back steps, is the kind of thing that stays with you.
Just cake. Just pineapple and coconut and a freezer tub of topping doing its best. And frankly, some days that’s plenty.
Angel Pineapple Cake
Ingredients
- 1 16 oz. box angel food cake mix
- 1 20 oz. can crushed pineapple in juice juice included; do not drain
- 1 12 oz. tub Cool Whip thawed
- 1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut flakes divided
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13-inch baking dish well, especially around the corners.
- Set out the largest mixing bowl you have, since the batter will puff up and expand as it is stirred.
- Add the angel food cake mix, 1/2 cup of the sweetened coconut flakes, and the entire can of crushed pineapple with its juice to the bowl, then stir gently until evenly combined with no dry pockets of cake mix remaining.
- Transfer the batter to the greased baking dish and spread it out as evenly as you can.
- Bake for 25 to 28 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and toothpicks inserted into more than one spot in the center come out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely before adding the topping so the Cool Whip does not soften into a puddle.
- Once the cake is cool, spread the thawed Cool Whip evenly over the top and sprinkle with the remaining 1 cup of sweetened coconut flakes.