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This Swedish Nut Cake is tender, moist, and topped with Creamy cream cheese frosting. You stir the batter together by hand, bake it in a 9×13 pan, and let the crushed pineapple work its magic. You’re going to love the sweet pineapple flavor, crunchy nuts, and easy prep.
Why You’ll Love It
- One-bowl batter — stir it together by hand with no mixer needed for the cake.
- Moist pineapple cake — the entire can of crushed pineapple, including the juice, keeps the cake soft.
- Easy 9×13 dessert — no layers, special pans, or fussy decorating required.
- Cream cheese frosting — tangy, sweet, and thick enough to make every square feel like a proper cake.
Ingredient Notes
Use regular cream cheese and real Butter here. Lighter versions of both are available, but this frosting really wants the full-fat stuff. It tastes better, spreads better, and does not have that faintly suspicious texture some reduced-fat cream cheeses get.
For the nuts, walnuts and pecans both work well. Pecans are a little sweeter. The recipe simply calls for chopped nuts, so use either variety. Just make sure they’re chopped enough to avoid a giant tooth-testing chunk in the cake.
The crushed pineapple needs to be the kind packed in juice, and you use every bit of it. Do not drain it. Draining the pineapple makes the cake much less tender.
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup chopped nuts, walnuts or pecans are both good
- 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, with all the juice
- 8 ounces cream cheese, for the frosting
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, for the frosting
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla, for the frosting
- 2/3 cup chopped nuts, for sprinkling over the top
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13-inch baking dish.
In a large bowl, stir together the eggs, flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, vanilla, 2/3 cup chopped nuts, and the entire can of crushed pineapple with its juice. Just use a sturdy spoon or spatula and mix until no dry flour is hanging around the edges. It will be a fairly wet batter—that is right.
Pour the batter into your prepared 9×13-inch pan and smooth it out a little. It doesn’t have to look perfect. This is not one of those cakes where symmetry will save your life.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Start checking at 30 minutes. The cake should look golden and set in the middle, not wobbly.
Let the cake cool completely before frosting it. Completely. I know this is annoying, especially because the house will smell sweet and buttery and the frosting will be ready to go. But warm cake and cream cheese frosting make a slippery mess. The frosting melts and slides around.
While the cake cools, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Then add the powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla, beating until the frosting is creamy and spreadable. A hand mixer is easiest here, though a stand mixer works too. Be sure to start slow once that powdered sugar goes in to avoid countertops that look dusted with snow.
Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Sprinkle the remaining 2/3 cup chopped nuts over the top. Cut into squares and serve.
Variations
Pecans are wonderful here and make a slightly sweeter variation than walnuts.
You can leave the nuts off the top if a nut-free topping is preferred, though keep the nuts in the cake itself if possible. They Give it character. Without them, it’s still a good pineapple cake, but it loses some of that slightly mysterious charm.
Adding Cinnamon makes the cake feel more autumnal. It isn’t terrible, but it also doesn’t improve a thing, and the cinnamon muddies up that clean pineapple-and-vanilla flavor.
Storage & Reheating
Because of the cream cheese frosting, cover the cake and store it in the refrigerator. It keeps well for about 3 to 4 days, maybe a little longer if the refrigerator is especially cold.
A cold square straight from the refrigerator is especially good once the frosting has settled in a little. For a less chilly slice, set a piece on the counter for 15 or 20 minutes before eating. There’s no real need to reheat it, and microwaving a frosted piece will make the frosting soft and droopy.
If transporting the cake, keep it cool until ready to serve, especially in warm weather. The frosting can get a little shiny around the edges if it gets too warm.
Final Notes
There’s something comforting about a cake that doesn’t ask for much. No layers to level, no fancy garnish, no waiting for butter to reach precisely the right stage of softness.
Just a bowl, a spoon, pineapple from a can, nuts, and a pan of cake cooling on the counter.
This is the kind of cake that feels sweet and familiar—even if, technically, it has never been made before.
Swedish Nut Cake
Ingredients Â
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup chopped nuts walnuts or pecans are both good
- 1 20-ounce can crushed pineapple with all the juice, do not drain
- 8 ounces cream cheese for the frosting
- 1 stick butter 1/2 cup, for the frosting
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla for the frosting
- 2/3 cup chopped nuts for sprinkling over the top
InstructionsÂ
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- In a large bowl, stir together the eggs, flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, vanilla, 2/3 cup chopped nuts, and the entire can of crushed pineapple with its juice until no dry flour remains around the edges.
- Pour the fairly wet batter into the prepared 9x13-inch pan and smooth it out a little.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, starting to check at 30 minutes, until the cake is golden, set in the middle, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely before frosting so the cream cheese frosting does not melt and slide around.
- While the cake cools, beat the cream cheese and butter together until smooth, then add the powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla and beat until creamy and spreadable, starting slowly once the powdered sugar is added.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake, sprinkle the remaining 2/3 cup chopped nuts over the top, cut into squares, and serve.