This incredibly easy pineapple angel food cake transforms a classic dessert with just one simple addition. While traditional angel food cake can sometimes taste a bit bland, adding crushed pineapple creates a moist, tropical twist that elevates this light and airy cake to new heights. With only three pantry-friendly ingredients and less than an hour from start to finish, this recipe proves that sometimes the simplest desserts are the most satisfying.
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Table of Contents
Why This Recipe Works
The science behind this simple cake is fascinating. Angel food cake relies on whipped egg whites for its signature light texture, but the boxed mix simplifies this process. The crushed pineapple adds natural enzymes that help tenderize the cake while contributing moisture and subtle sweetness. The fruit’s acidity also helps stabilize the cake’s structure, creating a perfectly balanced dessert.
Ingredients
- Angel food cake mix – Provides the base structure and eliminates the need for separating eggs
- Crushed pineapple with juice – Adds moisture, tropical flavor, and natural sweetness
- Vanilla extract – Enhances the overall flavor profile and complements the pineapple
How to Make Pineapple Angel Food Cake
In a large bowl, stir together the box of angel food cake mix, vanilla, and crushed pineapple, including the pineapple juice in the can.
Pour batter into an ungreased 9 x 13-inch cake pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes in a preheated oven or until the top becomes golden brown.
Allow the cake to cool then slice and enjoy!
Chef’s Notes
The key to perfect angel food cake is allowing it to stick to the pan during baking. This might seem counterintuitive, but the batter needs to climb the sides of the pan to achieve its characteristic height and texture. Never grease the pan or use parchment paper.
Storage & Reheating Instructions
- Room Temperature Storage: Store covered for up to 2 days at room temperature
- Refrigerator Storage: Keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the refrigerator
- Freezing: Wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
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3-Ingredient Pineapple Angel Food Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box Angel Food Cake mix – use one step mix
- 20 ounces crushed pineapple packed in its own juice, do not use packed in syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the angel food cake mix, vanilla, and can of crushed pineapple including the juice in the can by hand and place into a ungreased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
Notes
- a dollop of whipped cream and shredded coconut
- a dollop of whipped cream and some crumble macadamia nuts
- a dollop of whipped cream and a maraschino cherry
I am today making your grandmother’s recipe for pineapple angel food cake. The recipe doesn’t say to add the vanilla but I am assuming you add it into the cake batter as you mix it. I know it will be delicious.
Yes, I will get that added in there. Thanks!
Really enjoyed this recipe ???
Do you add the water, as per the box angel food cake recipe? Or just the dry mix and pineapple?
Just do the dry mix and the pineapple.
Thanks for sharing simple to make and great tasting
I hope you enjoyed this recipe.
This tastes soooooo good. Were it not for the fact that my daughter open and slammed the oven door not realizing there was a cake inside, it probably would have been perfect. As it was, it came out a bit dense, but … the *flavor*… Wow! Thanks for this easy cheezy recipe! I will be making it again, hopefully without any looky loos.
This cake is delicious – it is sweet but not syrupy with a light and spongy texture. The recipe is wonderfully simple, foolproof really. I mixed the 3 ingredients together roughly by hand, then added a little yellow food coloring and mixed again. I poured it into a glass pan that was coated in veg oil cooking spray. Cooked it for 30 mins then let it cool in the pan. I frosted it with butter cream (butter, powdered sugar, milk) that had reduced light coconut milk sub’d for the regular milk and the addition of coconut flakes. Thanks for sharing!
Do you grease and flour the 9 x 13 pan?
This is too weird. I just stumbled onto this looking for a recipe on this site for Starbucks apple bran muffins. I too have a wonderful collection of handwritten recipes of my grandmother’s that look very much like the one posted. They are so precious to me. I keep meaning to make a “cookbook” out of them to pass on to family members. I too have very fond memories of my gr
andma, her cooking and her kitchen!
Oh…Wow!!! What a great picture of your grandmother and my aunt. I was surfing your site and always click on the family recipes and you are so right….Aunt Ethel’s penmanship was beautiful. Cursive will become a lost art in the very near future. I know you treasure those hand written recipes as I do my mom’s.
I am trying to figure out why ElSat’s cake did not turn out. And I am trying to do it before making the cake myself. What I am thinking is that this cake has only three ingredients; perhaps ElSat made the recipe with additional ingredients as per the box of cake mix. Perhaps the vanilla was omitted as the directions do not say to include it. Maybe it was unpalatable because it was a Weight Watcher’s recipe.
Tess,
I have no idea what happened to her cake, I have made this cake many times without fail. It could have been an old cake mix, it could have been using pineapple with syrup instead of the water packed version.
Does it matter if the pineapple is in heavy syrup or should you use the kind in “it’s own juice”?
Use the pineapple packed in its own juice, do not use the kind packed in syrup.
Made this recipe and it turned out terrible! Had to throw it out! Instructions were too vague and when I saw the original handwritten version and then the printed version i wondered if the “one step” cake mix made the difference and if it did, what was it?
This recipe typically turns out very well. I don’t know what happened to your cake. The one step boxed cake mix, just meant a box of angel food cake mix. I am very sorry the cake you made was horrible and you had to throw it out.
It has to be a one step mix. There are some packages that have 2 pouches. The 2 pouch variety will turn out gummy and flat.
Could you give me texture of this cake? Is it moist & chewy or more like just ordinary cake? I plan to make it very soon but just wondered more about it. Thanks so much for all of your recipes. I have copied tons of them.
It is a very light cake, it is kind of chunky inside because of the crushed pineapple.
what a precious memory. Thanks for sharing it with us. I have almost all of my mothers recipes also, many of them in her hand writing. We’re Polish, so you know cooking runs through our blood.
I love those hand written recipes.
This is also a Weight Watchers recipe. It is soooooooooooooo fabulus.
Sounds like a great recipe – will be sure to try it….
Does the crushed pineapple need to be drained?
You dont need don’t to drain the pineapple.
Stephanie, again you have prompted a response from me. I usually am a ghost reader. I have recipes written by four different hands. My mother, two grandmothers and me. I will keep them because they are hand written. The ones by me I keep because they remind me how I came by them. I had left home under bad circumstances and would call my mother from work during my lunch break. “Hey, I’ve thawed out ______, what do I do with it?” And she would give me basic cooking instructions. I still have those scribbled notes. I also have over 80 cookbooks and an extensive folder of recipes I have gleaned from usenet in the 80s and 90s and then from websites. And yes, Stephanie, some of those recipes are yours. Your website is one that I have been reading for years, and I love it.
Wow, thanks so much 😉 I really think it is the special recipes that we hold the most dear. I can always buy another cookbook, I can’t replace my grandmother’s recipes.
Be sure to identify each recipe by where in the family tree it falls. Provenance for the following generations. and check with an expert for storing your precious treasures.
Thanks, your so lucky to have such nice memories!
This brought back memories of the same. I ran across scribbled recipes of old southern desserts and side dishes my grandmother had written. One you rarely hear of is “Lane Cake”.
Fifteen years ago at a big family reunion combining many sides of the family, a favorite recipe was asked from each person. This was put into a book for all to each receive at the party. Sadly, that was the last reunion due to many passings, but I use that book almost everyday and remember the meals and the person. I’ve already made a cookbook of my own recipes for my kids to remember with stories behind each recipe.
Vicky that is a wonderful thing you are doing with the putting the stories behind he recipes!
I tried this recipe and it was like a sponge. Couldn’t eat it and had to throw it out. What did I do wrong? I followed the instructions. Very disappointed.
I am so sorry I don’t know what happened, This has always been a very reliable recipe. I’ll shoot you an email to troubleshoot.