Easy Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake

We're excited to share this delicious, EASY Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake with you! It ultra moist, tender, and flavorful- and it all starts with a box of yellow cake mix!

This impressive dessert is prepared with a buttery brown sugar glaze, which coats the pineapple and maraschino cherry topping and seeps into the outer layer of the cake as it bakes.

Pineapple upside down cakes were originally prepared in cast iron skillets, but over the years, preparing the dessert in a baking dish, layer cake pan, or bundt cake pan has become much more common.

Why We Love It

• Ultra moist.
• Wonderful buttery flavor along with pineapple and brown sugar.
• Easy to make with yellow cake mix. (Check out our other Cake Mix Recipes too, including peach upside down cake and apple upside down cake!)
• Looks impressive, and preparing it as a bundt cake makes it super easy!
• Perfect dessert for birthday parties, potlucks, or just because! (Check out our other birthday cake recipes!)

How to Make an Easy Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake

You can find the full printable recipe card for this delicious dessert further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!

For the Glaze and Fruit

• First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease and flour a bundt pan. (We used a 10 inch bundt pan).
• Pour the ¼ cup (½ stick) of melted butter into the bottom of the prepared bundt pan. Sprinkle the cup of light brown sugar on top of it.

• Next, place a strainer over a large bowl or measuring cup and pour the can of pineapple rings into it, reserving the juice. (We will be using ½ cup of the juice in the cake batter).

• Lay the pineapple rings onto napkins or paper towels and gently blot them. Blot the maraschino cherries as well to prevent excess liquid from forming as the cake bakes.

• Arrange the pineapple rings on top of the layer of light brown sugar. I applied mine so that they had a slight overlap. Within the center or each ring, place a maraschino cherry.

Preparing the Cake Batter for Pineapple Upside Down Cake

The doctored yellow cake recipe for this dessert is based on the recipe that we used for our Easy Rum Cake. It calls for an extra egg and box of instant vanilla pudding (in addition to a bit of pineapple juice, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla).

The additional egg gives it a slightly denser consistency (in a good way) and finer crumb, and the vanilla pudding creates a really nice, velvety texture.

Sifting the cake mix is optional but it is something that I like to do as I feel that it enhances the texture of the cake. After sifting into the mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients: the four room temperature eggs, pineapple juice, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.

Mix the ingredients at medium speed for one minute, pause to scrape down the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula, and mix for one more minute.

Time to Bake the Cake

Scoop the yellow cake batter into the bundt pan, covering the brown sugar and fruit layers.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.

As always, baking times may vary- check your cake for doneness as it approaches the 45 minute mark. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting it onto your cake plate or pedestal.

Next, place the pedestal on top the the cake pan, and carefully flip it all as one (using dish towels or oven mitts to protect your hands from the heat.)Leave the bundt pan upside down for a minute or two to give the the glaze a little more time to drip down.

Serve the pineapple upside down cake warm or cool. If not serving right away, it is best to refrigerate and then remove from the refrigerator 2-3 of hours before serving.

More Cakes to Try

Make sure to check out our other delicious classic cakes! Also, if you love pineapple desserts, don't miss these other favorite pineapple cake recipes!

Some of our most popular cake recipes that contain pineapple are our Pineapple Cake recipe, Pina Colada Cake, Hummingbird Cake, and Carrot Cake!

Enjoy the Recipe

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this pineapple upside down bundt cake as much as we have. Makes sure to check out our Easy Pineapple Upside Down Sheet Cake version as well. If you love upside down cakes, we have a great Peach Upside Down Cake that you must try!

Also, don't miss our collection of favorite bundt cake recipes as well as our full listing of hundreds of cake recipes! You'll find cakes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes for all sorts of occasions!

If you're interested in cake decorating we have lots of great cake decorating videos as well!

Easy Pineapple Upside Down Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist , easy Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake is the perfect special occasion cake. It looks impressive and is so flavorful with the brown sugar & pineapple glaze- and it starts with a yellow cake mix!

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

RATE THIS RECIPE

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix I used Duncan Hines Perfectly Moist (15.25 oz). I like to sift my mixes.
• ▢ 3.4 oz (Small box) Instant Vanilla Pudding
• ▢ 4 eggs room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if in a hurry)
• ▢ ½ cup (116 g) Pineapple Juice (from the can of pineapples)
• ▢ ½ cup (116 g)Milk (preferably whole or 2%)
• ▢ ½ cup (108g )Vegetable Oil (we use Canola oil)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons 8g Vanilla extract

For the Brown Sugar Glaze and topping

• ▢ 1 cup (200g) packed light brown sugar
• ▢ ½ stick (56g) unsalted butter, melted
• ▢ 20 oz can of sliced pineapple (we used 8 pineapple rings)
• ▢ 1 small jar maraschino cherries we only needed 8

Instructions

• Grease (with vegetable shortening) and flour a bundt pan. Ours is a 10 inch bundt pan but a smaller one is fine also (but as a general rule of thumb, don't fill your pan more than ⅔ full).
• Melt the ½ stick (¼ cup) of butter (we melted ours in the microwave).
• Pour the melted butter into the prepared bundt pan, and sprinkle with 1 cup of light brown sugar.
• Place a strainer over a large bowl or measuring cup and pour the can of pineapple rings into it, reserving the juice. (We will be using ½ cup of the juice later).
• Lay the pineapple rings onto napkins or paper towels and gently blot them. Blot the maraschino cherries as well. We used 8 of each for our cake- you can adjust as needed.
• Arrange the pineapple rings on top of the brown sugar in the bundt pan. Mine overlapped slightly. Within the center or each ring, place a maraschino cherry.

For the Cake Batter

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• Sift the cake mix into your mixing bowl. Add all of the other ingredients: instant vanilla pudding, 4 eggs, ½ cup pineapple juice, ½ cup milk, ½ cup vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.
• Mix at medium speed for one minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix one more minute. Pour or scoop the batter into the bundt pan, covering the brown sugar and fruit layers.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Baking times may vary- check your cake for doneness as it approaches the 45 minute mark.
• Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting it onto your cake plate or pedestal. Place the pedestal on top the the cake pan, and carefully flip it all as one (using dish towels or oven mitts to protect your hands from the heat.)
• Leave the bundt pan upside down for a minute or two to give the the glaze a little more time to drip down. You may still have a bit of brown sugar in your pan- that is okay!
• Serve warm or cool. If not serving right away, it is best to refrigerate and then remove from the refrigerator 2-3 of hours before serving.

Loved This Recipe?!

Check out @mycakeschool for more!