Pineapple and Strawberry Layer Cake
Pineapple and Strawberry Layer Cake. Sweeping me off my feet!
Mother’s Day was a couple of days ago! So I made myself this cake… Cause moms need cake.
This was my Mother’s Day cake, from me to myself.
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My Mother’s Day was a beautiful day. There were balloons, gifts, and cake involved.
I got to spend it with my son Luke. Luke is 2 years old of pure sass! (and cuteness)
About the cake
I bake cakes for myself. I always do. Every year, I make my own birthday cake. Of course, it’s my birthday and I want to eat the cake of my dreams, and that can only be made by myself because I am the only one who has access to my own dreams!
So, for Mother’s Day, I wanted something tangy, sweet and delicate! And this Pineapple and Strawberry Layer Cake certainly satisfied all of that.
I knew from the minute I saw a beautiful pineapple at the grocery store, that I wanted pineapple curd! Also, I happened to find some beautiful strawberries that same day. And I couldn’t choose between the two of them. So both it is.
The cake is vanilla, made with pineapple juice in the batter. Top and bottom layers are filled with pineapple curd. Middle layer is filled with strawberry jam. Covered in Swiss Meringue buttercream.
I also chose to top the cake with flowers and strawberries, cause it’s spring and Mother’s Day. And if there’s another thing that moms deserve besides cake, it’s flowers! (and chocolate, wine, time alone, coffee, pie)
Straight forward cake. Simple recipe, just takes a bit of time to make all the elements, but if you are committed to making AMAZING cake, sometimes you just have to do some extra work.
You don’t have to make the jam yourself. You can use store-bought if you want to. (one less step, if you were concerned about that)
The filling
The pineapple curd is out of this world. I could eat the damn thing with a spoon, down to the bottom of the jar! So delicious!
When you are making the pineapple curd to fill your strawberry layer cake, make sure to taste the curd, depending on how sweet your pineapple is, you will need more or less sugar than what my recipe suggests. I say, try your pineapple first, if it’s too sweet, you might want to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe by one tablespoon and just add more afterwards if you find necessary.
The strawberry jam is very simple also. Done in 10 minutes or less.
The flavors were explosive and fresh! So delicious!
Love being able to eat the perfect cake, on a perfect day!
For more cake recipes check out my favorite one: this Lemon Coconut Layer Cake (spoiler alert, features lemon curd!).
Pineapple and Strawberry Layer Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened 4 oz
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
- 1/4 cup whole milk
Pineapple curd
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest the lemon zest will help enhance the tanginess of the pineapple curd, this is optional
Strawberry Jam Filling
- 16 oz strawberries rinsed stems removed and cut in half
- 1/4 cup sugar or maple syrup
- 1 lemon juiced
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch plus 2 tablespoons cold water
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 4 egg whites
- 1 cup sugar 200g
- 24 tablespoons unsalted butter cold
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
Cake
- Grease and flour 4 6” cake pans, or 2 8” cake pans.
- Pre-heat oven to 350F.
- Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer for 2 minutes, on medium speed. Gradually add sugar and cream for 3 minutes until mixture is fluffy and lighter in color.
- Add eggs to the mixture, one at a time, mixing on medium speed. Scrape bowl and add vanilla. Mix on medium-low speed until incorporated.
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt.
- Combine pineapple juice and milk together.
- Add half of the pineapple juice and milk mixture to butter/egg/sugar mixture. Mix on low for 30 seconds. Add half of sifted flour mixture. Mix on low for 30-45 seconds until almost entirely incorporated.
- Add remaining liquid and mix on low for 30 seconds. Add remaining flour and mix on low until incorporated.
- Divide batter evenly between your cake pans.
- Bake on pre-heated oven for about 20-25 minutes. Smaller cake pans will take less time to bake.
- Remove cake from the oven when a toothpick comes out clean once inserted in the cake.
- Let cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes and flip it over in a wire rack to let it cool completely before proceeding with frosting and filling.
Pineapple Curd
- Cream butter at medium speed in the bowl of an electric mixer. Slowly add sugar to butter and keep creaming at medium speed for a few minutes, until mixture is light in color and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, waiting until egg has been completely incorporated before adding the next one.
- Add salt. And finally, add pineapple juice, lemon zest (if using) and stir on low speed.
- Pour mixture in a small sauce pan and bring it to a boil over medium heat, while stirring nonstop.
- You are looking for a very thick and creamy curd. Don’t stop stirring, don’t look away.
- The temperature of the curd should be reaching 170F.
- When that happens, remove from heat and pour into a heat proof bowl.
- Let it cool in the fridge. The curd will be fine for 3 days in your fridge.
Strawberry Jam Filling
- Place strawberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until strawberries are soft and you can mash them with a fork, wooden spoon or a potato masher. Mash them up and keep cooking for a little bit longer. Taste for sugar, if it’s not sweet to your taste, add a little bit more sugar. Be aware that sometimes you’ll have a batch of very sweet berries or very tart berries, and the amount of sugar you add will depend on that. So make sure to taste your jam.
- Once strawberries are mashed, mix cornstarch and cold water in a small bowl. When cornstarch is dissolved, add solution to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly for 2 minutes, until it boils and jam thickens.
- Transfer jam to a container, cover and refrigerate for a few hours before using.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Right before you start to make your buttercream, remove butter from the fridge. Cut it into thin slices, about 1/4 inch thick. Set aside.
- Place egg whites and sugar in a heat-proof bowl or in a double boiler pan.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. Set bowl on top of the pan with simmering water.
- Whisk constantly until egg whites and sugar reach 138F temperature. This ensures that the egg whites will have reached a safe temperature. The temperature of pasteurized egg whites is actually 140F, however, if you bring it up to 138F, the temperature will raise a couple degrees even after you take it out of the heat source.
- Keep whisking mixture for about 30 seconds after you take it off the heat.
- Pour mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Be sure to wipe dry the bottom of the bowl to get rid of the condensation that formed before you transfer mixture. Because if a drop of water gets in contact with your egg white/sugar, it will ruin your meringue.
- With the whisk attachment, beat meringue on medium-high speed.
- You are going to beat the meringue until stiff peaks form. Now, this might take a while. Usually takes me about 10 minutes. The reason for that is that the egg whites have to cool down first and then they will be able to reach stiff peak.
- Just let the mixer do its job and cool down the meringue as it whisks it.
- Once your meringue has reached stiff peaks, start adding butter, with the mixer on medium-high speed.
- Add one slab of butter at a time. Waiting a few seconds before adding the next one.
- This should take you a while. Get there slowly.
- At times, you will question yourself if your meringue will ever form, the answer is mostly likely: yes it will form. Just be patient. Keep whisking it.
- Add vanilla once you’re done adding the butter.
- At this point, you should see your meringue having hardened up and formed into a smooth cream.
How to assemble
- If you have baked 4 6" layers of cake, place one layer on top of a cake plate. Then pipe a ring of frosting on the edges of the cake layer. Fill it with pineapple curd, then place another layer on top, pipe a ring of frosting around the edges of the cake, and fill it with strawberry jam. Next, place another layer of cake on top, pipe a ring of frosting around the edges of the cake, spread some pineapple curd inside. Finally top with the last cake layer. Frost the cake. Leave it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before serving.
- So, if you’re going to do 2 layers of 8″ cake, you can slice the cakes in half lengthwise and end up with 4 layers. Then, repeat the procedure above on how to fill the cake.
Storage
- Cake will store in the fridge nicely for up to 5 days.
Oh boy does this cake look so wonderfully moist and delicious!! Such wonderful flavors with pineapple and strawberry. Perfect for summer entertaining! Your pics are stunning too!
Awe thank you so much, Jessica!!! I appreciate it!
What a fabulous cake. I love the fruity flavors.
This cake sounds amazing! I love that you make pineapple curd – what a great idea. I can’t wait to try this. 🙂
How do you get that naked icing look without crumbling apart the cake itself?
I do a very very thin crumb coating first. Let the cake cool down in the fridge for 30 min or so, then I do another slightly thicker coating of frosting on top.
This. Is. Sooo. Beautiful!! How do you eat it? Just kidding, this would be gobbled up in no time!
Happy Mother’s Day last Sunday! I also always bake my own cakes. I’ve never had pineapple curd before, but this needs to change. This cake is so beautiful, and it screams Summer. I’ll definitely have to try it sometime soon, but right now I have another cake in the oven so I guess it needs to wait… a few days.
haha I know your struggle. I wanna bake so many things but I’m always baking something and other things have to wait for their turn lol. I’m sure your cake will turn out beautiful!
That cake is even prettier on the inside than it is on the outside! Love the fresh fruit flavors. This would be great for a spring gathering.
I LOVE that you bake cakes for yourself. I need to pull a page from your playbook. Stat. The cake looks delish and perfect for summer weather.
This is such a beautiful cake! Stunning!
This is just beyond gorgeous!!! I love the naked cake look….although I miss all the buttercream….well usually I do, because this cake has so much going on inside I bet I wouldn’t even notice it doesn’t have much buttercream.
Happy mother’s day 😀
This sounds delicious! I love cake with fruit flavors. This one is perfect!
This cake is gorgeous! I love that you make your own cake and are happy about it – do what makes you happy on Mother’s Day and if having gorgeous cake is it, then go for it! Love it!
This cake looks amazing! Strawberry and pineapple is such a unique combo I never tried! I have to make this cake!
Thanks, Natalie!
That’s a beautiful cake and also a delicious combination.
Thank you!!
Hoping to fix this for my Aunt’s Birthday as strawberry and pineapple is one of her favorite combos! How did you juice your pineapple? Did it only take one pineapple to get one cup of juice? Thanks!
Hello! If pineapple juice in a can is available to you, I would use that, from the store, since its 100% pineapple juice with nothing added. However, I am certain you can make one cup of pineapple juice out of one pineapple.All you have to do is place diced pineapple chunks in the blender, blend it until smooth, and strain it, and you will obtain the juice!! I hope you make this cake, as it was one of my favorites, I also love the combo pineapple and strawberry!! Thank you so much for your comment. Have a lovely day!
Camila,
I am going to make this for the first time tomorrow for my daughters Hawaiian themed 9th birthday. She picked it out and it looks delicious. However, the directions stop after you have finished the frosting. Can you explain how you got the layers in your cake with 2-8in? I was going to do 3-9in, but dont know if that’s too much to get the 2 players of pineapple and 1 layer of strawberry…plus how did you frost is so pretty and light. I admire your beautiful recipe and I hope you can get back to me before I attempt. Thank you.
Hey there! Thanks for your question Kaley! I forgot to add “How to assemble” instructions! Thank you so much for bringing to my attention.
So, if you’re going to do 2 layers of 8″ cake, you can slice the cakes in half lengthwise and end up with 4 layers. Then, you place one cake layer on top of the cake plate, pipe a ring of frosting around the cake edges, fill it with the pineapple jam, then place another layer on top, pipe a ring of frosting around the cake edges, fill it with strawberry jam, place another layer on top, pipe a ring of frosting around the edges, fill it with pineapple curd. Place the final layer on top. And then frost the cake. To frost the cake like this I just do a semi naked cake frosting, here is a good video that can help you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwLjycZmhmk.
And about doing 3 9″ I am not so sure the batter will be enough or the layers are going to be too thin, and since you will have only 3 cake layers, you will end up with only one filling of strawberry and one filling of pineapple. to have the 3 fillings you’ll need 4 cake layers, which is why I slice the 8″ in half in that case!!
Thank you so much for your comment, I hope I was able to help!
Happy birthday to your daughter, Hawaiian theme sounds very fun!! Please let me know if you have any further questions and if everything turned out ok!!! I will fix the recipe above to include instructions on assembly.
I made the pineapple curd with the recipe’s instructions of 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Would have ruined it if I hadn’t thrown in a bunch of lemon juice and zest. Anyone else have this issue? Please check your recipe. Thank you!
I don’t get what the complaint is about. The recipe is correct. What exactly was your issue?
oh, truly don’t mean to disrupt a beautiful day and a beautifully photographed cake-
I found the curd to be a bit salty? I think I should have tasted it before adding the whole 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
I was using fresh squeezed pineapple juice, which perhaps is slightly less sweet than the canned.
Thanks for a beautiful cake though!
haha that’s alright I just didn’t understand it was the salt that was the issue. I actually have to make a pineapple curd soon. I will revise it and use fresh pineapple this time. Thanks for your comment. Have a beautiful day
Hey, I was just wondering if I could make the pineapple curd and strawberry jam in advance? If so, how much in advance would I be able to store it for?
Yes! The curd will last for up to 4 days I think, and the jam will last quite a bit, perhaps 15 days or so.
Can you freeze the pineapple curd for use later in another cake??
Yes you can. It’s my understanding that curds freeze for quite a bit of time. I have never frozen for over 2 months, but some people freeze it for several months.
In making the pineapple curd, do you use fresh pineapple juice or can you use canned pineapple juice? This cake looks so delicious and I plan to make it for Christmas for a friend.
you can use either. the canned pineapple juice will be a bit sweeter depending on how sweet the fresh pineapple is, but both work 🙂
Amazing cake. A little challenging to do some of the steps for first time but ended up with a fantastic cake. Personally would suggest addition of crushed pineapples in the curd and cake for extra pineapple flavor. Also recommend having jam and curd as cold as possible before assembly.
Awesome tips, thank you so much!!!