Banana Pineapple Bundt Cake

Banana Pineapple Bundt Cake is a dense cake with light fruity flavors with a sweet lemon glaze topped with toasted coconut and sliced almonds. Perfect for the spring and hot weather when these flavor combinations feel like a getaway.

HUMMINGBIRD CAKE

Cake is one of those super decadent desserts that’s sure to be off your diet plan. Or is it? On this blog, I love to challenge these notions. With some substitutions, we take something that’s totally blacklisted and make it into something you can have as a weekly treat if you plan for it.

Since its summer, it’s the perfect time for the flavors in this cake. Although, truth be told I’ve been inspired by this recipe and perfecting it since early Spring. I wanted a cake that was light, beautiful for entertaining, and with flavors that were inspired by the season.

I'll back up and tell you that in creating this recipe, I took notes from the very classic Hummingbird cake. I first fell in love with Hummingbird cake about 5 years ago when I made mini Hummingbird Cupcakes. They were sooo good, and so I’ve been wanting to turn that recipe into something similar, but healthier.

THIS RECIPE

Taking a twist on the classic, I knew I needed to cut calories from somewhere in this Banana Pineapple Bundt Cake. And I knew that emphasizing the fruit that’s already in the cake would help me out on this. So, with that in mind, I cut all of the butter and oil from the recipe and I cut the sugar down by about half. And to replace that moisture and sweetness, I added back in buttermilk, cinnamon, and a really awesome glaze to top it off.

The resulting flavor is a rich dense bundt cake, with banana and pineapple flavors throughout, still with a very buttery crumb. Not to mention once it's topped with the tangy-sweet lemon glaze, crunchy toasted coconut, and sliced almonds it becomes totally over the top and gorgeous to look at. Nutrition-wise, it ends up being 215 calories per serving (14 slices in the cake) before you add all your icing and toppings.

I’ve made this a few times and each time I’ve made it with my stand-mixer, it took me only 20 minutes to get the batter into the oven. The bake time is fairly long (45-55 minutes), but that’s because of the deep bundt cake pan it sits in. The glaze also comes together very quickly and you can personalize the appearance of the cake any way you like. (I also can’t help but think about the scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding with the Bundt Cake when they can’t understand why there’s a hole in the cake!!)

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BANANA PINEAPPLE BUNDT CAKE

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Servings 14

Ingredients

CAKE BATTER

• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 cups flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup low fat buttermilk
• ½ cup crushed pineapple with juices
• 2 ripe bananas

LEMON GLAZE

• 4 tbsp hot water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 4 tbsp melted butter
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

TOPPINGS

• Unsweetened shredded coconut
• Sliced almonds or pecans

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the cake batter: 1 tsp salt, 3 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 3 cups flour.
3. In a stand mixer or another large bowl using an electric beater, start whisking the 3 eggs together. Add in the 1 ½ cups of sugar and beat until foamy.
4. To the wet ingredients, add in the 1 tbsp vanilla, 1 cup buttermilk, and ½ cup pineapple while continuously mixing on medium speed to fully incorporate.
5. Break the bananas into smaller chunks, mashing a bit, before adding to the mixing bowl. Increase the speed to high to get the wet ingredients nice and smooth.
6. Incorporate the dry ingredients a little at a time on a slow-medium speed until fully combined. Do not overmix.
7. Spray your bundt cake pan with a nonstick spray to make sure the cake will come out easily (the bottom of the cake will eventually be the top, so we want it to look perfect.
8. Bake for 45-55 minutes, the edges will start to brown and no batter should cling when you check it. Let it cool on a rack.
9. Lemon Glaze: in a small bowl, mix together the 4 tbsp hot water, 2 tsp vanilla, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp lemon zest, 2 cups confectioner’s sugar, and 2 tbsp melted butter. You can add in the hot water gradually until the thickness of the icing if what you prefer. Add more to thin out, add more confectioner’s sugar to thicken it up.
10. To glaze the cake: Wait til the cake has cooled a bit, otherwise it will just melt your icing and run off. For a thin glaze (like I show here) I waited until the cake was mostly cooled, and then dripped the icing all over the cake with a spoon. It will run off because its thin, wait for the icing to set a bit (about 15 minutes), come back and drip the glaze all over the cake again. I did this 3 times until it was what I was going for – you can customize it to what you want though!
11. Toppings: I toasted some shredded coconut and sliced almonds before adding them to the wet icing.