| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 6 min |
| Prep: | 15 min |
| Inactive: | 20 min |
| Cook: | 31 min |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix (recommended: Betty Crocker)
- 1 stick butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 3 egg whites
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (recommended: McCormick)
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (recommended: McCormick)
- 1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained (recommended: Dole)
- 1/2 cup sweetened flake coconut (recommended: Baker’s)
- 2 cups chopped pecans, divided (recommended: Diamond)
- 2 (16-ounce) cans cream cheese frosting (recommended: Betty Crocker)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Lightly coat 2 (8-inch) cake pans with cooking spray; set aside. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, butter, buttermilk, egg whites, and extracts. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping down sides of the bowl as needed. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in crushed pineapple, coconut, and 1 cup pecans. Divide batter into 2 prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 31 to 36 minutes or until tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then turn out on to wire racks to cool completely.
- In a small bowl, stir together remaining 1 cup pecans and frosting. With a serrated knife, cut both cakes horizontally to make 4 layers. Frost the top of each layer with 1/2 cup of frosting and stack on top of the next layer. Use remaining frosting to frost the entire outside of cake. Slice and serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 12 servings |
| Calories | 734 |
| Total Fat | 40 g |
| Saturated Fat | 11 g |
| Carbohydrates | 93 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Sugar | 77 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Cholesterol | 21 mg |
| Sodium | 492 mg |
Reviews
This is the second time I’ve made this due to the fact one of my besties request this for their birthday. The first time the layers did fall apart but still pieced together and so delicious. The second time the only thing I did different was cooling it longer in their pans (2) and no problem at all so you guys might just try that because this cake is out if this world delicious!
Delicious and nutritious
It was delicious, I made it for my husband’s birthday, and added 2 extra tablespoons of flour since we live at high altitude. My only complaint is that there wasn’t enough frosting for 3 layers, I had to run to the store for more cream cheese & make a second batch of frosting.
The cake was moist and delicious but I didn’t like the frosting and it fell apart…will try again with real cream cheese homemade frosting…also will leave out the pecans
My family, including four kids, loved this cake! I’m not a fan of coconut or fruit in cakes, but this completely works. I also had some of the layers come apart when I cut them (like the three-pan idea jdt928), but I glued them in with frosting. Like someone else mentioned below, I almost didn’t have enough frosting.
This cake is a definite 5 star once I made a few adjustments. I increased the almond extract to 1/2 teaspoon, replace 1/2 of the coconut with unsweetened coconut and did not drain the pineapple. I put into 3 pan so I didn’t need to cut the cake (I think just leaving it as 2 layers would be great too. I also made my own cream cheese frosting and did not put the pecans in the frosting, instead pressing it on the sides of the cake for decoration. This cake tastes so much better refrigerated. The cake was tasty and even the people who didn’t like coconut enjoyed it. It was moist, rich and tasty as well as easy to make.
Tasted great, but it did fall apart when cut. Beating it for a less amount of time at a lower speed helped.
AWFUL!! This cake fell apart completely, I’m not a rookie baker but my daughter wanted this for her birthday…well off to Publix for me. I have no idea what I did wrong!
I have made this several times and have found these tips to be very helpful: 1 I make it with 2 layers or in a 9×13 if I’m in a hurry 2 Chop the pecans up very fine, otherwise it is hard to cut the cake, if you don’t like them in the cake – put them between the layers and in the frosting only 3 Adding a 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract to the store bought frosting gives it more of a home made flavor 4 line the bottom of pans with parchment paper 5 replace pineapple juice with coconut milk (still add pineapple though 6 Add coconut between the layers of the cake as well as on the outside. 7 Definitely cut cake with a serrated knife.
This was the most HORRIBLE cake I have ever made! I followed the recipe to the “T” but it fell all to pieces when I tried to remove it from the pans which I sprayed with cooking spray the cake just fell completely apart!!! I cannot understand what went wrong?? I tried to glue the crumbs and pieces together for dinner tonight, but it really looks horrible!! won’t try this again.