Pina Colada Pound Cake
This ultra moist Pina Colada Pound Cake has wonderful flavor from crushed pineapple, coconut, and rum glaze. It is a simple scratch recipe that is guaranteed to please a crowd, no matter what the season!
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
There are so many reasons to love this delicious recipe. Here are just a few:
- Same delicious combination of flavors as our layered Pina Colada Cake, but in pound cake form!
- We love pound cake recipes! They are simple to make and quick and easy to decorate.
- Rich and decadent without being heavy.
- Just as with our favorite boozy cakes, it is certain to make any celebration feel more festive!
Ingredients for Pina Colada Pound Cake
Here is a look at some of the star ingredients of this recipe! Make sure to find the complete list in our recipe card at the bottom of this post.
White Rum- Use your favorite brand. We used Bacardi this time.
Crushed Pineapple should be well drained. This can easily be achieved by pouring the pineapple into a fine mesh strainer on top of a bowl. The juice will fall into the bowl beneath. Use the back of a spoon to press even more juice through the strainer.
Coconut and Coconut Extract give our pound cake delicious coconut flavor. We prefer to use sweetened coconut rather than unsweetened as it is more moist.
Sour Cream adds richness to the cake without thinning the batter, keeping the coconut and pineapple pieces suspended. We use sour cream in many of our pound cake recipes, including pineapple pound cake, pineapple coconut pound cake, and sour cream pound cake. *Use full fat rather than reduced fat.
Unsalted Butter- We prefer to use unsalted butter in our cake recipes so that we know exactly how much salt is in the recipe. (Some brands of salted butter contain more salt than others.) - If using salted butter, you can omit the salt from the recipe.
Rum Glaze
The difference between a Pineapple Coconut Pound Cake and a Pina Colada Pound Cake is the rum glaze!
This glaze is prepared during the last fifteen minutes of baking the cake and is poured over the cake before it is removed from the bundt pan.
The glaze is a simple mixture of butter, white rum, white sugar, and water which is heated in a saucepan on the stovetop. Bring to a boil for a few minutes before taking it off of the heat.
*The glaze adds a light rum flavor to the cake. It is not at all overpowering.
How to Make Pina Colada Pound Cake
You can find the full recipe at the bottom of this post. However, a photo step-by-step can be helpful! Here is a quick rundown of our process.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a bundt pan.
- Draining the Pineapple: Place a strainer/sifter over a bowl and empty the can of crushed pineapple into it. Use a spoon to lightly press the crushed pineapple in the strainer, the juice will fall into the bowl beneath. Reserve drained pineapple and set aside.
- Dry Ingredients: In a separate bowl whisk the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
- Mix the softened butter on medium speed until smooth (using paddle attachment if you have a stand mixer). Gradually add the white sugar and mix on medium speed until light and fluffy (3 to 5 minutes).
- Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, blending after each to incorporate.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the sour cream, 1¼ cups crushed pineapple (well drained), coconut extract and vanilla extract.
- While mixing on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream mixture to the butter, sugar, & egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. (I add the flour mixture three times and the sour cream mixture twice). Mix just until incorporated.
- Fold in the coconut. Scoop batter into the prepared bundt pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes- or until done. Baking times may vary. Check on the cake as it nears the 1 hour mark and adjust additional time as needed. When an inserted toothpick or skewer comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs attached, it is ready. Do not remove from pan yet.
- Pour the warm rum glaze over the cake while still in the cake pan. Allow to sit for 15 minutes to absorb the glaze before turning out.
Decorating the Cake
We decorated the cake with a simple white glaze (with coconut flavoring), and topped with flaked coconut and maraschino cherries! In the photo, you may be able to see the darker areas of the cake slice where the rum glaze is concentrated.
This is such a beautiful, yet simple cake recipe with BIG flavor. We hope that you enjoy it!
Recipe FAQs
More Pineapple Cakes
If you love pineapple cakes (or cakes with pineapple), we have several more to share with you! Some of our favorite are our scratch pineapple cake, easy pineapple upside down bundt cake, carrot cake, and hummingbird cake.
Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy the recipe. Make sure to check out our full collection of favorite cake recipes, including our favorite scratch cake recipes and cake mix recipes!
We also have a huge collection of cake decorating tutorials for all sorts of occasions, from baby shower cakes to elegant cakes, birthday cakes, and more!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Pina Colada Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
- 3 cups white sugar (600g)
- 5 large eggs, room temperature (if you are in a hurry, place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes)
- 3 cups All Purpose Flour (not self-rising) (375g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder (2g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 1 cup sour cream (242g)
- 15.25 oz (or 20 oz)can of crushed pineapple, well drained. We do this with a strainer/sifter over a bowl. (We use about 1¼ cups crushed, drained pineapple in the batter.)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
- 2½ teaspoons coconut extract (10g)
- 1 cup flaked, sweetened coconut (We used Baker's brand) (75g)
Rum Glaze
- ¼ cup white rum (61g)
- ¼ cup water (61g)
- 1 cup sugar (200g)
- 1 stick unsalted butter (113g)
Simple White Glaze
- 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted (measure then sift)
- 3-4 Tablespoons milk (Adjust amount as needed for desired consistency. For more rum flavor, you can substitute rum for some or all of the milk.)
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon coconut extract (4g)
Miscellaneous Decoration (optional)
- Maraschino Cherries (We used on top of the finished cake)
- Additional Flaked Coconut to sprinkle on top.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a bundt pan.
- Draining the Pineapple: Place a strainer/sifter over a bowl and empty the can of crushed pineapple into it. Use a spoon to lightly press the crushed pineapple in the strainer, the juice will fall into the bowl beneath. Reserve drained pineapple and set aside.
- In a separate bowl whisk the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
- Mix the butter on medium speed until smooth (using paddle attachment if you have a stand mixer). Gradually add the sugar and mix on medium speed until light and fluffy (3 to 5 minutes).
- Add the eggs one at a time, blending after each to incorporate.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the sour cream, 1¼ cups crushed pineapple (well drained), coconut extract and vanilla extract.
- While mixing on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream mixture to the butter, sugar, & egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. (I add the flour mixture three times and the sour cream mixture twice). Mix just until incorporated.
- Fold in the coconut. Scoop batter into the prepared bundt pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes- or until done. Baking times may vary. Check on the cake as it nears the 1 hour mark and adjust additional time as needed. When an inserted toothpick or skewer comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs attached, it is ready.
- During the last 15 minutes of baking, go ahead and prepare the rum glaze.
For the Rum Glaze (To be Poured over cake while still in pan)
- In a saucepan, stir the glaze ingredients (sugar, butter, water, rum) over low heat until butter has melted. Raise the heat to medium heat, stirring constantly until it begins to boil. (Be careful-It may boil over if you are not stirring.) Boil for 3 minutes and remove from heat.
- This glaze will be poured over the cake just after the baked cake is pulled from the oven and still in the pan. Pour the warm glaze over the cake (still in pan) and let it sit for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes has passed, when the glaze has been absorbed, place your cake plate/pedestal upside down against the cake pan and then flip it all as one so that the cake plate is now right side up with the inverted pan on top. Remove the cake pan to reveal the cake.
For the Simple White Glaze (optional)
- Combine ingredients in a small bowl and stir until smooth. If too thick, add a bit more milk or rum. If too thin, add a bit more confectioners sugar.
- Drizzle over the cooled pound cake. (I spooned mine into a piping bag with the tip snipped away for more control.)
Decoration and Storage
- Press additional flaked coconut into the glaze on top of the cake, and then if you'd like, top with maraschino cherries.
- This cake can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container or under a cake dome. However, for the cherries on top, it is best to add those just before serving, as they should be refrigerated. If you do refrigerate this cake, it is best to bring it to room temperature before serving for the best flavor and texture (by removing it 2-3 hours before serving).
Wow, that looks and sounds amazing! :-)
Thanks Teri! ;0)
Made this and it’s pretty heavy coming out of the Bundt pan. My husband cracked the platter it was on while popping the cake out of the Bundt. I was able to save 1/2 the cake. Delicious though!! Used brown sugar instead of white sugar for the Rum Syrup and used the left over Pineapple juice and a few leftover pineapple chunks with the milk for the glaze on top. Will definitely try it again
Oh no! I guess all of those good ingredients make it weigh more ;0) - You may have done this but just in case, when turning bundt cakes out, I like to place the platter upside down on top of the pan and then flip it over all as one. A little awkward but I find it to be the easiest way. So glad that you all at least had half of a cake & enjoyed it! ;0)
The recipe was easy to follow and the cake was moist, flavorful and delicious.
Thank you so much for your feedback, Kathy! We're so glad that you enjoyed it!
This is a good tasting cake, but the recipe seems to call for more batter that is needed to fill the bundt pan. It took longer to bake than the 60-65 minutes called for in the recipe. And, when the cake comes out of the oven, it is very high due to the amount of batter that was spooned into the bundt pan, not like the picture included with the recipe.
Hi Darlene- We used a bundt pan with a baking capacity of 12 cups (technically a 15 cup pan/10" bundt pan).
If your batter filled more of the bundt pan than mine (and baked up taller), your pan must have been smaller (and the batter deeper) which would also go along with your longer baking time, as we mentioned in our notes.
As a general rule, you don't want to fill the cake batter more than 3/4 of the cake pan in order to prevent the pan from overflowing.
great texture!!! the pineapple is a really nice add. I couldn't get the rum flavor strong enough but the butter flavor was outstanding. I'm going to make it one more time this time with coconut and pineapple and rum extract.