Vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cake

A classic American cake!  With this vegan pineapple upside down cake no one will realize it’s vegan! Caramelized pineapple, with a rich, moist cake will be the perfect summer staple! 

Let me start by saying that if you’ve never had a pineapple upside down cake of any sort, then you need to run, not walk, to your local grocer and get all these ingredients ASAP.  The second thing I’ll say is, you will be blown away by how close this vegan pineapple upside down cake tastes like the original. 

Deliciously sweet cake with caramelized pineapples and a soft, rich, and moist cake.  It’s literally everything you want in a cake!  

It’s also a showstopper, so if you are trying to impress someone with a cake, but you or they, don’t care for frosting, a vegan pineapple upside down cake is the perfect option.

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What ingredients do I need to make vegan pineapple upside down cake?

In order to make this vegan pineapple upside down cake recipe you need just 12 ingredients!

Full amounts of each ingredients is listed in the printable recipe card below.

The ingredients that you need for this vegan pineapple upside cake are: 

• vegan butter – vegan butter is rich and flavorful, but for this recipe, it’s reacting with the brown sugar to make a sauce that drizzles over the cake once inverted
• brown sugar – Brown sugar is what we are using for moisture and sweetness. It also helps the caramelization of the pineapples. If you want to learn more about why your sugar may not be vegan, you can learn more by clicking on the link.
• pineapple slices – it’s a pineapple cake, so we need pineapples. Canned pineapples are the traditional way to make them since they are more moist and all uniform size. However, you can use fresh as well.
• maraschino cherries (no stems)– These cherries go in the middle of each slice of pineapple. More for color and appearance than anything else.
• flour – All-purpose flour because we wanted this recipe to be as accessible as possible for everyone.
• vegan sugar – In the actual cake part, we are using vegan granulated sugar for sweetness. This creams well together with the other ingredients
• vegan shortening (usually labeled vegetarian or vegetable) – this is to create a more rich and decadent cake using the fat from the shortening without adding a lot of liquid
• baking powder – added to cake for leavening purposes
• salt – this helps enhance the flavor and while you may be tempted to reduce or omit, we encourage you not too
• dairy free milk – Using milk instead of water adds more flavor into the recipe. Use either unsweetened plain or unsweetened vanilla flavored milk, but you don’t want any sweetened milk in this already sweet recipe.
• vanilla – we are keeping it simple with extract for this recipe since it’s an ingredient that most people already have in their pantry
• applesauce – what we are using for our egg replacer.

Variations and Substitutions:

• brown sugar – coconut sugar or date sugar could work here
• maraschino cherries (no stems)– Fresh cherries can also be used, but they need to be seeded and stems removed
• flour – Gluten Free flour could also be used. You want a 1:1 gluten free flour blend
• vegan shortening (usually labeled vegetarian or vegetable) – coconut oil (not melted) could be used here as well
• applesauce – applesauce can be replaced with other fruit/veg puree like pear puree or sweet potatoes. Bananas would also work but alter the taste. Other options are flax egg, dairy free yogurt or coconut cream.

While these are all great substitutions, note that any changes from the original recipe will alter the taste and/or texture.

Frequently Asked Questions on how to make vegan pineapple upside down cake:

What other vegan cake recipes should I make?

Just because you have food allergies or preferences, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be able to have great tasting desserts.  We’d even venture to say that these are better than their “normal” counterparts. 

These are some other dairy free cake recipes that you should try: 

• Vegan Coconut Cake
• Vegan Strawberry Cake 
• The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
• Vegan Carrot Cake
• Vegan Lemon Pound Cake
• Try these vegan vanilla cupcakes in a cake pan

Pin this vegan pineapple upside down cake for later: 

This video was originally published on 6/28/19 and updated on 9/24/19 to add a video.