Disney Pineapple Dole Whip Cake
Dole Whip Cake – layers of light and fluffy pineapple cake, pineapple curd, and pineapple buttercream.
Disney Pineapple Dole Whip Cake
Enjoying every bit of summer, especially with my new Dole Whip Cake to indulge in! This delicious pineapple cake with pineapple curd and pineapple buttercream is inspired by one of my favorite Disneyland treats – the Dole Whip! It was my go-to Disney treat in the Southern California heat right before we entered the Tiki Room. The best combo! Ice cream and air conditioning!
After visiting Disney World earlier this year, I decided the classic soft serve pineapple ice cream needed to be a cake.
How to Get Pineapple Flavoring in Cake Layers
To get the right flavor, one that would immediately make you think of a Dole Whip, I tried several ingredients: fresh pineapple, pineapple Jell-O, and Dole Whip Ice Cream Mix. The winner? Definitely the Dole Whip Ice Cream Mix. The flavor it adds to the cake layers and the buttercream is perfection. For the curd, however, I stuck with fresh pineapple juice. The combination of the two makes this Dole Whip Cake the perfect summer dessert.
If you can’t get the Dole Whip Ice Cream Mix, or don’t want to spend the $26 on a big bag of it, you can use pineapple Jell-O. The flavor is a little different, but it’s still delicious and it’s way better than canned pineapple juice and an even stronger flavor addition than fresh pineapple juice. Canned pineapple juice in the cake and curd was awful, to be honest. It’s just not a strong enough or true enough pineapple flavor.
Pineapple Cake Recipe
For the homemade cake layers, I based this recipe on my Creamsicle Cake. My Creamsicle Cake is light and fluffy and has the dreamiest flavor. Not too strong, not too light.
Ingredients You’ll Need:
In addition to the typical baking ingredients you likely have on hand, make sure you grab:
- Dole Whip soft serve ice cream mix or pineapple Jell-O
- Cake flour
- Buttermilk
- Pineapple (fresh)
- Sour cream
NOTE: These layers are extra thick in order to split each layer into two layers to create this six-layer cake.
How to Make Cake
Don’t forget to follow my go-to tips for getting your cakes to rise and bake well:
- Preheat your oven for 30 minutes prior to baking.
- Use good quality pans like Fat Daddio.
- Spray your pans with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper.
- Don’t overmix your cake batter once you add the dry ingredients.
- Use room temperature wet ingredients.
- Use fresh baking powder.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
How to Make Buttercream Frosting
To get a light and fluffy homemade buttercream frosting, make sure you follow my tips over at: HOW TO MAKE THE BEST BUTTERCREAM
These steps are written up for my vanilla buttercream, but are supposed to be applied for my pineapple buttercream or any other buttercream on my page.
- Sift your powdered sugar
- Use slightly cold butter
- Use heavy whipping cream
- Beat for 5 minutes
- Stir by hand
You’ll want to check out the post linked above for more details on each step.
Other Cakes You May Like
Looking for more summer cake recipes? I think you’ll love these!
- Pina Colada Cake
- Hummingbird Cake
- Mojito Cake
- Orange Almond Poppy Seed Cake
- Coconut Lemon Raspberry Cake
Dole Whip Cake
Ingredients
FOR THE PINEAPPLE CAKE
- 4 1/2 cups (508 g) cake flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp (15 g) baking powder
- 3/4 tsp (8 g) salt
- 1 1/2 cups (339 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups (500 g) granulated sugar
- 2 oz Dole Whip powdered ice cream mix linked above
- 7 egg whites at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (360 g) buttermilk at room temperature
- 3/4 cup (180 g) sour cream at room temperature
- 1 drop yellow food gel optional
- *This amount of cake batter makes an additional half batch compared to my normal recipes so your layers will be thicker in height so we can split the layers in half.
FOR THE PINEAPPLE CURD
- 1 cup (230 g) fresh pineapple juice
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tsp (5 g) cornstarch
- 4 tbsp (56.5 g) unsalted butter cut into cubes
FOR THE PINEAPPLE BUTTERCREAM
- 1/2 cup (125 g) fresh pineapple juice
- 4 tbsp Dole Whip powdered ice cream mix
- 2 cups (452 g) unsalted butter slightly cold
- 6 cups (750 g) powdered sugar measured and then sifted
- 1/4 cup (57 g) heavy cream
- 1 drop yellow food gel optional
- *This buttercream recipe makes enough to fill and cover your cake. If you want to add additional piping (beyond what you see in my images), you’ll want to make an extra ¼ to ½ batch.
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Spray three 8-inch pans (or four 6-inch pans) with nonstick spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and spray again. Set aside.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed for about 3 to 5 minutes. You want the mixture to get light in color and fluffy texture. Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure all of the mixture has combined well.
- With the mixer on medium speed, add the egg whites in three additions, making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl between each addition. Once all of the egg whites are added, turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Combine the powdered Dole Whip mix and buttermilk. Stir to combine. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Mix only until combined.
- Fold in the sour cream.
- Divide the batter between the three 8-inch pans, about 22 to 24 ounces of batter in each of the 8-inch pans. Bake on the middle rack for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Let the cakes cool on write racks, in the pans, for about 15 minutes and then invert onto wire racks to cool completely. TIP: spray your write racks with nonstick spray.
FOR THE CURD
- NOTE: Make the curd a day before assembly
- Whisk the sugar, pineapple juice, and cornstarch in a medium saucepan.
- In a small bowl, whisk the whole eggs with the egg yolks and then whisk them into the pineapple juice mixture.
- Turn the heat to medium-low and cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until it thickents to a pudding-like consistency. This will take 5 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture can coat a spoon, remove from heat and stir in the butter.
- Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve iinto a small bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the curd to preven a skin from forming. Refrigerate until set.
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM
- Combine the pineapple juice and Dole Whip mix. Stir to combine. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy and pale in color.
- With the mixer on slow, gradually add the powdered sugar, then slowly add the pineapple juice. Followed by the heavy whipping cream.
- Once all of the ingredients are combined, turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for about 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for a couple minutes more. Add the food gel, if desired, and beat to combine.
- Before using the buttercream, make sure to beat it by hand with a wooden spoon or large spatula to help push out the air pockets.
ASSEMBLY
- With your cakes at room temperature, cut each cake layer in half horizontally to create 6 layers.
- Spread a small dollop of buttercream on your cake board. This will act like glue to hold your cake in place.
- Place your first cake layer, top side up, on your cake board. Spread ¼ cup buttercream across the cake. Pipe a rim of buttercream around the edge of the cake.
- Spread about ¼ cup of the curd over the buttercream.
- Place the next cake layer on top of the filling and repeat these steps until you get to the final layer.
- Set your final cake layer, top side down. Apply a thin layer of buttercream over your entire cake. This does not need to look pretty or be even. This coat of buttercream is simply to lock in the crumbs. Freeze your cake for about 10 to 15 minutes to set the crumb coat.
- After the crumb coat is set, finish frosting your cake with the buttercream
- Remember, if you want extra buttercream for thicker sides or piping, make an addition ¼ to half batch.
You don’t specify when to add the pineapple juice/dole mix into the buttercream. I added it before the sugar and the frosting separated. When should it be added?
After the sugar. Slowly add while on medium speed.
Hi! This sounds perfect for this Disney lover!
Question: when should I add the dolewhip/pineapple juice mix to the buttercream? Is it when the heavy cream is added???
Thx
After the sugar, slowly add it in.
Everything about this cake was delicious!
Unfortunately, the pineapple curd soaked into my cake layers so I couldn’t have beautiful layers like you! I’ve made it twice and the same thing happened. Do you have any advice on how to stop this from happening or what I should do differently?
Did you cook it long enough so it was nice and thick? It shouldn’t soak into your layers.
Listen! I exclusively make your cakes. I’ve probably made over 120 cakes this past year for friends and family. Just something I do on the side! That being said, I only use you’re recipes. They are simply the best!
Where do you get the dole whip ice cream mix?
Also, if this was made into cupcakes, about how many would it yield?
You can find it on amazon! It would make about 2 dozen!
I’m wondering where you get or how you make your own fresh pineapple juice? Do I need a juicer to do this?
I use pineapple juice from a can
If I substitute pineapple jello instead of the dole whip mix, do I use the exact same measurements?
I think that could work, but I haven’t tried it.
I’m confused. So you haven’t actually tried it with the jello mix? Why would you say in the article to grab either the dole whip mix or the jello mix if you don’t actually know it will work. Have you been able to try it since the original commenter posted in 2022? I’d like to try this recipe but the dole whip mix is only available in 4lb bags for around $40 on amazon and not available locally in my area.
Because I’ve used Jell-O mixes in other buttercream recipes and it has worked really well – for example, I used watermelon Jell-O in my Watermelon Cake for the buttercream.
Courtney how do you cut the pineapple up so it still has skin on it
This seems like a lot of cake batter – was wondering… do you think one batch will be enough for a half-sheet cake pan (realizing that it may be a thin cake)? Appreciate any advice you have as I’m hoping to make this for a birthday. Thanks!
Your comments before the recipe state that you tried fresh pineapple, pineapple Jell-O, and Dole whip ice cream mix…How much Jell-O would you substitute? Thank you!
Did you make the recipe subbing the pineapple Jello? I am curious how it turned out as I plan to use the jello for a cake this summer. Thank you.