The following contains affiliate links. If clicked on and a purchase is made we may receive a small commission (at no cost to you) to support this blog.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake in the Instant Pot

I have seen recipes for making cakes in the Instant Pot and always thought “WHAT? How does that happen?” Since we moved to a new house about 4 months ago I have been getting to know my Instant Pot pretty well. I was without a stove all that time due to all kinds of issues getting natural gas vs electric – long story. But I finally felt comfortable enough with a pressure cooker to branch out from meat and veggie dishes.

The first thing I realized when looking through Instant Pot cake recipes is that I didn’t have the equipment to begin. I have a 6 qt Instant Pot but cake baking requires another pan to fit inside the pressure cooker. A standard round cake pan doesn’t fit. You need a pan that is 7 to 7 1/2 inches wide and about 2 1/2 inches deep. Also needed is a contraption to lift the extra pan out of the Instant Pot when the cake is finished. You can make one out of aluminum foil with a bit of work and imagination, but you would have to do this every time you baked a cake. So I bought a set of Ekovana Stackable Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker Steamer Insert Pans that fit my Instant Pot well and do what the cake recipe requires. 

I will stop here and give credit where it is due. This easy recipe is from the Pressure Luck website, along with the suggestion for the insert pans. I altered the recipe just a bit, substituting a yellow cake mix for a pineapple cake mix.

You will need:

• 1 box of yellow or pineapple cake mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1 (20 0z) can pineapple rings in natural juice – save the juice to add to the cake mix!
• 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 (3.4oz) pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• Maraschino cherries without stems
• cooking oil spray for pans

Spray your pans with cooking spray. Melt your butter in the microwave and add the brown sugar, mix well. Divide up the buttery brown sugar mix into your two small baking pans and top with the pineapple rings from the can. Save the pineapple juice! Put a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. And, if you love cherries, add extra ones around the pineapple rings as well!

Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, juice from the can of pineapple, water, oil, and eggs in a bowl and mix with a stand mixer or hand mixer until smooth and free of lumps.

Divide up the cake batter between the two pans. It should fill a 2.5 inch height pan about halfway. You can only cook one pan of cake at a time in the Instant Pot, so refrigerate the 2nd pan of cake batter for the next day or later the same day. Or just put the remainder in a covered bowl for later.

Securely cover the cake pan you will be cooking in the Instant Pot with a solid lid, either the one that came with the pan or you can make one from foil. Place the Instant Pot’s trivet inside and add a cup of water to the pot. Place your pan of cake mix in the caddy that came with it and place inside the Instant Pot on top of the trivet. You can make a sling for the pan out of aluminum foil if you don’t have one. Or just be prepared to take the hot pan out of the Instant Pot very carefully by hand when it is finished.

Set your Instant Pot for 50 minutes of pressure cooking and then give it a 30 minute natural release. Remove the pan when the time is up and let it cool for 5 minutes. Then place a plate larger than the pan over top and turn it right side up so the cake falls onto the plate with the pineapple on top. Your Pineapple Upside Down cake will be hot but ready to eat!

So can you cook a cake in an Instant Pot? The answer is a qualified yes. Our cake was really delicious! The consistency was different than an oven baked cake with a more dense and custardy texture. The best part of a pineapple upside down cake is always the brown sugar pineapple part and this cake did not disappoint with its sweet topping!

As tasty as my cake experience turned out, it still brought up another issue – why would you want to bake a cake in the Instant Pot?

1. You can only bake half the cake at one time. You still have the other half of the batter to deal with.
2. I found out the hard way that you cannot just take the first batch of cake out of the Instant Pot, put the other half in, and start the cooking process over again. Your sealing ring is too hot and stretchy to reseal the pressure cooker.
3. The cooking time is crazy long. You can bake a whole cake in the oven in about 30 minutes, give or take. The Instant Pot takes at least 80 minutes for just half the cake, plus the time to cool down the sealing ring to start another half of cake for another 80 minutes. Who has time for that??
4. The texture of the cake was so different. Not light and fluffy like an oven baked cake. More dense. Just different.
5. When you are finally done cooking, you end up with two round cakes. Side by side. Just awkward. Of course, you can just eat up that first cake before you cook the other half. Problem solved!

Print

Instant Pot Pineapple Upside Down Cake

This recipe makes two round cakes, each cooked separately. Cooking time is for one cake.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 box yellow or pineapple cake mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1 20 oz can pineapple rings in natural juice save the juice to add to the cake mix!
• 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 3.4 oz pkg vanilla instant pudding mix
• 1 stick butter 1/2 cup
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 12 Maraschino cherries without stems more if desired
• cooking oil spray for pans

Instructions

1. Spray your pans with cooking spray. Melt your butter in the microwave and add the brown sugar, mix well. Divide up the buttery brown sugar mix into your two small baking pans and top with the pineapple rings from the can. Save the pineapple juice! Put a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. And, if you love cherries, add extra ones around the pineapple rings as well!
2. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, juice from the can of pineapple, water, oil, and eggs in a bowl and mix with a stand mixer or hand mixer until smooth and free of lumps.
3. Divide up the cake batter between the two pans. It should fill a 2.5 inch height pan about halfway. You can only cook one pan of cake at a time in the Instant Pot, so refrigerate the 2nd pan of cake batter for the next day or later the same day. Or just put the remainder in a covered bowl for later.
4. Securely cover the cake pan you will be cooking in the Instant Pot with a solid lid, either the one that came with the pan or you can make one from foil. Place the Instant Pot’s trivet inside and add a cup of water to the pot. Place your pan of cake mix in the caddy that came with it and place inside the instant pot on top of the trivet. You can make a sling for the pan out of aluminum foil if you don’t have one. Or just be prepared to take the hot pan out of the Instant Pot very carefully by hand when it is finished.
5. Set your Instant Pot for 50 minutes of pressure cooking and then give it a 30 minute natural release. Remove the pan when the time is up and let it cool for 5 minutes. Then place a plate larger than the pan over top and turn it right side up so the cake falls onto the plate with the pineapple on top. Your Pineapple Upside Down cake will be hot but ready to eat!