Old-Fashioned Cajun Cake
The history of Cajun Cake is a little murky, but all you really need to know is how delicious it is. Hailing from Louisiana, it’s an easy-to-make cake that’s made very moist by the addition of pineapple and topped with a sticky-sweet icing full of coconut and pecans. It’s basically a festival of flavor and texture, and when it comes to dessert, that’s a very good thing.
What Ingredients Do You Need for Cajun Cake?
You’ll need:
- Flour, brown and white sugar, baking soda, salt. The usual.
- Butter, eggs, and vanilla.
- Evaporated milk.
- Crushed pineapple.
- Shredded coconut.
- Chopped pecans.
It’s basically the usual baking suspects with a few extras! And interesting enough, the butter is for the icing — there’s no oil or butter in this cake.
How Do You Make Cajun Cake?
Great news, you don’t even need a mixer for this one. Just whisk together your dry ingredients (flour, white sugar, baking soda, salt) and then whisk or stir in the pineapple (juice included!) and the eggs. That’s the batter!
That’s enough batter for a 9×13 pan and it’ll take about 30 minutes in the oven. Easy, right? While the cake is baking, you can work on the icing, which is poured on the cake while it’s still warm.
That icing comes together on the stovetop and is just a matter of simmering some butter, brown sugar, and evaporated milk for a few minutes in a saucepan before you stir in the coconut, pecans, and vanilla. Then you pour that sticky mixture over the warm cake and let it set up before you slice and serve it. Waiting is hard, but good things come to those who wait.
Old-Fashioned Cajun Cake
For the cake:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple, undrained
- 2 eggs, beaten
For the icing:
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9x13-inch baking pan with butter or nonstick spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, white sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix in pineapple, including the juice, and the eggs. Mix until well blended.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30-35 minutes.
- While cake bakes, make the icing:
- In a medium saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, and evaporated milk. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.
- Stir in coconut and pecans and remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and salt.
- Pour over warm cake, spreading out evenly with a rubber spatula as needed. Let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from All Recipes.