Healthier Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes made with wholesome ingredients like oats, coconut, and pineapple. They are light and fluffy with sticky, caramelized pineapple tops, and delicious tropical flavour. Perfect eaten as they are but even better served warm with a big dollop of dairy-free ice cream!
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FEATURED COMMENT:
"This cupcake recipe has to be one of the best I've ever made. They are truly so good. I made them for my son's 6th birthday since he wanted a pineapple dessert, and everyone loved them!"
- Steffani ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ More reviews →
Be prepared for your world to be turned upside down when you bake yourself up some of these little Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes!
OH. MY. GOODNESS. With fluffy soft sponge and sticky, caramelized pineapple tops, they are so good and just happen to be naturally vegan, gluten-free, flour-free, & oil-free.
I highly recommend eating them warm with a dollop of dairy-free vanilla ice cream, no-churn mango banana ice cream, or a drizzle of vegan custard. DESSERT HEAVEN and good enough for a dinner party-worthy dessert!
Mel x
Make Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes With Me!
Here's a quick visual walkthrough. See the recipe card for the full and detailed version, and be sure to check out my recipe video:
1 - Line the bottom of each muffin pan well with a little circle of parchment paper, spoon in some brown or coconut sugar, and then top with pineapple.
3 - Spoon the batter over the pineapple and then bake. Be sure to follow my temperature trick. The initial, very hot blast in the oven creates a very light, airy, well-risen crumb, and if you're a fan of my muffin recipes you'll know how well it works!
4 - Leave to rest in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out carefully. They are amazing eaten while warm from the oven!
Important Note
The shredded coconut is a really important ingredient because it is the only source of fat in the recipe. If you can't use coconut for whatever reason, replace it with the same amount of almond flour. It has a similar fat content and absorbency, and its flavour works well too.
Recipe FAQs
A good food processor should be ok at a push. My Cuisinart handles it just fine, but only you know your machine. If it can't blend pineapple up smoothly, or you feel like it won't grind the oats down enough, then it won't work for this recipe.
If you use a food processor (or a less powerful blender), it's probably best to grind the oats into flour first rather than just throwing everything in at once. It will make it easier for your machine to handle and it won't have to work so hard.
If you don't have a food processor either, as long as you can get your pineapple pureed up somehow (maybe with an immersion blender) and you can buy some store-bought oat flour you will get by just fine making the recipe by hand.
Recipe
Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes
Author:WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
- 6 teaspoons dark brown or coconut sugar
- 1½ cups (248 grams) pineapple chunks , divided
- 1½ cups (150 grams) rolled oats , or old fashioned or quick oats
- ½ packed cup (60 grams) shredded coconut , or almond flour
- ½ cup (100 grams) cane sugar , or white
- 2 tablespoons dairy-free milk
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda , bicarbonate of soda in the UK
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C) and grease 6 holes of a non-stick muffin pan. Add a small circle of parchment paper to the bottom of each hole. I do this by standing the muffin pan on the parchment paper and drawing around the bottom of one well. Cut out the circle and use as a template for the rest.
- Spoon 1 teaspoon of brown or coconut sugar into each hole then take 4 or 5 pineapple chunks and cut them into 18 thinnish slices (2 to 3 mm) and lay 3 pieces on top of the sugar in each well. Arrange them so they more or less cover the bottom.
- Put the remaining pineapple in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Spoon it out into a ½ cup (120ml) measure or weigh 110g. You should have just enough. Remove any excess left in the blender and enjoy as a quick snack, or add to a smoothie/oatmeal.
- Before proceeding make sure your oven is at temperature and your muffin pan is ready. With all of the acid in the batter it will react quite quickly so you need to be quite fast.
- Return the ½ cup/110g of pineapple puree to the blender then add the oats, shredded coconut, sugar, milk, vinegar, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder and soda. Blend until completely smooth. You will probably need to stop and scrape down so you catch any oats that fly about.
- Spoon an even amount of batter into each hole of the muffin pan. I use an ice cream scoop and used 2 scoops per hole, then get them right into the hot oven as fast as you can.
- Bake for 5 minutes on 425°F then turn the oven down to 375°F and bake for a further 13-15 minutes (don't skip this as it makes a huge difference to the texture of your cakes). When done they should look golden, well risen, and will be coming away from the sides. A toothpick or skewer inserted into the middle of one should come out clean.
- Leave in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes then lay a cooling rack face down on top of the muffin pan and flip over before carefully lifting the pan gently off. Pull off the round pieces of parchment paper and either eat them (yay!) or leave to cool completely on the rack.
NOTES
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Kim says
My mother-in-law’s favorite cake was upside down pineapple cake. I made these for my husband’s birthday and they did not disappoint. It was awesome. Having a recipe that I didn’t have to cut down for two people. They were perfectly sweet as I find so many recipes are way too sweet.
Tena says
I blended everything according to the recipe but used almond flour instead of shredded coconut. When I opened the blender, everything exploded into the air, splattering all over the walls, ceiling, and curtains—it was quite a mess. I tried again, this time asking my husband to hold the blender tightly closed while I opened it, and although it didn't splash this time because he was holding it, it still created a mess. Despite the chaos, the taste was good though.
Melanie McDonald says
There is no reason why this would explode. It's just cake batter. It sounds like either your blender isn't big enough and was very overfilled, it drastically overheated, or the lid was removed before the blades had finished turning. Glad you enjoyed the taste though!
Ines says
These sound wonderful! Looking forward to making them soon.
Holly says
I made these as written except substituted almond flour for the coconut and made in a mini muffin pan. Very tasty! They popped right out of the pan and looked like pretty little cakes.
Kirsty says
Very delicious! Initially I was concerned that oats would make them super heavy. However I’m very pleased to say that they’re light and fluffy with an addictive moist chewiness. Teamed with the flavours of the brown sugar, pineapple and coconut the dessert is a winner!
Vivian says
Hi,
I want to make mini cakes (using mini cupcake tines). What do you recommend for timing/temp?
Thanks,
Vivian
A Virtual Vegan says
I'd cook them on 375°F for probably about 13 - 15 minutes or until they are well risen, starting to come away from the sides a bit and a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. It is a guess though as I don't have mini muffin pans so have never tried it so keep an eye on them towards the end just in case.
Aparna says
Hi
I made this pineapple cake (without the pineapple topping) and cut them into pieces ,dipped them in a chocolate sauce and rolled them over shredded coconut to form nice mini lamingtons.They turned out wonderful.I have the pictures but not sure how to share them in the comments section.
Thanks for all the wonderful vegan recipes.Keep them coming !
A Virtual Vegan says
Ah! I saw your pictures on Instagram but didn't realize you used the cake to make the lamingtons. I thought that was a different recipe. What a brilliant idea and how creative! You can't share pictures in the comments here which is a shame. Thank you so much for leaving feedback. I really appreciate it!
Dee says
This simple recipe was made by my tween to my delight! We made a double batch with purchased oat flour and canned pineapple. In one pan we used large cupcake liners which made cleanup a bit easier. I didn't think I'd like the coconut, but it gave a little crunch . Warm or cold, these little cakes are naughty! :-) I may not wait for my daughter to whip up another batch. I think Mommy needs another treat. Thank you Mel!
A Virtual Vegan says
Oo lucky you. I wish my son would cook for me. I'm so glad you enjoyed them and yes, Mommy deserves another treat very soon!
Andrea says
I am very appreciative of this right now. My hubby has recently found out that he has sensitive intolerance to so many of the foods that we have still been eating which includes: wheat, rice, cashews, barley...the list goes on. These, he can eat and we loved them!Thank you so much!
Aimee says
These are lovely! Do you think it would be alright to omit the coconut? Thanks. :)
A Virtual Vegan says
Hi Aimee. Thank you! The coconut in them provides the fat and replaces any oil that might otherwise be used. If you omit it the texture would suffer, plus the liquid (milk and pureed pineapple) might need adjusting a little bit too. A better option, if you can eat nuts, would be to use almond flour instead of the coconut. That will replace the fat and substance of the coconut.
Steffani Rideau says
This cupcake recipe has to be one of the best I’ve ever made. They are truly so good. I made them for my son’s 6th birthday since he wanted a pineapple dessert, and everyone loved them! I licked the batter spoon and just that made me want to eat the batter plain!
I did pair it with a buttercream frosting I made with Miyokos butter, and added a couple teaspoons of the extra pineapple puree in place of the water in the recipe. I left the cupcakes upside down (with the pineapple on top) and piped the frosting around the base of the cupcake on individual plates. Definitely not needed, but made it look a little more exciting for my kiddo.