This Pineapple Coconut Cake recipe is an easy no-bake dessert thanks to a special ingredient: Twinkies! Made with creamy pudding, juicy pineapple, and filled with loads of sweet tropical flavor.
Have you ever had Paula Deen’s ‘Better Than Sex’ cake? Well if you have, you know how amazing it is. I made it better. No for real, I did. I made it into a NO BAKE dessert by using TWINKIES!
(Make sure and check out some of my other no bake desserts!)
To be completely honest, I am not the biggest Twinkie fan. There are many other little snack cake like desserts that I would normally grab first.
However the Twinkies in this recipe completely transform and they turn into an amazing base for this pineapple coconut cake. Everyone who had it did not believe it was actually made with Twinkies. Seriously.
I also skipped the additional sugar that Paula adds to the pineapple layer. Between the sweet Twinkies, the naturally sweet pineapple, the vanilla pudding and whipped cream…I promise it needs no extra sugar. And this is coming from the self proclaimed sugar queen! Paula’s sweet tooth must be as big as her hair!
This is the perfect make ahead Summer dessert that you can store in the fridge for up to a day before a party. It’s incredibly easy to put together, but you would never know it by all the flavor packed in each bite.
Twinkie Pineapple Coconut Cake
This Pineapple Coconut Cake recipe is an easy no-bake dessert thanks to a special ingredient: Twinkies! Made with creamy pudding, juicy pineapple, and filled with loads of sweet tropical flavor.
Ingredients
- 9 twinkies, sliced in half lengthwise
- 1 can (20 oz) crushed pineapple, mostly drained with just a little juice left
- 1 box (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding – prepared as instructed on package
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
- 2 cups shredded sweetened coconut, toasted
- maraschino cherries, for decoration
Instructions
- Line the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish with twinkies cut side up (so the cream filling in the twinkies is facing up).
- Top twinkies with crushed pineapple (and the little juice that remained). Spread pudding on top of crushed pineapple.
- In stand mixer or with hand mixer, whip heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and coconut extract until stiff peaks are formed.
- Spread whipped cream on top of pudding layer and top with toasted coconut.
- Refrigerate cake for one hour (or up to a day) and serve cold with a cherry on top!
Notes
Recipe Note: Yes, you can use cool-whip in place of the homemade coconut whipped cream if you want.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 359Total Fat: 22gSaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 59mgSodium: 245mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 2gSugar: 24gProtein: 3g
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I am diabetic, so I’m going to use Kraft Cool whip, if I didn’t love Twinkies I would use a sugar free cake mix by Kroger or Duncan Hines. There are ways to cut down on sugar. Using Almond Flour and making my own cake would be better though.
Delicious recipe,thank you.
Dear Jessica,
Can I use Sponge cake for the base? This looks so yummy!! Thanks!
Call me stupid but what is a twinky. The recepe looks and sounds delicious and I really want to make it but then I need to know what a Twinky is.
A Twinkie is a snack cake dessert you can find in stores. If you do not want to use twinkles, you can also bake a yellow cake as the base.
Hostess is the Brand name on the best Twinkies. You get approximately 12 to a box. You should find them in most grocery stores, near where the Little Debbie boxed snack cakes are located. I cannot wait to make this!!
I made this yesterday for a work potluck. I won’t lie, I was pretty skeptical, but needed a super easy recipe because I only had about 20 minutes. This was AMAZING!! So light and fruity! It was the first thing completely gone at the potluck and no one could believe it was made with twinkies! Ha!