Hi--I hope someone's up at this late/early hour, as I'm planning the grocery list and want to go to bed soon.

I'm planning on making a white layer cake this weekend with a pineapple filling and decorating it with fondant (buttercream frosting underneath). Do buttercream and pineapple taste okay together? And would it help to add a bit of pineapple juice to the buttercream to tie the two tastes together more, or wouldn't that work?

Thanks so much.

It sounds delicious! I'm not much help though since I've never tried it. Do you think the pineapple might curdle the buttercream? How are you making your pineapple filling? I'd love to hear how it turns out

Thank you both so very much! I have a splitting headache and hoped for quick answers so I could finish my list and log off, and voila! You've both replied. Thank you, thank you.

galaglow, I'm not completely sure of the pineapple filling. I've found a recipe that combines vanilla pudding, crushed pineapple, whipped cream, and cream cheese--it's at allrecipes.com--, but while that's probably good, it seems unnecessarily heavy. I'll play with those ingredients--or maybe just combine buttercream and pineapple for the filling--and see what I come up with.


Victoria, no, it doesn't need to be white. I was thinking of a cake in shades of pale green and pale yellow, just something Spring-ey looking, so this should be fine. Thanks so much.


'Have been so busy with school, I only made one cake in March and nothing in April yet at all. This will be fun.

Thanks again, and I'll post this weekend after I've completed it.

I'm sure it will turn out lovely - hope your headache is better soon!

Okay, so as an update, my cakes just came out of the oven--the batter tasted wonderful with about 1/4 cup of the pineapple juice added, thank you , and the cakes look good. (It's a 2-layer round cake). My plan had been to fill it with a crushed pineapple-buttercream frosting filling, then to top it with fondant (extra buttercream underneath so it will adhere, of course). BUT-- --when I added the crushed pineapple to the buttercream to make the filling, they didn't mix at all. Apparently, the grease/fat in the frosting breaks down when all the pineapple is added??? So, now my filling just looks like crushed pineapple with specks of white through it. Is there anything I can do to thicken it? I thought about adding corn strach, but I don't know. I tried adding a bit of whipped cream, and that made no difference.

I had been imagining/hoping for this pretty buttercream frosting filling with the bits of crushed pineapple mixed in, kind of a pretty yellow pineapple filling, but alas! I messed this one up. It's "just" for family, and I'm sure it will taste fine and look okay when all finished and decorated, etc., but I was hoping for a thick filling between the two layers, not the gloppy and not-so-pretty mixture I have right now.

Any help would be wonderful, and the cake is for tonight, so I'm hoping to finish decorating it in the next couple of hours. Thanks so much.

How about taking the filling and mixing on a medium/high speed with a whisk attachment...to sort of break up everything... and then add more powdered sugar to thicken...or possibly even some cream cheese

Thanks, Missey. 'No whisk attachment in these parts, but I'll try to doctor it up as you suggest--I think I do have cream cheese here, and I know I have extra powdered sugar. It tastes good, and I'll make sure it won't spill out the sides, I just wish it looked prettier. But yes, between corn starch, powdered sugar, and cream cheese, this should end up okay. I'll update later. Thanks again.

i think the person you should ask is Elin....she make tropical buttercream all the time...I am sure she can help you figure it out.... just PM her.. she will love to help you.

Well, the cake wasn't stunning--the fondant kept tearing, and after making repairs to it while simulatenously finishing making the main course, I didn't much care anymore --, but it turned out okay. I just ended up making a dam of buttercream on the first layer to hold the filling in place; I didn't end up thickening it with anything, after all. 'Not ideal, but there was no "spillage" from the filling, at least, and everyone said it was very light and very good. Next time--and here's a novel thought!!!--, I'll use a recipe for the filling instead of just winging it a couple of hours before serving it to everyone.

Thank you all again for all the ideas and good wishes.

I was thinking the juice would not work with the buttercream (but today is the first time I'm reading this post- sorry I didn't help you before today) because the juice from a can of pineapple is water based- not juice based. It's always been my experience water and oil don't mix. As I was reading I'm thinking- it's going to separate, and sure enough, by the time I got the end of the thread, it did just that. I would have used it anyway, as you did. Filling doesn't need to be pretty by the time you squish it between the layers.

Hi, Dawn, and a great big "yep" to all that. And you know, I could have just combined a tablespoon of the buttercream and pineapple to see if it would work, but nooooooooooooooo, I had to combine it ALL! I knew better--and now, I REALLY know better.

Hey, man, we've all done that! I've messed up whole batches on experiments when a tablespoon would have been just fine.

I have mixed crushed pineapple with buttercream for filling b/f w/ no problems...I just drain the pineapple really well, I have even squeezed it in a towel to get all the juice out and then mixed into my buttercream. I personally don't care for it, but every time I've made it I get great reviews. Now I do seem to have probs with the cake when I add pineapple juice, it doesn't seem to rise as much as usual, but I guess it's maybe b/c of the acidity, so I just add a little extra batter to each pan.