Our Tornado Cake recipe (Do Nothing) is a moist cake made with crushed pineapple and topped with a coconut icing. This is such an easy recipe that only requires one bowl for the cake and one pan for the topping. Do not be intimidated by the fact that you cook the topping. It is so easy and only takes about 5 minutes.
One of the best things about this cake is that you pour the topping over the hot cake, let it cool for a little bit, and then you get to eat it! No waiting for it to cool completely. This makes for an easy dessert that is perfect when you want to eat cake but haven’t planned ahead. Now this is my kind of cake! But then again, most cake is.
We shared some of this cake with our neighbor once and he said it was the best cake he had ever eaten. It is that good!
Cake Ingredients
Topping Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Flour – all purpose flour works best.
Eggs – we always use large room temperature eggs.
Crushed Pineapple – one 20 ounce can and you do not drain it.
Butter – we only buy unsalted butter and then add a little salt to the recipe. If you use salted butter for the topping then you can omit the salt.
Evaporated Milk – according to Taste Of Home “It’s milk that has gone through a cooking process to remove over half of the water content. The resulting liquid is creamier and thicker than regular whole milk, making it the perfect addition to both sweet and savory dishes”. Evaporated milk is not as sweet as condensed milk.
Coconut Flakes – this is the sweetened type.
Chopped Pecans – one 4 ounce package is the perfect amount.
How to Make This Delicious Recipe
See recipe card for exact amounts.
- Preheat the oven to 350° and coat a 9″ X 13″ baking pan with cooking spray.
- Mix flour, sugar, eggs, pineapple, baking soda and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 28 – 36 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When the cake comes out poke holes in the top with the handle of a wooden spoon or thick wooden skewer.
- Combine butter, evaporated milk, white sugar, vanilla extract, and salt in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat. Cook while stirring often until thickened, about 3 – 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add coconut and nuts. Pour hot mixture over cake. Let cake sit about 5 minutes before cutting and serving.
How to Tell When Cake is Done
Your oven and even the type of pan you bake the cake in all play a part in how long a particular cake takes to bake. There are a few tell-tale signs a cake is done. I have underbaked cake before and while it was still edible it didn’t look as good because the center of the cake was sort of sunken down.
Some of these methods work better on some cakes than others. You can’t tell if a chocolate cakes edges are brown, and inserting a toothpick into a cake that has fruit or chocolate chips in it might not come out clean. Taking all of these things into account will help determine if your specific cake is completely baked.
Here are the best ways to tell that your cake is ready to be taken out of the oven:
- The edges start to brown.
- Lightly touch the top of the cake and if it springs back and no indentation remains then it is done.
- The edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan.
- A toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.
Storage
Store in an airtight container in the fridge or at room temperature for 3 – 5days.
What We Love About This Recipe
It is cake, so what is not to love?! But our favorite things about this recipe are:
There is no vegetable oil or butter in it and it is still a moist and delicious cake.
It is a one-bowl cake so no mixing dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately.
Only 6 ingredients in the cake.
No waiting for the cake to cool before we can frost it and eat it.
No special equipment is required. In fact, we mix everything by hand, so no mixer bowl, beaters or attachment to clean.
While it isn’t a poke cake made with pudding or the like, you do poke holes in the cake so the yummy topping oozes down into the cake.
We are nut and coconut lovers so the topping is perfect.
More Easy Cake Recipes
Hummingbird Cake – our version doesn’t have nuts.
Oatmeal Cake – this cake has a yummy coconut pecan topping. The method to make it is similar but slightly different than this one.
Peachy Keen Cake – this is a layer cake made with canned peaches and topped with a Cool Whip frosting. Yummy!
Pumpkin Pie Cake – a delicious 4 ingredient cake that is a cross between pie and cake. If you like pumpkin you are going to want to check this one out!
Looking for something other than cake? Check out the Desserts & Treats section for more dessert ideas.
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We hope you like this Tornado Cake recipe (Do Nothing) as much as we do.
Tornado Cake (Do Nothing)
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 can crushed pineapple, undrained 20 ounces
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the topping:
- 1 cup sugar
- 2/3 cup evaporated milk
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup sweetened flake coconut
- 1 cup chopped pecans
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Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 9" X 13" baking pan with cooking spray.
- Mix flour, sugar, eggs, pineapple, baking soda and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until combined.2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 2 eggs, 1 can crushed pineapple, undrained, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp vanilla
- Pour batter into prepared pan; bake 28 – 36 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When the cake comes out of the oven poke holes in the top with the handle of a wooden spoon.
Make the topping:
- Combine butter, evaporated milk, white sugar, vanilla extract, and salt in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat stirring often until thickened, about 3 – 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add coconut and nuts. Pour hot mixture over cake. Let cake sit about 5 minutes before serving.1 cup sugar, 2/3 cup evaporated milk, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 cup sweetened flake coconut, 1 cup chopped pecans
Hi! Second time making this, I made it for thanksgiving and it was a huge hit. Made again today for Christmas. Substituting pears for the pineapple because of a family member’s allergy. My only question is that both times when I’m stirring the butter etc in a saucepan, it never really gets much thicker. What am I doing wrong ? I let it get pretty bubbly, first time I kept it at a lower temp, this time a higher temp. I measured all ingredients both times and didn’t substitute anything. Once I added in the nuts and coconut and it still seemed a bit thin, I added a little more of each. When I poured onto cake, it covered the whole surface, and then later when we cut into it, if had become more solid. Just wondering if anyone else had this happen. But the taste is incredible!
I don’t think you are doing anything wrong. It goes on fairly thin and thickens as it cools.
Aren’t there suppose to be egg yolks in the topping recipe?
My Tornado Cake recipe doesn’t include egg yolks in the topping, and it’s not supposed to. The traditional version uses butter, sugar, evaporated milk, coconut, and pecans for a rich, gooey texture. Some variations add egg yolks for a thicker, custard-like topping, but that’s not the classic method.
I couldn’t find crushed pineapple, can I just shred or mash the chunks?
That should work just fine, maybe mash them or just cut them into small pieces. Be sure to use the juice too!
I’ve made this twice in a week! Once for a party, now for thanksgiving potluck. I was not able to find crushed pineapple but was able to use hand mixer to pulp it.
My only question , and this didn’t seem to affect the outcome, but when heating the butter, etc, mine never really thickened. I double checked all ingredients and measurements. But it still was fantastic!
It is pretty thin, not thick like the frosting on a German chocolate cake, so maybe it turned out the way it’s intended!
No oil or butter in cake?
No, just the 6 ingredients listed here. My neighbor claims it’s the best cake he’s ever eaten!
Toasted pecans and continued with recipe oh except I used a box.cake just uséd cañ of crushed pineapple instead of milk and it was ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS
THANK YOU
Using a boxed cake mix is a great short-cut!
Can you substitute walnuts for pecans?
Absolutely, walnuts would be delicious in this too!
Can you use pineapple tid bits instead??
I haven’t tried it but I think it will work, just be sure to use the juice too.
Can you use self rising flour?
I haven’t tried it but I don ‘t see why not, just leave the baking soda out. Let me know how it turns out.
Just made this cake. OMG! So good. I toasted the pecans and the coconut just for an extra depth of flavor. So, so good.
That’s a great idea, I bet it was delish, thanks for sharing!
The Tornado Cakw is Fantastic. Big hit at church dinner!!
Yay, we are so glad everyone liked it!