This pineapple coconut bread is moist, tender, sweet, and tropical with a combination of fresh pineapple and shredded coconut for a summer treat! Unlike many other pineapple cake recipes, this version is also refined sugar-free, oil-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan!
Tender, Moist, Tropical Coconut Pineapple Bread Recipe
With the weather warming up, it’s the perfect time to enjoy light- and fruity treats. This fresh pineapple bread sits perfectly among my summer dessert rotation of kiwi avocado cheesecake, mango pie, and lemon cheesecake bars (just to name a few). It’s light, tropical, sweet, and yet healthy enough to enjoy for breakfast!
A banana-free pineapple-coconut bread is exactly what we all need after a year of banana bread obsession (including marbled chocolate, chocolate chip, and blueberry versions). Plus, this vegan cake recipe is surprisingly healthy– not that you’d be able to tell. Instead of eggs, refined sugars, butter, and/or oil, this version uses gluten-free rice and oat flours, unrefined sugars, and is oil-free. You can even make the icing with a sugar alternative! Yet, the result is still wonderfully moist and sweet.
This pineapple bread is also quick and easy to prepare (even easier than my pineapple upside-down cake)! The smell coming from the oven while the bread bakes is practically sinful too – it’s sweet, tropical, and transports me to the beachside, sipping on a Piña colada!
Once out of the oven, top the fresh pineapple cake with a zesty icing drizzle and enjoy for breakfast, brunch, a snack, or dessert. You can even take it to potlucks and garden parties.
The Ingredients
The Dry Ingredients:
- Flour: I used a combination of rice flour and oat flour (rolled oats manually ground into flour in a spice grinder/blender).
- Starch: I prefer to use cornstarch, though potato starch will also work.
- Coconut: Use unsweetened shredded coconut for this pineapple coconut bread. Alternatively, you could use ground blanched almonds (almond meal) or another ground nut/seed meal instead. Note, sunflower seeds can react with leavening agents and turn bakes green.
- Flaxseed: You’ll need ground flax seeds or ground chia seeds for this eggless pineapple cake.
- Leavening agents: This recipe uses baking powder and baking soda to provide lift and a fluffier texture.
The Wet Ingredients:
- Pineapple: This recipe relies on pineapple purée rather than chunky slices. Fresh, ripe pineapple is best over frozen (and thawed). Though canned (drained) may also work, I haven’t tried, so I can’t guarantee results.
- Coconut milk: You need to use canned coconut milk. Full fat is best.
- Maple syrup: Or another liquid sweetener like agave, date syrup, or rice syrup.
- Vanilla extract: Use natural for best flavor, but any will work.
Icing Ingredients:
- Powdered sugar: You can use regular powdered sugar. For a sugar-free option, you could use powdered Erythritol, as I did.
- Coconut milk: Just enough to create the icing consistency.
- Lemon juice: Use fresh lemon juice for the best flavor. Alternatively, you could use lime juice or orange juice.
Optional Recipe add-ins
- Chopped nuts: For more texture, add around 1/3 cup roughly chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, macadamia) to the cake batter.
- Dried fruit: ¼ cup-1/3 cup cranberries and raisins would both pair well with the flavors.
- Spices: Boost the flavor of this fresh pineapple bread with extra spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, or allspice (around ¼ tsp).
- Coconut extract: Around a teaspoon of natural coconut extract will enhance the coconut flavor.
- Rum: For more of a Piña colada flavor, add a little rum (around 2-3 tbsp should be fine without impacting the batter too much). Alternatively, use rum extract.
- Caramel sauce: Substitute the zesty icing for a more decadent drizzle of homemade vegan caramel.
Please read the recipe card below for the full ingredients list, measurements, complete method, and nutritional information.
How to Make Fresh Pineapple Bread
- First, peel, chop and blend ½ of a small/medium pineapple in a blender until it’s a smooth purée. Then set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and line a 9-inch (23 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper. Feel free to use a little cooking spray, too, if you tend to have issues with sticking.
- Next, process all the dry ingredients in a food processor (or blender).
- Add the wet ingredients and then pulse a few times until just combined (don’t over mix).
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the oven for around 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
All ovens work slightly differently, so the time can vary. If you find the pineapple cake is darkening a little too much on top, then top with a layer of foil for the remaining baking time.
- Allow the vegan pound cake to cool. Then combine the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk. Finally, drizzle the icing over the bread- enjoy!
How to Store
Store: Store the pineapple quick bread at room temperature, covered for up to two days, or in an airtight container in the fridge for between 5-7 days.
Freeze: If you plan to freeze the pineapple loaf cake, it’s best to leave it un-iced. Ensure the bread is cooled, then freeze the loaf whole or pre-slice (place parchment paper between each slice to avoid sticking). Wrap the bread in a foil/plastic wrap layer and then place in a freezer-safe bag and store for up to 3 months.
Leave it out at room temperature to thaw, or defrost slices in a toaster oven or microwave using defrost settings. Then, optionally, add the glaze before enjoying.
How to Serve
You can enjoy this pineapple coconut bread in several ways and for several meals (or as a snack):
- Eat as-is warm, room temperature, or chilled.
- Slather with a little dairy-free butter
- Top with some whipped coconut cream or yogurt and fruit
- For a dessert, serve (warm or chilled) with a scoop of ice cream (vanilla or coconut).
Recipe Notes and FAQs
- Make smaller loaves: Instead of one large pineapple loaf, divide the batter between two half-loaf pans and reduce the baking time by 5-10 minutes.
- For pineapple muffins: This works great and takes about 25-28 minutes (depending on the size of the muffin tin). I recommend doing the toothpick test for the first time after 20 minutes of baking if you have a mini muffin pan.
- If using tinned crushed pineapple: allow it to sit in a colander, draining, so there isn’t too much liquid. You can use leftover pineapple juice to make the icing and within smoothies.
- For chunkier pineapple bread: Save a small amount (around 1/3 cup) of the pineapple and finely chop (but don’t purée) to pulse into the batter in the last few seconds. That way, you’ll have some bites with larger, juicy bites of fruit without impacting the texture of the quick bread too much.
- Optionally toast the coconut: To add more crunch, you can lightly toast the coconut on a baking tray for between 6-9 minutes at 350F/180C until lightly browned. Keep an eye, as it can burn quickly.
More Vegan Cake Recipes
- Vegan carrot cake
- Gluten-free chocolate zucchini cake
- Vegan coffee cake
- Peanut butter chocolate cake
- Vegan cranberry bread
- Vegan fruit cake
- Lemon sheet cake
- Vegan coconut cake
- Lemon cheesecake tart
- Raw vegan blueberry cheesecake
Looking for more fruity summer vegan dessert ideas? You might also like this mango coconut sticky rice.
If you try this vegan pineapple bread recipe, I’d love a comment and ★★★★★ recipe rating below. Also, please don’t forget to tag me in re-creations on Instagram or Facebook with @elavegan and #elavegan – I love seeing them.

Pineapple Bread
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 1 cup (160 g) rice flour white (see notes)
- 1 cup (90 g) oat flour (gluten-free if needed)
- ½ scant cup (50 g) cornstarch (see notes)
- ¾ cup (75 g) shredded unsweetened coconut (see notes)
- 2 Tbsp (10 g) ground flax seeds
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
Wet ingredients
- ½ small/medium (350 g) fresh pineapple (see instructions)
- ¼ cup (60 g) canned coconut milk
- ⅓ cup (110 g) maple syrup (see notes)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Icing
- ⅓ heaped cup (50 g) powdered Erythritol or use icing sugar
- 1 Tbsp canned coconut milk
- ½ Tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- I recommend measuring the ingredients in grams on a kitchen scale for exact results. Also, you can watch the video in the post for visual instructions.Chop 1/2 of a small/medium pineapple (peeled) into chunks, then blend in a high-speed blender until it's purée. You'll need 1 1/2 cups (350 grams) of purée for this recipe. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) and line a 9-inch (23 cm) loaf pan with parchment paper.I used an 8-inch (20 cm) pan, but had some leftover batter, which I used for muffins.
- Process all dry ingredients in a food processor or blender.
- Add the wet to the dry ingredients and pulse again until just combined.
- Pour the mixture into the pan and bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick (inserted in the center of the bread) comes out clean.
- Let cool, then mix the ingredients for the icing in a bowl with a whisk. Drizzle the icing over the bread and enjoy!
Notes
- Flour: You can use regular flour instead of rice flour if it doesn't need to be gluten-free.
- Cornstarch: Potato flour should work too.
- Shredded unsweetened coconut: You can use 75 grams of ground, blanched almonds (almond flour) instead. Any other ground nuts should be fine too.
- Maple syrup: Any other liquid sweetener is fine.
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
What can you use in place of oat flour I’m allergic to oats?
Buckwheat flour or quinoa flour should work fine. 🙂
Hello,
I have never used flax/chia seeds in a recipe, could you please give me some insight on their use? Do I soak them in water or do I just treat them as a dry ingredient?
No need to soak them, just follow the recipe as written and as shown in the video.
Hi, Ela!
I just tried this recipe, for muffins, and it’s amazing! I used xanthan gum instead of flax seeds, and the result was sooo fluffy cakes!
I also made a cream with pineapple chunks to cover it. Thank you for this recipe!
That’s awesome, Gisele! Thanks for your helpful feedback. 🙂
If vegan is not needed, could an egg be substituted for the flax?
Probably yes.
I made this today, and it was delicious. Thank you! 🙂
You are very welcome, Fanni! Happy you liked it. 🙂
Another question… is Cornstarch the same as Cornflour (UK) what does the cornstarch do in the cake? Make it lighter, improve texture? or is it an added ingredient to make it gluten free? As we are not gluten free I wondered about its addition to the cake, many thanks, stay safe…
As far as I know, cornstarch is called cornflour in the UK. It does make the bread lighter and also acts as an egg replacement. I hope this helps. 🙂
Thanks for fabulous recipe. If I use regular plain flour (UK) in place of the rice flour is it 160g as per the rice flour weight? I’m not sure if a cup of regular flour weighs differently,. I.n the UK everything is measured in grams. Also, could I replace oat flour with almond flour or regular plain flour? Thanks- ps do you make oat flour by simply processing rolled oats? Apologies for all the questions. Just want the recipe to work….
Hi Nina, I also measure everything in grams, since I am German. 1 cup of regular flour is about 130 grams, so it’s a little less. I would only replace the rice flour with regular flour, but not the oat flour. And yes, I always process rolled oats in an electric coffee/spice grinder or in a blender to make my own oat flour.
I make psyllium husk bread 2 times a week
your breads eg banana ginger this one etc are my staple diet
I even treat the p husk bread as toast . v nice
1 thank you heartily.
I am so glad you like those recipes, John! Thanks for your feedback. 🙂
This is my first time leaving a comment, this recipe certainly deserves 10 stars. It is delicious and easy to make. I did add 2 bananas to the pineapple mix. It turned out perfect! Thank you will definitely be following you.
That’s awesome, Cecelia! I am so glad you liked it. Great idea to add bananas. 🙂
Thanks for your feedback.
If I only have sweetened coconut, can I leave out the maple syrup? Looking forward to trying out this recipe.
Hi, I would probably reduce it a bit (30% less), but I wouldn’t omit it. 🙂
Hi there, can i use almond flour instead of rice flour?
Hi Debra, I am not sure, as I never tried it. I guess it would be fine to substitute 30% but not all of it. 🙂
Can I use Another plant based milk?
If you use a different plant-based milk, I would recommend adding 2 tbsp of oil. 🙂
I used tapioca flour in place of the cornstarch….worked fabulously! What a delicious recipe.
Sounds great, Kimberly! I am happy tapioca flour worked. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
the printing button is not working , but thanks for the share. it looks sumptious! can’t wait to try it.
okay for some reason it works now thanks for the assist and again thanks for sharing such a great recipe.
Happy it works now! 🙂
Ow it is so original!
Well done Ela 🙂
Thanks, dear Eva! 🙂
Can I use canned pineapple??
Nevermind! Just saw your notes.
Hi Kari, I believe it should work too. 🙂
This recipe looks amazing, and I just know it will be great. Looking forward to making it! I was wondering, Ela, will other types of flour substitutes work equally well, in place of the rice flour (or potato starch) if it needs to be gluten free?
Hi Melody, I believe arrowroot floor should work in place of cornstarch. And you can probably use a 1:1 GF-flour mix in place of the rice flour.
But, since every GF flour mix is different (some contain mainly rice flour, others contain mainly chickpea flour) I can’t guarantee results. 🙂
Thank you for sahring the recioe. Can I use wet shredded coconut? It’s a lot easier for me to use wet, since I always make coconut milk from fresh coconut (I live in Indonesia where coconuts are abundant). Thank you.
Hallo Nurul, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you use fresh coconut meat to make milk, the shredded coconut won’t have enough fat, since most will be in the milk itself. Therefore, the bread will lack fat and won’t be as moist, but rather dry. Also, since it’s wet shredded coconut and not dry, the batter won’t have the right consistency.
I hope this helps. 🙂