Kitchen Tips All About Ingredients This Is Why You Add Pineapple to Carrot Cake Ever wonder why so many carrot cake recipes include pineapple in the mix? Turns out it's solving a problem common with many carrot cakes. Check it out. By Noel Christmas Noel Christmas Noel Christmas spent 12 years as a professional cook and another 10 years as a food writer for Allrecipes.com, turning professional techniques and recipes into approachable household standards. Allrecipes' editorial guidelines Updated on March 31, 2021 The problem Carrot cakes are too often just a dry, drab slab of a very orange vegetable, disguised as dessert. No one wants that. The solution: Pineapple Yes, pineapple. When I first saw this in recipes and reviews, I assumed it was just another version of substituting applesauce for oil in muffins — one of those "let's be healthy" things that just happen to work. But after looking into it a bit, there's a whole lot more going on. See, it's not a substitution thing. You add the pineapple to the recipe. sarah What does pineapple do? What baking secrets are harbored within a simple pineapple? Food science has a few ideas: It's a tenderizer. Pineapple is a fruit that actually tenderizes. Enzymes found in pineapple (and kiwis and papayas, too) actually break down proteins, which in the case of carrot cake, results in a more moist cake.Sugar. Yes, it's a cake. With carrots. Carrots are sweet, but not cake-sweet. The extra sugar from pineapple (especially the canned pineapple normally called for) just adds that extra sweetness you want in a dessert.Less oil. I know, I said this wasn't the main reason to use pineapple. But it's still kinda true. Replacing a little bit of the oil with the (usually crushed) pineapple does make it a skosh healthier. Or at least that's what I tell myself as I make the cream cheese frosting. Check out our collection of Carrot Cake Recipes. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit