This gluten-free pineapple upside down cake in the Instant Pot is super easy to make and doesn’t heat up your house like a traditional oven recipe does. It’s a delicious dessert that everyone will love!
Gluten-Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Pineapple upside down cake has always been one of my favorites! I personally love the caramelized fruit that comes out on the top once you flip it. I also love that you can get creative with the fruit you use.
For example, we’ve made caramel apple upside down cake and even an upside down fig cake. Both are great and give that yummy brown sugar caramelized crust that upside down cakes should.
Making the BEST Gluten-Free Cake
The pudding in this gluten-free cake makes it a lot more moist. I’m not a huge dry cake fan so unless it’s a toffee or pudding cake, I probably won’t be eating it.
However, using pudding like we do in this cake as well as the pineapple juice instead of water, really give it extra hydration and keep it soft and not the least bit dry throughout.
You can use pudding mix or our homemade dry gluten-free pudding mix. Just use the dry ingredients only in this recipe. 
Why make an Instant Pot cake instead of using an oven?
You can cook almost anything in it in a fraction of the time that it takes to bake. For example, our traditional all day hamburger soup can now be made in 30 minutes in the Instant Pot.
Also, you free up that oven space to bake other items you make need to on busy days like Sunday dinner of family celebrations.
Living somewhere hot, I also love that it doesn’t heat up my house like the oven does. The instant pot really does make baking a breeze!
For a long time I debated on which one I wanted to get but finally decided on the nine in one so I had all the features available to me. I will say that I wish I would’ve gotten the 8 quart Instant Pot instead of just the 6 quart Instant Pot. It would have just been a much better choice for my large family but both work great.
What pans go in the instant pot?
I used a 5 quart glass Pyrex bowl for making this cake so the recipe actually makes two. Although, a 7-inch cake pan works best to fit in a 6 quart Instant Pot as well.
It’s entirely up to you if you want two smaller cakes like we did or one larger one.
Notes for this Instant Pot Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Any gluten-free cake mix will work. However, I like the gluten-free betty crocker cake mix or Bob’s Red Mill brands.
- Be sure to let the cake sit for 10 minutes before you remove it from the pan
- Make sure to really grease the pan so it will flip out without sticking
- If you’d like to exchange the brown sugar for coconut sugar you can
- This recipe makes two small cakes or one larger cake
How long do you wait to flip a pineapple upside down cake?
It is important that you let the cake sit for 10 minutes before you remove it from the pan so the crust has time to crystalize. Otherwise it will be too runny like you see in my video…oops!
Here are some other great Instant Pot recipes you may enjoy…
Instant Pot Creamy Italian Chicken
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Instant Pot Gluten-Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box 15 oz. gluten-free vanilla cake mix, prepared according to package directions
- 1 box dry vanilla pudding mix
- 1 can of pineapple rings and juice
- 6 maraschino cherries
- 6 T butter
- 2/3 C brown sugar
- 1 1/2 C water
Instructions
- Combine prepared gluten-free cake mix with dry pudding and juice from one can of pineapple rings
- Spray a 5 quart oven safe cake pan with nonstick cooking spray
- Place 3 tablespoons of melted butter in the bottom then sprinkle with 1/3 cup brown sugar
- Place three pineapple rings on top of the brown sugar and put maraschino cherries in the hole of each
- Pour water into the bottom of your instant pot and place the trivet that came with your pot in the bottom
- Pour half the cake mix mixture over the pineapple and lower the bowl into your instant pot onto the trivet
- Press the cake button and adjust time to 25 minutes
- Once the time is up, release the pressure naturally for 5 minutes then quick release any additional pressure until float valve drops
- Unlock lid and using hot pads, carefully remove your cake pan from the Instant Pot
- Let cool 10 min. then using a knife, do a circle around the cake to gently remove it from the sides of the pan
- Place a plate over the pan and flip the cake over to remove
Notes
- Any gluten-free cake mix will work. However, I like the gluten-free betty crocker cake mix or Bob's Red Mill brands.
- Be sure to let the cake sit for 10 minutes before you remove it from the pan
- Make sure to really grease the pan so it will flip out without sticking
- If you'd like to exchange the brown sugar for coconut sugar you can
- This recipe makes two small cakes or one larger cake
Nutrition
Video from Amie Pendle
This recipe was originally published September 17, 2017, was updated on June 26, 2018 and how now been updated on September 9, 2019 to reflect new recommendations and tips.
This upside down cake turned out AMAZING in the instant pot! You’d never know it’s gluten-free!
It says pour half of the batter over the pineapples, what about the other half?
This makes two small cakes. You repeat for the next one. I apologize for not including that.
Hi, This looks so good! Any ideas for a way to sub the vanilla pudding mix for someone who is allergic to dairy? I’d love to make this for my daughter who is DF and GF. Thanks!
You bet, here ya go 🙂 https://www.thespruce.com/dairy-free-vanilla-pudding-1000925
Thanks, so would you make the pudding and add to IP along with cake mix & pineapple juice? Would you remove some liquid somehow? Sorry for all the questions & thanks so much!
I’m so excited to make this! I realized, however that my Instantpot doesn’t have a “cake” button. What would you recommend as a substitute?
Regular pressure cook or manual should be fine you may just need to adjust the time slightly. 🙂