Taiwanese pineapple cake is a pastry filled with pineapple jam and traditionally associated with weddings and gifts.
The pastry has a crumbly, buttery outer layer surrounding a dense filling made from pineapple, sugar, and sometimes winter melon. Commercial versions vary in the balance between fruit and pastry, but the pineapple center is the defining feature.
Pineapple cakes became especially prominent in Taiwan during the twentieth century. Pineapple was once an important agricultural crop there, and improvements in processing helped transform the fruit into a shelf-stable confectionery filling.
The cakes are popular as souvenirs because their rectangular shape makes them easy to package and transport. They are not the same as Western pineapple upside-down cake, which is a large baked dessert with fruit arranged on top. In Taiwan, pineapple cakes are usually individual pastries eaten as snacks or gifts.