Dashu Pineapple Cake 大树凤梨酥
Dashu Pineapple Cake is featured among the local specialties of Taiwan.
Dashu Pineapple Cake (大树凤梨酥) is the pineapple pastry of Dashu District (大树区) in Kaohsiung (高雄), Taiwan, a fruit-growing district on the Pingtung County border. The Dashu District Office says the district's bakeries fill their cakes with pineapple they grow themselves.
Ingredients
The filling changes with the season. According to the district office, from January to May bakers cook it mainly from Golden Diamond pineapple (金钻凤梨), which has finer flesh, and from June to December from the native pineapple (土凤梨), which is more fibrous and slightly sour, so cakes bought at different times of year taste different.
A two-filling version, the pineapple-and-lychee cake (凤荔酥), pairs pineapple filling cooked from fresh Dashu pineapple with dried Yuhebao (玉荷包) lychee. The Dashu District Farmers' Association's version was one of the 20 foods chosen for Kaohsiung Excellence, a list of local foods for visitors to take home that the Kaohsiung city government's Information Bureau and Tourism Bureau introduced in May 2012 after a competition.
Where it comes from
Dashu's original native pineapple has spiny leaves and small, fibrous but strongly scented fruit. The district office notes that remains of the Japanese-era Taifang Company pineapple cannery (泰芳商会凤梨罐诘工场) survive in Jiutang (久堂) village, and that under Japanese rule Dashu's pineapple acreage and canning industry once led Taiwan. The office still calls Dashu a pineapple kingdom, crediting its soil and water. Pineapple is also pickled at home into a jam called onglai-a (旺来仔), a Dashu habit the office traces to the Japanese era.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.