A simple quick bread with maraschino cherries in every bite. Don’t forget the almond cherry glaze on top this simple cherry bread!
Cherry Bread Recipe
Can you tell I’ve been in a “pinkish” mood lately? I bet you can’t tell, with the bright pink cherry bread staring at your here. 🙂 Just this month we’ve posted cupcakes and cookies that are very….well….pink! Kinslee’s loving all of these pinkalicious baked goods. I remember about 3 years ago when Kinslee was just starting to read on her own, we got the Pinkalicious books from the library. Have you seen them? They’re super cute. They’re so fabulous for little girls who love to be princesses, which fits my little Kinslee to a T. Those books were just what she needed to encourage her to pick up a book and read it on her own. She read them over and over. Then she read them a few more times. We even made her pink cupcakes with pink frosting to encourage her to read more.
Maraschino Cherry Bread
So when this pinkalicious cherry bread popped into my mind, I knew I needed to make it now. Yes, it would have been great at Christmas time, since maraschino cherries pop up all over the place at the holiday season. And it would have been so fitting for a Valentine’s Day treat, being so pink-y! But I decided to stick with our pink theme this past month and share this with you now. No waiting necessary!
Quick Bread Recipe
This quick bread is your traditional quick bread recipe. Sugar, milk, oil, egg, flour, salt and baking powder. I wanted there to be lots of cherries in each bite, so I used two jars of maraschino cherries. Drain the juice, but reserve about 1/3 cup of the juice for the glaze. Chop the cherries either in a small food processor or with a knife. We used our Ninja Express Chop
for this. It worked like a charm and took about a total of 3 seconds. Gently fold these cherries into the batter and bake the bread in a 9×5 loaf pan for 50-55 minutes.
As with any quick bread or muffin, it’s important not to overmix the batter. It’s OK if there are still lumps or a tad bit of flour in the batter. It will all bake together so perfectly in the end.
Cherry Glaze
The glaze on top of the bread is a mix of powdered sugar, melted butter, the cherry juice you reserved from the maraschino cherries and some almond extract. The bread is good without the glaze, but the almond cherry glaze makes it over-the-top amazing!
My family each tested a small slice of this bread, then we put the rest in the freezer for a later treat. I’ll have to say that I ate a slice or two while it was frozen and I think I liked the bread frozen more than fresh from the oven for some reason. That makes it a deliciously cool treat for spring and summer!
If you love cherries, try our cherry hot chocolate, cookies, cherry almond cake and Amish cherry rolls!
Easy Cherry Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or almond extract)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 jars maraschino cherries* (10 ounces each)
Glaze:
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons melted butter
- 1/3 cup maraschino cherry juice
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, milk, oil, egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
- Drain the maraschino cherries, reserving the juice for the glaze. Coarsely chop the cherries in a food processor or with a knife. Gently fold the cherries into the batter.
- Pour the bread batter into a greased 9"x5" bread pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center of the bread should come out clean. Allow the bread to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the bread to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the glaze, combine the powdered sugar, melted butter, cherry juice and almond extract in a small bowl. Mix until it is smooth.
- Once the bread is cool, spread the glaze on top of the bread. Slice and serve. Freezes well!
Video
Notes
**The calories shown are based on the bread being cut into 10 pieces (and all of the frosting used), with 1 serving being 1 slice of bread. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate.
Nutrition
Anonymous says
March 14, 2018 at 10:17 pmHi! Is it possible t make the cherry bread but with less cherries? 2 jars of cherries, it’s a lot!!!
Thanks
Julie Clark says
March 17, 2018 at 7:15 pmSure! You can add less if you’d like.
Jessica says
May 19, 2018 at 10:10 pmMy family loves it! Silly question though – do I need to refrigerate the leftovers to eat the next day? Or leave it out at room temp? Thanks!
Julie Clark says
May 22, 2018 at 8:26 amRoom temperature is fine!
courtney hennagir says
July 2, 2018 at 10:25 pmI just made this and wanted to say a huge thank you for such a great recipe! My whole family loves it!
Karen says
November 23, 2018 at 12:45 pmI’d like to try this with green cherries as well. I think it would be great at Christmas time.
Julie Clark says
November 23, 2018 at 8:46 pmWe’ve done that! It turns out great!
Anonymous says
December 10, 2018 at 6:25 amCan I take amarena cherries
Julie Clark says
December 10, 2018 at 8:07 amI think they would work. Make sure they are drained.
SusieQ says
January 22, 2019 at 10:50 amOmg I’ve been looking for a nice Valentine’s dessert. Hadn’t tried it yet but thanks for sharing! Yay!
Anonymous says
January 22, 2019 at 11:51 pmThis recipe has been in my family for years. It’s called cherry log
Julie Clark says
January 23, 2019 at 7:43 amInteresting! I’ve never heard it called that.
Anonymous says
January 25, 2019 at 10:38 amA variation has nuts added to it. My family’s been baking it for at least two generations. Funny how now it’s popping up on Pinterest. At least you didn’t claim the recipe as your own as others have!
Rhonda says
February 10, 2019 at 9:30 pmMy granny always topped it with a chocolate fudge frosting!! Delish!
Carol says
February 12, 2019 at 7:08 amWhen making the icing,could I use cream cheese in place of butter?
Julie Clark says
February 12, 2019 at 11:32 amI haven’t tried it, but it might work!
Samantha says
February 12, 2019 at 2:45 pmCan you make this dairy free? Make it with almond milk and vegan butter? Would the amounts be the same?
Julie Clark says
February 13, 2019 at 2:46 pmI think you could although I haven’t tried it. I’d keep amounts the same.
Ellie says
February 13, 2019 at 1:41 pmJust made this to be a surprise breakfast treat Valentine morning!
Margaret says
February 14, 2019 at 1:35 pmCan you use mini bundt cakes with this recipe?
Julie Clark says
February 14, 2019 at 7:38 pmI’ve not tried it,but it sounds good!
Margaret says
February 14, 2019 at 9:45 pmSo I made the cherry bread in mini bundt pans cooked at 350 for 25 min and it is awesome!!! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe…
Karoline says
February 15, 2019 at 12:42 pmI made this for Valentine’s Day using almond extract and I added some pecans. I probably only ended up using 1/4 of the glaze that the recipe made. Most of it ran off the sides but the amount that remained was perfect. It is delicious and so easy. Thank you!
Anonymous says
March 3, 2019 at 10:16 pmCould I double the recipe and put it in a full size bunt pan?
Julie Clark says
March 4, 2019 at 6:01 amI think that would work but we haven’t tried it.
Anonymous says
March 6, 2019 at 3:52 pmCan I use fresh chopped cherries in place of the maraschino ones? Not a fan of those!
Julie Clark says
March 7, 2019 at 6:27 amI’ve not tried it but I think you could!
Anonymous says
March 7, 2019 at 9:32 amI have a jar of Brandied cherries that I think would be awesome in this bread so I’m going to try using that!
Julie Clark says
March 8, 2019 at 6:56 amYum! Sounds amazing!
Cyndy says
March 22, 2019 at 7:37 pmPlz let us first timersknow what consistency of the batter..will be mine was not cake..dough..soft..it was dense….like cookie dough… can you..add that description of how thedpugh..batter should be…so we can know what to expect..and it will let others know if we have done something wrong…
Julie Clark says
March 23, 2019 at 7:05 pmThe batter is a very thick batter. Not runny like cake, but a little softer than cookies.
Cherry Fan says
April 8, 2019 at 11:15 amMade this for my brother’s birthday as his favorite cake is cherry chip. This was so good! My husband doesn’t like cherries and he had two pieces and had to stop himself!