Maraschino Cherry Bread Recipe

Maraschino cherry bread recipe using sweet cherries in a jar that’s great for breakfast or dessert. Perfect for Valentine’s Day sweet bread or cupcake treat for friends.

Maraschino Cherry Bread Recipe

I originally made this cherry bread almost 20 years ago when I was tinkering around in the kitchen.  Since I wasn’t a blogger then I didn’t have anywhere to share it. The other day when a friend asked how I made it ALL those years ago I thought I’d write up the instructions!

I forgot how much I enjoyed it, and definitely should’ve made it again sooner to share with my kids. If you’re having people over for brunch, or a holiday is coming up and you want something special, you should try this or chocolate cherry bread.

If you want to make this pinker for a Valentines Day cake of sorts you could with some food coloring. That isn’t important to us so I don’t bother but you could. I prefer Wilton’s gel vs. liquid coloring if you want to add some.

Ingredients

1. 8 oz. of maraschino cherries and cherry juice
2. Almond extract and vanilla extract in this
3. Flour and baking powder, make sure you know how to measure flour
4. Sugar for sweetness of course
5. Eggs added at room temp
6. Oil vegetable is what I use typically
7. Powdered sugar for glaze
8. Heavy whipping cream for glaze

Equipment Needed

8×4 or 9×5 inch Loaf pan is what I use with some non stick spray and two bowls to mix together batter too. As with any other baking recipe, you’ll want to mix dry ingredients in one bowl. Then add the eggs and wet ingredients in another. Then slowly combine the two and gently fold in the cherries at the end.

Variations

• Mini chocolate chips, 1/2 cup could be added
• Chopped nuts – walnuts in small pieces might be nice
• You could sprinkle sliced almonds on top of your glaze too

You really could fold some into any sweet bread you were baking for added pizzaz. Just dice up the jarred cherries, but don’t discard that delicious juice. You will use some to add sweetness to the bread, and it will add a bit of color too.

If you want your loaf to be really pink for a holiday, or just for fun, you’d want to use some red food coloring. The cherry juice isn’t enough to color it much. Make sure that at the end you gently fold your cherries and other add ins in. A few ideas are:

Use a bit of non stick cooking spray inside your prepared pan before pouring in the batter.  You could line with parchment paper too.

How to Make Maraschino Cherry Almond Bread

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Spray 8×4″ loaf pan with non stick spray. In a medium bowl mix together sugar and vegetable oil. Add eggs, almond extract, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 c. of your maraschino cherry juice. Whisk until smooth.
• In a separate mixing bowl combine flour and baking powder, mix. Add this into your wet mixture slowly and stir until smooth and well combined.
• Chop cherries and fold them into your batter.
• Spread batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not overbake, you want it moist.
• Take out and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes in pan before sliding out and on to a cooling rack.

Set it on a cooling wire rack and cool completely before slicing if you want slices to stay in tact. I don’t feel like you need anything on it beyond the homemade icing but you could leave that off.

Tips

• I use this same 8×4 loaf pan to make our pumpkin apple bread and it works great.
• Make sure you don’t over bake this
• As soon as a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, take it out!
• Don’t flip it over and remove it right away, cool for 10 minutes.

Can you bake this into muffins?

Now you could make this into muffins like we did with our cherry brownies too. Just use paper liners and bake for about 18 minutes or until the toothpick comes out mostly clean with moist crumbs attached.

How do you keep homemade bread moist?

Make sure you take it out and do not over-bake. Only slice what you are eating then and there. Once the glaze is dry it slices nicely and has little red surprises inside. Add more if you like but remember they will want to settle to the bottom a bit when baking.

1. Wrap leftovers in plastic or aluminum foil.
2. Keep it at room temperature for no more than two days ideally.
3. If after that time you don’t think you’ll finish it, wrap it in tinfoil, and then inside a gallon freezer bag.
4. Freeze so it lasts longer.

To thaw frozen bread, leave it on the countertop until it is defrosted to maintain moisture.

Can I use maraschino cherries for baking?

Yes! This recipe is a great one to follow! Typically, this jarred variety are made from royal ann cherries. If you’ve ever tried one you know they are extremely sweet. It is a bit like our cherry coffee cake but that is made with cake mix and pie filling.

Most frequently used as garnishes in cocktails or for cake embellishments, you can also top baked ham with them, or serve on an ice cream sundae. Want to add them to a glaze for this or our 4 ingredient banana bread?? Great idea. Just whisk together powdered sugar and milk for a glaze and spoon in some diced bits in there.

What can I use leftover maraschino cherry juice for?

Beyond this cherry bread we use it to make Shirley Temple’s which my girls love! I add a touch to my favorite Pineapple Rum Cocktail. It’s super versatile to sweeten up just about any recipe. Looking for other quick bread recipes?

How to Make Retro Cherry Bread

Our printable recipe card is below. 😉 Most of what we make with this fruit is with pie filling. The only one we used fresh right off of the tree was our tart cherry crisp with tart ones. Bottled and marinated was used for this one and below is with canned with glaze.

The printable recipe is below including nutritional information with calories, saturated fat etc… If you wanted to make a cherry quick bread you could just dice the cherries and incorporate it into a box of prepared cherry chip cake mix.

Original photo below, you can color the batter pink for more color.

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