These bright pink cherry muffins are studded with maraschino cherries and topped with both a cherry glaze and a whole cherry. A fun and festive treat that’s perfect for parties, snack time or just for when you have a hankering for something sweet.
If you’re a maraschino cherry fan, you will adore these cherry muffins. Each muffin is moist, tender and chock full of cherries!
I find that people typically have a strong preference when it comes to maraschino cherries. You either love them or you hate them! I’m in the love category, so these pretty pink maraschino cherry muffins are a dream come true for me. They’re so bright and festive for any celebration, and your kids will be thrilled to come home to them for an after school snack.
How do you make cherry muffins?
This is a pretty basic muffin batter with flour, sugar, eggs and oil. A bunch of chopped maraschino cherries get folded into the batter, along with some cherry juice to give the muffins their pink hue.
The muffin batter gets evenly spooned into a muffin tin and then baked until light golden brown.
You can either serve the muffins as-is, or add a pink cherry glaze. I’ve made them both ways and you can’t go wrong even if you choose to skip the glaze.
The glaze really does take these muffins over the top, and is a simple mixture of butter, powdered sugar and cherry juice. You can make the glaze as thick or as thin as you like, just add more cherry juice to thin it out, or more powdered sugar to thicken it back up.
The finishing touch on these cherry muffins is a cherry on top! You could also add a few sprinkles and serve these at a birthday party for an unexpected treat.
Can you freeze muffins?
You can freeze these cherry muffins, but I’d recommend that you hold off on adding the glaze if you’re planning to freeze them. You can add the glaze to the defrosted muffins right before serving.
My kids are already asking for another batch of these cherry muffins, and I’m totally happy to oblige!
More sweet treats you’ll love
Cherry Muffins
Ingredients
For the muffins
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 16 ounce jar maraschino cherries chopped (reserve juice for later use!)
- 2 tablespoons reserved cherry juice
- cooking spray
- 12 whole maraschino cherries
For the glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon butter melted
- 1 1/2 tablespoons reserved cherry juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Place the sugar, milk, vegetable oil, egg and vanilla extract in a large bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add the flour and baking powder, then stir until just combined.
- Add the cherries and cherry juice to the bowl, then stir gently until well mixed.
- Spoon the batter evenly into the muffin tins.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes or until edges are just browned. Cool the muffins completely before adding the glaze.
- To make the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, butter and cherry juice until smooth. If you'd like a thinner glaze, add more cherry juice, 1 teaspoon at a time.
- If you prefer a thicker glaze, add more powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
- Spoon 2 teaspoons of glaze over each muffin then immediately top each muffin with a cherry. Let the glaze harden, then serve.
Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on July 14, 2015 and was updated on September 24, 2018 with new content.
Fabulous! I’m going to try these with some pie cherries I just bought. Maybe sweeten them a bit before adding.
Sounds great, you could either toss the cherries in a little sugar or try upping the sugar in the recipe by a few tablespoons.
Congrats on your cherry harvest! I did a similar post with a recipe from 2006 and today with comparison photos. So amazing to see how far we’ve come – your photos are gorgeous. 🙂
Thanks Kimberly, just checked out your site and I love your pictures too, that CAKE! 🙂
So yummy! Definitely pinned this one for later, although I may use Marion berries instead.
This would definitely work with marionberries!
These muffins look delish! One of my all time favs! Thanks you sharing!
These looks so yummy! I might have go to the store and get some cherries!
Do it, you won’t be sorry 😉
What a beautiful post! These look divine!
Yum! And a great way to use those awesome fresh cherries we are seeing around right now.
Thanks Crysta, I figured I better make the most of cherries before they’re gone for the rest of the year!
I love cherry anything. These look wonderful!
Oh my those look wonderful Sara! I love anything with cherries! I shall have to try these, wonder if they would work well with coconut flower….gluten sensitive stinks! :/ Thanks for sharing!
I don’t know if they would work with coconut flour, but my guess would be if you tried an all purpose gluten free flour mix it would work.
Ugh, that looks so good. I wish I was having that for breakfast instead of fruit. Damn diet!
Um, these muffins have fruit…so diet food? Not quite, but I tried 😉
I love seeing before and after pictures of how far food bloggers have come! You are amazing! We all have to start somewhere, so do not stress about those old pictures. I will admit though, these new photos… I am drooling! I have some cherries in my fridge so I may have to get around to these muffins sooner than later!
Thanks Kacey! I just look back on the old pics and laugh, back then I just didn’t even care, I figured if the recipe was good then the picture didn’t matter. Boy how times have changed 🙂
Ooooh I love cherries! These look so good 🙂
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You and I are peas in a pod. I’m going with yogurt popsicles for breakfast these days and glazed muffins with cherries or blueberries are right down my alley:) As for owning a cherry pitter, it’s been life changing for me, as I never knew the delights of cooking with cherries before. Now I’m obsessed with putting cherries in desserts.
A cherry pitter makes life so much easier! It’s one of those kind of odd gadgets that you wonder why people have…until you own one yourself, and then you get it 🙂
They look absolutely amazing! I will save this recipe for later, thank yoz for sharing! I bet they are soo delicious.
Cherry season is the best! These look incredible.
Your food posts always make me hungry! They look so damn delicious!!
I love having fruit trees in the yard! How lucky! These look perfect!!!
Thanks Amber! It looks like we’re going to get a big crop of persimmons this year too, so you’ll be seeing persimmon recipes from me in the fall 🙂
The beautiful cherries I’ve seen at the store lately have been calling my name and I haven’t given in to buying any yet! I think you’ve convinced me that I just need to get back there and bite the bullet. . .oh, and then make these muffins, of course!
You should buy then now, quick before they’re all gone for the year 🙂
Cherry season is my favorite! I haven’t tried putting them in muffins but boy do these look great!! I need to try them out.
These muffins look great! I love that you used fresh cherries!