Creamy Lemon Cherry Bread filled with a ribbon of lemony cream cheese and loaded with fresh cherries. A delicious summer dessert everyone will enjoy!

Do you love the zing of fresh lemon, tang of a good cheesecake or sweet fresh cherries? This bread has all three baked right in and is so easy to make!

Fresh cherries can be very expensive to buy most of the year but here in Utah, they’re in season and we are taking advantage.

My friend Amy over at Recipe Treasures spurred me with the idea when she shared her cherry bread recipe.  It looked so delicious I had to give it a try with my own twist of course, lemons included.

I’ve made similar sweet breads like this one, with a cream cheese ribbon through the middle, but this is the first to come with a hint of sweet tangy lemon.  The lemon pairs so well with the sweet cherry-rich bread.  If you’re a fan of cheesecake I think you’ll enjoy this sweet lemon cherry bread. To take it over the top I love adding a tangy lemon glaze.

Lemon Cherry Bread Recipe Overview

This bread came together easy.  You can make yours in two large loaf pans or 5 small.  The only thing that will vary is the bake time depending on what size pan you use.

Making The Cherry Bread Batter:

First, prep the cherries. We used fresh ripe sweet cherries from a local orchard. To prep, wash then pit the cherries. You can pit cherries by hand if you don’t eat fresh cherries very often. A cherry pitter does make the pitting much faster.

After the cherries have been pitted, chop them in to small pieces and dab them dry with a few paper towels. Be carefully not to get the juice on anything you don’t want stained pink.

Next, in a large bowl, cream the butter, melted coconut oil and sugar together until it lightens in color and becomes fluffy. This usually takes 2 to 3 minutes.

After the mixture is creamed add the eggs.

Once incorporated added the lemon juice, milk, and vanilla.

the batter will look chunky.  This is normal and will go away in a minute.  Next, in goes the chopped cherry pieces. Then the dry ingredients.

Make sure that once you add the dry ingredients only mix the batter until it is blended. You don’t want to over mix it. To ensure the batter doesn’t get overmixed feel free to use a spatula at the end to finish mixing the dry ingredients.

Now, set the cherry bread batter aside and start on the lemon cream cheese filling.

Lemon Cream Cheese Filling:

In a separate bowl, cream together the cream cheese and sugar until it is smooth then add the eggs. 

Then, added the flour, lemon juice, and zest.  That’s it.  Super easy!

Assembling The Lemon Cherry Bread:

I think the hardest part of this bread is layering the bread batter and filling (and it’s not even that hard).  

Depending on what size loaf pans you chose to use will influence how many loaves you will end up with. We made 1 large loaf (5×9-inch) and 3 small loaves (3×5 3/4-inch).  You could make 2 large loaves or 5 small loaves.  It’s really whatever you prefer.

Spray each pan with non stick spray then coat with a thin layer of flour to help the bread come out clean or line with parchment paper.

Divide the cherry bread batter in HALF. You will use half the batter on the bottom and half on top.

Place equal amounts of the batter in each loaf pan bottom and spread until even. Then divide the lemon cream cheese filling equally into each pan. After the filling has been evenly spread, dollop and carefully spread the remaining cherry bread batter over the filling of each pan. Once the last layer was smoothed the bread is ready for the oven.

Bake the loaves in a preheated oven set to 375°F.

Lemon Glaze

While the bread is baking feel free to make the easy lemon glaze. When I say ‘easy’ I mean just that. This lemon glaze only requires two ingredients: lemon juice and powdered sugar.

It’s sweet tangy nature is the “cherry on top” so to speak. To make this easy lemon glaze, in a small bowl blend the lemon juice and powdered sugar together. The sugar will melt into the lemon juice and make a thin pourable glaze.

When the bread is done, let the loaves cool slightly then glazed by carefully pouring the lemon glaze over the bread. Allow the glaze to run all the way to the edges. You’ll be glad to get that sweet tang in every bite.

Mini Loaves:

Here’s how the small loaves turned out for us. Mini loaves are great to freeze for later or give as a sweet edible summer gift.

A slice of this bread is really just a piece of summery heaven.  😉  The ribbon of cream cheese with a hint of lemon is divine.

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You May Also Like These Recipes:

• Easy Creamy Lemon Cheesecake Bars
• Toasted Coconut Lime Cookie with lime glaze
• No-Knead Cranberry Walnut Bread
• Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
• Soft Amish Cinnamon Cookies

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Lemon Cherry Bread Recipe Card:

Recipe inspired by: Recipe Treasures

Originally Published: 08.17.2017 Updated: 03.06.2024