Cherry cloud bars are light, fluffy cloud-like cakes bursting with delicious cherry pie filling and lightly glazed. These bars are simple to throw together and are great for sharing at any gathering with family and friends.
I love the colors and flavor of cherries and they add such a bright festiveness to any holiday or gathering. Cherry pie filling tends to go on sale during the fall months, particularly around Thanksgiving and again in the spring near Valentines’ day.
We usually take advantage of these sales and stock up to have a few cans on hand for easy, last-minute desserts or snacks.
For this particular recipe, you’ll want to use a jelly roll baking sheet. Jelly roll pans measure 10″x 15″ and are shallow in depth. Jelly roll pans hold 10 cups of batter.
To give you an idea of the difference a normal baking sheet pan measures 12″x 18″, which holds 16 cups of batter.
This is a versatile recipe and if you’d like, you can swap out the cherries for any flavor pie filling and create blueberry bars, apple pie bars, raspberry pie bars, or even lemon meringue bars.
Cherry Pie Bars
You’ll Need:
1 cup of butter, softened (but not completely melted)
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cans of cherry pie filling (can use just 1 if you need to)
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- In a mixing bowl, cream your butter, sugar- add eggs, vanilla, and almond extract, beating well to mix. Add flour and salt, mixing well.
- Spread half of the batter in a jelly roll baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, Spoon the pie filling over the batter; then randomly drop tablespoons remaining batter over the pie filling (*do not mix the pie filling INTO the cake)
- Bake for 30-35 min or until your toothpick comes out clean
Glaze the Top:
If you wish to add a glaze mix 1 c. Powdered sugar, 1 tsp almond extract, 1-2 Tablespoons milk, and drizzle over the baked bars after they have completely cooled.
Using homemade cherry pie filling, as opposed to commercially canned cherry pie filling will result in darker colored bars.
Small Batch Cherry Pie Bars
If you’d like to downsize this to an 8″x8″ pan Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
1/2 cup of butter, softened (but not completely melted)
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 can of cherry pie filling
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- In a mixing bowl, cream your butter, sugar- add eggs, vanilla, and almond extract, beating well to mix. Add flour & salt, mixing well.
- Spread half of the batter in an 8″x8″ baking pan.
- Spoon the pie filling over the batter, randomly drop tablespoons remaining batter over the pie filling (*do not mix the pie filling INTO the cake)
- Bake for 30-35 min or until your toothpick comes out clean.
Tried this recipe? Mention @Budget101com or tag #Budget101
Love this Cherry Pie Bar Recipe? Pin it!
Cherry Pie Bars
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (softened)
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 42 ounces cherry pie filling ((2 cans of pie filling), you can use just 1 if you need to )
- 1 cup Powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 Tablespoons milk (add more, as needed to get desired consistency)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- In a mixing bowl, cream your butter, sugar- add eggs, vanilla, and almond extract, beating well to mix.1 cup butter2 cups sugar4 eggs1 teaspoon vanilla extract1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- Add flour and salt, mixing well.3 cups all-purpose flour1/2 teaspoon salt
- Spread half of the batter in a jelly roll baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
- Spoon the pie filling over the batter; then randomly drop tablespoons remaining batter over the pie filling (*do not mix the pie filling INTO the cake)42 ounces cherry pie filling
- Bake for 30-35 min or until your toothpick comes out clean
Prepare Glaze Topping
- Combine the glaze ingredients, mixing well, let rest while cherry bars bake. Once the bars have been removed from the oven, let them cool 15 minutes before drizzling with glaze.1 cup Powdered sugar1 teaspoon almond extract2 Tablespoons milk
Equipment
If you altered the ingedients above by doubling or tripling the recipe, you may also need to change the pan/dish size and adjust the cooking/baking time.
Nutrition
Other Cherry Recipes that you might like to try:
See Also:
(¯`•.•´¯)¸•´¯`☆
.`•.¸¸.•´ Recipe from Budget101.com
in the list of ingredients.. the recipe calls for almond and vanilla extract, yet in directions the vanilla is omitted… do you add it also or not?
I made the 8″ x 8″ version, exactly as the recipe instructs. After 20 minutes, the dough was nowhere near done. I gave it another 5 minutes–not done. Anyone else have this experience?
Yes I made the small batch of cherry squares followed recipe exactly and even after 35 min in an 8×8 pan the squares were raw I had to throw away
That is why the recipe states “or until a toothpick comes out clean”. In my gas oven it takes 35 minutes, in the electric oven it took 40 and in my air fryer it took 32. It really depends on your oven, also, every time the oven door is opened, remember that it drops the temperature about 50F which changes the bake time.
Can you tell me what the ingredient amounts would be for a 12×18 pan, please?
A 12″x18″rimmed baking sheet holds 16 cups of batter. A 10″x15″ inch jelly roll pan holds 10 cups of batter, which is the same as a 10×2 inch round pan, 9-inch square pan, 11×7 pan, 9×2.5 inch springform pan, or 10-inch Bundt pan.
To use a 12″x18″ pan for this recipe you’d have to use 1.5 times the amount. Since the small batch is already halved for you, you could simply add those ingredient amounts to the regular recipe listed above it.
Also, Here’s a guide on how to half a recipe.
Made these with gluten free flour and 1 can of pie filling. Turned out fantastic! Had trouble with glaze as printed—added extra milk and came out fine. DELICIOUS!
Do they have to be refrigerated?
If they aren’t going to be consumed within a day or two, I would.
Delicious, I made the half batch size for a potluck. Got numerous comments on how good they were. Thank you for the recipe
I’ve made these with cherry, blueberry, apple and peach. All turned out great.
I’ve made these several times now, however this is the first time in the larger pan. How much longer do you think the time should be adjusted by?