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Homemade fruitbreads add a festive and delicious touch to your breakfast table. Use a lovely decorative mold to take things up another notch.

Why try? This recipe offers you a sweet way to dress up breakfast—or serve it as luscious yet not-so-decadent dessert.

Foodie Byte: We topped this Cherry-Pecan Bread with a dusting of powdered sugar. To make it more of a dessert, you could drizzle on a vanilla icing, perhaps with a little lemon or orange zest.

Instead of pecans, you could easily substitute other nuts such as walnuts, almonds or other favorites you may prefer.

The use of the mold really does add visual appeal. Just be sure to grease the mold well with oil or baking spray so the bread won’t stick.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 - 10 ounce jar maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cream sugar, butter and eggs until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt, stir into creamed mixture. Add buttermilk, mix well. Stir in nuts, cherries and vanilla.
3. Turn batter into a well-greased 2-quart steam mold.
4. Bake 1 hour. Remove from pan and cool on rack.