Maraschino cherries, peanut butter a sweet surprise

Though not an exact flavour match, these Chocolate Cherry Surprises may scratch an itch for those missing Cherry Blossoms — the iconic (and divisive) Hershey’s treat discontinued earlier this year.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/12/2025 (269 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Though not an exact flavour match, these Chocolate Cherry Surprises may scratch an itch for those missing Cherry Blossoms — the iconic (and divisive) Hershey’s treat discontinued earlier this year.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
                                Donna Fontaine’s cherry surprises were a favourite treat of her former co-workers.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS

Donna Fontaine’s cherry surprises were a favourite treat of her former co-workers.

“I make these every Christmas as part of my annual baking,” writes recipe submitter Donna Fontaine. “Prior to retiring, I could easily make 12 dozen of these and include them in the many plates of Christmas baking distributed to co-workers. Two years ago, my niece even requested that I make them for her bridal shower. They are always a hit!”

As with Cherry Blossoms, one element of these confections can be hard to find: stemmed maraschino cherries. Fontaine recommends visiting the Sobeys Cash and Carry (840 Dufferin Ave.) to secure this sometimes elusive ingredient.

 

Cherry Surprises

250 ml (1 cup) Rice Krispies cereal

250 ml (1 cup) peanut butter

250 ml (1 cup) icing sugar

30 ml (2 tbsp) butter, melted

1 (375-ml/12-oz) jar stemmed maraschino cherries, drained

5 (28-g/1-oz) squares semi-sweet chocolate

1 (2.5-cm/1-inch) square food-grade paraffin wax

Mix peanut butter, icing sugar and butter together in a large bowl. Add cereal and stir until coated. Place in the refrigerator and chill until firm.

Shape the chilled cereal mixture into a ball around each individual maraschino cherry, leaving the stem exposed. Return to the fridge until ready to use.

Using the microwave or a double boiler, melt the chocolate with the paraffin wax, stirring often, until smooth and uniform.

Dip cherries in chocolate mixture. Let harden and store in the fridge.

— Donna Fontaine

Homemade Holidays is an annual Free Press tradition featuring 12 festive desserts published over 12 days in December. Click here to find this year’s batch of reader-submitted recipes.

winnipegfreepress.com/evawasney

Eva Wasney

Eva Wasney
Reporter

Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva.

Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

History

Updated on Thursday, December 4, 2025 7:58 AM CST: Rearranges photos, changes formatting

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Looking back on Bombers shocking, and convincing, win over CFL’s top team

Taylor Allen 7 minute read Preview

Looking back on Bombers shocking, and convincing, win over CFL’s top team

Taylor Allen 7 minute read Yesterday at 4:52 PM CDT

It was getting harder and harder to believe in the 2026 edition of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

If anyone outside their locker room picked them to beat the Montreal Alouettes, they must’ve kept it to themselves, as pundits — this one included — and armchair quarterbacks across the nation doubted their chances heading into Friday night.

And honestly, rightfully so. The Bombers had left a lot to be desired through their opening 10 games.

But no matter what the stats say or what outsiders think, they play the games for a reason.

Read
Yesterday at 4:52 PM CDT

Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

By Zoe Pierce 4 minute read Preview

Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

By Zoe Pierce 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

Fifty years after Dr. Pravinsagar Mehta began caring for residents at Actionmarguerite, a courtyard he had long watched deteriorate is getting a new life after he and his wife committed $500,000 to its redevelopment and long-term maintenance.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

Manitoba Hydro’s strategy: Deny, deny, deny

Tim Sale 5 minute read Preview

Manitoba Hydro’s strategy: Deny, deny, deny

Tim Sale 5 minute read Friday, Aug. 28, 2026

Here’s a good story…

A man walks into your office and says, “Have I got a deal for you! I want $3 billion (plus perhaps a bit more) to build you something that you might use three or even four times a year, for maybe 30-60 hours each time. Sign here.”

You might respond… “and I’ve got a lovely bridge for sale…”

That is exactly what Manitoba Hydro wants — $3 billion or more, plus the fossil fuel bonus for peak load events that happen a few times each year. They assure us that the gas turbines will only be used very occasionally. At the same time, they tell us that we are headed for a crisis of energy supply by 2030.

Read
Friday, Aug. 28, 2026

Former care home nurse fined $8,000 for ‘disturbing in the extreme’ 2025 incident

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Preview

Former care home nurse fined $8,000 for ‘disturbing in the extreme’ 2025 incident

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

A former nurse has been fined $8,000 and is facing numerous restrictions after making a mistake “no registered nurse should have made” by inserting 10 centimetres of gauze into a patient’s anus instead of dressing a nearby wound.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

Council candidates call out vandalism after campaign signs defaced in Waverley West

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Preview

Council candidates call out vandalism after campaign signs defaced in Waverley West

Scott Billeck 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:15 PM CDT

A council candidate in Waverley West said she will not be intimidated after 16 of her campaign signs were vandalized this week — some with apparent gang symbols.

Nafiya Naso is the second candidate in the ward whose signs were defaced this month. Jasmine Brar, who is also running for the council seat, had some of her signs broken on Friday along Kenaston Boulevard and signs near Naso’s that were also defaced on Saturday.

Earlier this month, Eaglewood Park in the nearby Prairie Pointe neighbourhood was also vandalized with graffiti that included homophobic slurs, anti-India messages and repeated references to “3LK” — a symbol Naso believes is associated with a gang.

Naso’s signs, located along Waverley Street near Tim Sale Drive and across from École South Pointe School in southwest Winnipeg, were spray-painted with apparent gang signs, crude drawings and other messages, including “loser” and “Ur not winning” written across her name and photograph.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 3:15 PM CDT

Of frogs, roses, kings and a Great Lake

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Of frogs, roses, kings and a Great Lake

Editorial 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, as the saying goes. Basically, if you change something’s name, you don’t actually change the nature of the thing.

That being said, if even 15 years ago an American president had called an entire news conference to announce he was renaming one of the Great Lakes by writing on a map with a red pen and issuing an executive order purporting to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” all and sundry would question his mental health.

Maybe, after witnessing so much from Donald Trump, we’ve all just been hardened off and the foolish is now expected daily. Perhaps it’s the political equivalent of the fable of the boiling frog.

As the fable goes, drop a frog into a pot of boiling water and it will jump right out. But put the frog in room temperature water and bring the pot to a boil, the frog will stay until its death. (It’s unlikely the frog would actually wait.)

Read
Yesterday at 2:01 AM CDT