Banoffee Cheesecake

There isn’t much that really needs to be said about this so I’ll cut straight to the point. It’s delicious. Bake it, eat it, have another slice of it with extra caramel. Then go for a jog so you don’t completely defeat the purpose of your ‘depriving myself of all things yummy’ new years resolution.

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits
100g butter

Preheat the oven to 180C

Grease and line a 20in cake tin (spring form probably best!)

melt the butter and while it’s melting crush up your biscuits really well

Add the crushed biscuits to the melted butter and mix well

Spread/press the base into the prepared tin

Bake for 15 minutes

For the cheesecake:

150g very ripe banana (if your bananas aren’t very ripe bake them in the oven a about 180 until the skins blacken, leave them to cool before taking them out to add to the cheesecake)
500g cream cheese
200g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
11/2 bsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (separated)
*3 tbsp caramel (you can omit this from the recipe, I added it because I liked the idea of some caramel flavor running through the cake alongside the banana)

Mash or blend your bananas really really well

Add everything but the egg whites to the bananas and blend together really well

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks

Carefully fold the egg whites into the creamy cheesecake mixture

Pour into the tin

This is where I added my caramel. I whisked it a little to smoothen it then dropped a couple of teaspoons into the mix. I dragged a knife gently through to swirl it in. There was no marble effect once baked but I didn’t want to add too much and cause the cake to collapse.

I was worried about a lemon drizzle incident the way the cake rose and fell but I shouldn’t have been. It was gorgeous. Definitely benefits from being chilled overnight so if you’re going to make it for a dinner party or other event I’d do it the day before. When it’s ready to serve drizzle over some caramel and grate some chocolate on top.