Banana Bread Cheesecake!

This incredible no-bake banana bread cheesecake combines a super-moist, walnut-studded banana sponge base with a thick, velvety vanilla mascarpone filling. Requiring 1 hour of active prep and baking time followed by a 6-hour chill, this unique hybrid dessert yields 12 delightful slices that solve the problem of what to do with overripe bananas.

Notes from The Patisserie

People tend to buy bananas and either eat them all, or leave them to go black and on their way to a little mouldy in the corner. However, there is anything wrong with this, because this means you can bake with them. Over ripe bananas are the dream for baking – and they’re great for this.

Standard banana bread relies heavily on butter, which turns rock-hard and unpleasantly dense when chilled. By switching to an oil-based banana bread recipe, the base remains incredibly soft, moist, and tender even at fridge temperatures. Vegetable or sunflower oils are 100% liquid fat, meaning they do not solidify when cold, ensuring that every forkful cleanly cuts through both the velvety cheesecake and the cake base in one uniform, luxurious bite.

Banana bread ingredients

I have made a number of different banana bread recipes over the years but the you can’t beat an oil-based banana bread recipe:

• Bananas – the standard part as you can imagine – I found three mashed bananas was ideal. 
• Oil – I used vegetable oil, but sunflower oil works well as well. 
• Egg – I used a medium egg, but you can use a large as well. 
• Sugar – I used light brown soft sugar as I like the flavour it brings to the banana bread 
• Flour – I use plain flour as you don’t want banana bread to be too cakey, so a smidge of baking powder added in works wonders
• Flavour – a dash of vanilla, and some chopped walnuts bring a delicious texture and sweetness. 

Cheesecake

The cheesecake part of this recipe is quite simple but I didn’t think it needed to be too over the top – using a simple no-bake cheesecake makes it much easier and more delicious in my opinion. 

• Cheese – I actually went for a full-fat mascarpone when making this as I wanted the naturally sweeter flavour, but you can use any full-fat cream cheese that you fancy. 
• Vanilla – I love a sweet vanilla flavour (there is also an option to add cinnamon if you want – also delicious) 
• Sugar – a little bit of icing sugar creates a lovely level of sweetness 
• Cream – as I am in the UK I use double cream as it’s the fattiest liquid cream you can use which creates the best set 

Decoration 

Because the main part of this show is the banana bread being topped with cheesecake the decoration was quite tame for me, but that’s no bad thing. I used some double cream whipped with icing sugar to soft peaks and piped into swirls around the edge, and then added on some chopped walnuts for extra decor. 

I love how simple it is, but you can definitely level it up in any way you fancy such as a melted chocolate, or caramelised banana or whatever you may prefer – there are no rules when it comes to decoration (Apart from don’t use squirty cream, it doesn’t work!!) 

FAQs

Storage and freezing

This beautiful banana bread cheesecake will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days in an airtight container or covered in foil, due to the cheesecake component never leave out of a fridge for extended periods of time. A non decorated and fully set cheesecake can be wrapped in cling film and stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost fully before finishing off the decoration and serving the delicious slices.

Related recipes

If you want to keep exploring the wonderful world of overripe banana bakes, satisfy your ultimate comfort cravings with the legendary lockdown-favourite Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, or scale things up into a crowd-feeding masterpiece with the decadently sweet Biscoff Banana Bread Traybake.