Banana bread with cream cheese swirl

So, I know I warned you that I make a lot of cheesecake – and this (technically) isn’t cheesecake, but it might as well be.  It’s the most delicious combination of cheesecake with banana bread (or cake – whatever you want to call it).

Ingredients

Banana bread/cake:

• 125g butter (melted)
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup buttermilk*
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
• 3 ripe bananas (mashed)

Cream cheese swirl:

• 375g cream cheese (softened)
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 egg

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced).  Grease either a 22cm or 9″ loaf tin (this will give you a higher cake/bread) or a 22cm or 9″ cake tin (this will be lower, but bigger).
2. Add butter, caster sugar, buttermilk, egg and additional egg yolk to medium-sized bowl and mix well.
3. Add flour, baking soda and salt and fold in well.
4. Add mashed banana and stir through.  Leave to one side.
5. In a small mixing bowl add cream cheese, flour, caster sugar and remaining egg.  combine until creamy.
6. Pour half of the banana mixture into the cake tin.  Don’t worry about evenness or smoothing this out.
7. Take the cream cheese mixture and spoon or dollop this onto the banana mixture in the cake tin.  This also does not have to be even or consistent – the less even, the more of a ‘swirl’ effect will be created.  You can spread this so that it is in all of the cake, just don’t mix in.  Keep adding until all mixture is used.
8. Add the remaining banana mixture on top.  Ensure this has completely covered the cream cheese mixture.
9. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown on top.  You can check whether cooked with a skewer, but don’t panic if some cream cheese comes out on the skewer.
10. Let cool before devouring.

* If you’re like me and sometimes forget to buy buttermilk, then you can substitute this for the following:

• 1 cup buttermilk = 1 tbsp of lemon juice in a cup measure, then fill with normal (full cream or whole) milk.  Stir well then leave to sit for 2-3 minutes.  This will curdle and become your buttermilk.
  • For a 1/4 cup, like here I just use about 3/4 tsp lemon juice in a 1/4 cup measurement of milk.