Chocolate Hummingbird Cheesecake

Chocolate Hummingbird Cheesecake

A little while back we featured a Carrot Cake Cheesecake that showed a cheesecake top baked at the same time on a cake base. This recipe is one that I came up with as another example of this method. I thought that a banana pecan cake like a hummingbird cake would make an excellent base for a a chocolate cheesecake and indeed it did turn out very well. My neighborhood taste testers gave this one very high marks. I think it would make a very nice dessert at any holiday meal.

Hummingbird Cake Base:

• 1 ½ cups flour
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup canola oil
• ½ cup roughly chopped toasted pecans

(Toast pecans for 5 minutes at 350 degrees for 5 minutes tossing twice before chopping)

• 2 small bananas, ripe but firm NOT MUSHY (cut in quarters lengthways and cubed)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp butterscotch flavoring (optional)

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9 or 10 inch springform pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Grease the paper as well and dust the pan lightly with flour.
Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Mix the sugars, eggs and oil until light and fluffy. Fold in the dry ingredients until not quite completely mixed. Finally fold in the chopped nuts and chopped bananas. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Chocolate Cheesecake Top

• 1 pound cream cheese
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup cocoa
• ½ cup whipping cream

Blend together cream cheese, sugar, and cocoa. Add the eggs one at a time blending until smooth after each addition. Finally blend in the whipping cream and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Spoon the cheesecake mixture evenly over the Hummingbird Cake batter in the springform pan and bake at 300 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before removing it to a serving plate. Garnish with chocolate ganache and toasted pecans if desired.

Chocolate Ganache

Melt together in a double boiler:

• 1 cup chocolate chips 
• ¼ cup whipping cream