Vegan Banoffee Cheesecake

Well, it was a complete success!! Unfortunately it was scoffed so quickly that I didn't manage to get a photo of the yummyness that was the vegan banoffee cheesecake, but believe me, it was possibly better than any cheesecake with cheese in it!

I based the recipe on a James Martin Banoffee Cheesecake, which I've veganised and also changed some of the other bits slightly... here's my animal-free version:

For the base
150g/8 oz biscuits (I used half digestives; half gingernuts)
75g/2 oz marg (I used Pure)
2 tbsp golden syrup

For the topping
1 oz marg
2/3 bananas, peeled and cut into chunks

For the filling
2x bananas, peeled and cut into chunks
2x 225g tubs of plain tofutti
1 tbsp maple syrup
1x caramel sauce (below)

For the caramel sauce
2 oz soft light brown sugar
175ml cup cold water
50ml cold soya milk
1+1/2 tablespoons corn flour
3 teaspoons marg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. For the base, place the biscuits into a bowl and crush. Place the marg and golden syrup into a pan and heat until melted. Pour this over the crushed biscuits and mix everything together well with a wooden spoon. Place this mixture into a deep (about 5cm) loose-bottomed tin (I think mine was about 25cm diameter) and flatten with the back of a spoon. Place in the fridge to set.

2. For the topping, heat a frying pan until hot then add the marg and the bananas and fry for 2-3 minutes, until golden-brown. Remove the bananas from the pan and add to the fridge to cool.

3. Next, make the caramel sauce: mix the sugar with water inside a pan and heat. In a separate bowl, mix the soya milk and corn flour. When the sugar and water mixture starts to boil, add the milk and flour mixture. When the caramel mixture becomes a reasonalby thick consistency, take it off the heat and add the marg and stir until smooth, before adding the vanilla.

4. When all the other ingredients are cool, place the tofutti, maple syrup and caramel sauce (which will have thickened even more) into a bowl and mix until smooth, then stir in the uncooked bananas.

5. Finally, put this mixture onto the base and top with the cooked bananas. I also added some chopped mixed nuts to the topping. Chill this for as long as possible (I would say overnight if you could. I managed to leave it for about 4 hours before putting into the freezer for half an hour before eating. Another thing you might want to try - which I will be experimenting with next time - is to add some agar agar to the cheesecake mixture to try and help it set a bit more).