Carrot and Banana Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting

A perfect mash-up of two favourite desserts. The best of both baking worlds: Carrot Cake and Banana Bread.

Banana Bread:
½ cup butter, melted
¾ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
¼ cup whole milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. sea salt
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
¼ cup carrots, grated
¼ cup pecans, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, softened
1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp. sea salt
½ cup confectioners' sugar

Garnish:
chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C/160°C fan, Gas Mark 4). Grease a 9x5" loaf pan and line with parchment paper.

Make the Banana Bread:
In a large bowl, stir together butter and sugars until combined. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla and mix until combined. Slowly add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg and stir until completely incorporated. Gently fold in bananas, carrots and pecans and mix until fully combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth top with a spatula. Bake about 1 hour, until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs, then let cool.

Make the Frosting:
In a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla, salt and powdered sugar until fluffy.

Once cool, frost bread and garnish with pecans.

Makes 10 servings.