Banana bread with cream cheese frosting plated on granola

Now this an idea I came up with. I thought it sounded delicious so I tried it out.
We'll start the granola first, as it is the bottom layer.




Ingredients
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup cashews
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins

Directions
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.

In a separate bowl, combine maple syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and mix until evenly distributed.

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Now for the banana bread. You can prepare this while the granola is cooking. I didnt add nuts to this as i thought it may over do it as you have granola for a base.

INGREDIENTS
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
METHOD
No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

As the banana bread and granola rap up the baking process, allow them to cool.
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Now for the cream cheese vanilla frosting.


Ingredients

1/2 cup(s) (1 stick) butter (no substitutions), softened
1 package(s) (8-ounce) cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
1 package(s) (16-ounce) confectioners' sugar
Directions

In large bowl, with mixer at medium-high speed, beat butter, cream cheese, and vanilla 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Beat in confectioners' sugar until blended. Increase speed to medium-high; beat 2 minutes or until light and creamy.
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Now that we have everything done and it has been cooled, go ahead and take the banana bread and place it on top of the granola. What I did was cut around the outside of the banana bread, and I saved the granola for munching. It's perfect. Once you have that done, I supplied a thin layer of the frosting on top of the banana bread. This turned out better than I thought it would. It was delicious.