Today I have a guest post (a guest recipe post! yum!) from my friend and this month's featured sponsor Margarita from Adventures of a Fab Brunette. I met Margarita & her daughter two years ago in Vancouver and we had such a great time together! She's a total sweetheart who makes a mean cupcake and I think you'll really enjoy getting to know her & peek into her kitchen. xo, k.

My name is Margarita and I run the blog Adventures of a Fab Brunette. I’m 27, recently married to the love of my life, I have a 5 year old daughter, Princess, and I’m pregnant with Fab Baby #2 who is due in May 2012! I love to travel, cook, and eat! I live in British Columbia about 30 minutes away from Whistler, a lovely skiing town, and when I’m not running around town shopping and eating at my favourite restaurants, I am at home in the kitchen creating meals for my family.

I’ve created a fabulously domesticated blissful for myself and my blog is reflective of that. I run a Cupcake and Cake catering business called Le Petit Cupcakery and I adore spending hours perfecting edible designs for weddings and birthdays. I would love to spend a whole day in absolute luxury. Bubble baths, mani-pedis, and concierges, and shoe shopping – with an unlimited budget of course. Dining at the finest restaurant and spending an evening at the theatre – that would be fabulous.

My favourite current recipe is this one for Banana Streusel muffins. Every bite is a bit of homey goodness!

I don’t know about you, but I love anything with streusel on it. It’s silly, really, streusel is only flour, sugar and melted butter, thrown together – but a muffin is just a muffin until you throw some streusel on it. Really, try it.

These banana muffins are amazing, and I think a secret is slicing the bananas instead of mashing them up; every time you take a bite a juicy morsel of banana invades your mouth and you surrender. So good.

This recipe is from Sarabeth Levine’s cookbook “Sarabeth’s Bakery: From My Hands to Yours”, which is quickly becoming one of my favourite books to bake from.

Ingredients

Streusel

• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Muffin

• Softened butter (to grease pan)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• Grated zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, beaten & at room temp
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 4 small ripe bananas, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter the muffin pan.
2. To make streusel: mix flour, superfine sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and vanilla with your fingers in a small bown until combined and crumbly. Set aside.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
4. In a stand mixer (or a bowl and hand mixer) beat the butter on high speed until smooth (1 min). Gradually add the sugar and continue beating, scraping sides when necessary for about 5 mins. Beat in lemon zest and vanilla. Slowly beat in the eggs, then the milk.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low. In thirds add the flour, alternating with the sour cream (F,S,F,S,F), do not overbeat. Fold in the bananas.
6. Use an ice cream scoop and fill the muffin cups equally and generously. Sprinkle the tops with the streusel.
7. Bake for 10 minutes then reduce temperature to 375°F and bake until muffin tops are golden brown and cake tester comes out clean, about 15 minutes more.
8. Cool in pan 10 mins. Remove the muffin and allow to cool completely.