MAKE IT CUTE

4 tablespoons tightly packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons canola or corn oil
Muffins:
1½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup tightly packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¹⁄8 teaspoon salt
½ cup buttermilk
¾ cup canola or corn oil
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Tools:
Measuring cups and spoons
12-cup standard muffin pan
Paper liners
1 small, 1 medium, and 1 large bowl
Table spoon
Whisk
Spring-loaded ice-cream scoop (optional): 1 tablespoon
Toothpick
Oven mitts
Cooling rack

1. Before you begin
Position an oven rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375°F. Line the muffin pan with paper liners.

2. Make the streusel topping
Put the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl and stir with the spoon to mix. Add the oil and stir, smashing any large lumps, until the mixture is an even brown and looks like damp sand. Stir in the nuts. Set aside.

3. Make the muffin batter
Put the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in the large bowl and whisk to blend well. Put the buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla in the medium bowl. Whisk to blend evenly.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour the liquid ingredients into the well. Whisk gently at first, and then more vigorously until you have a smooth batter. A few small lumps are okay.

4. Fill the cups and bake
Put a tablespoon of batter in each cup. Top with a generous teaspoon of the streusel topping. Divide the remaining batter evenly among the cups, about 2 additional tablespoons in each cup. The batter will fill the cups a little over halfway. Sprinkle a generous teaspoon of the streusel mixture over the top of each muffin.

Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Using oven mitts, transfer the pan to the cooling rack.

Bella's tip: I like to use a 1-tablespoon-size ice-cream scoop to fill the cups—it keeps things neat and easy. I put one scoop in the bottom, then streusel, then 2 more scoops on top, then more streusel. It goes fast with the scoop.

From Baking Kids Love by Sur La Table with Cindy Mushet/Andrews McMeel Publishing