This week we celebrate the first birthday of Steemit Culinary Challenge so I said to myself that I cant miss this week's challenge. Good thing is that the theme is apple, which was the last theme of another culinary contest, so I still have the main ingredients on hand. This week, I opted for something easy so that I can easily share with my family, my friends and everyone who wants. So I chose cupcakes. Without any ado, let's get started!

Apple Spice Cupcakes

Yield: 14 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 115 gr unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 200 gr coconut sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 80 ml milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 190 gr all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 medium apples, peeled, cut into small chunks. I used Granny Smith.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 180°C. In a large bowl, whisk melted butter and coconut sugar until well combined.

• Whisk in the egg, one at a time, then add in vanilla extract and milk. Set aside.

• In another large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Then slowly pour in the wet ingredients. Stir until well combined.

• Fold in the apples.

• Fill the cupcakes liners with the batter 3/4 of the way full. Bake for about 21 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

• Leave to cool completely on the wire rack before decorating.

Maple Buttercream

Ingredients

• 226 gr unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 94 gr coconut powdered sugar (I made my DIY coconut powdered sugar, recipe below)
• 60 ml maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions

• Place the butter, powdered sugar and salt in a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix them well until creamy.

• Add in maple syrup, continue mixing until smooth.

DIY Coconut Powdered Sugar

Ingredients

• 150 gr coconut sugar
• 1 tbsp arrowroot powder

Directions

• Place all the ingredients in a dry blender, if you dont have one like me, I used my food processor then moved to blender with small container. It will take quite some time. After blending, I sifted the sugar and put it back in the blender again. It's hard to reach the consistency of powdered sugar without dry blender, but it's ok for me.

Assembling

Put the buttercream in a piping bag with your desired piping tip. Pipe on top of the cupcakes. I decorated my cupcakes with a small rosette just like that. I dont want to put too much buttercream on top of the cupcakes this time :-)

I was indecisive when it came to choose the piping tip. I have tried Wilton tip 2A. Finally, I changed my mind and was back to my classic piping tip, 2D from Wilton.

Before signing off, I'd like to say: Happy Birthday Steemit Culinary Challenge!!!! All the best for the next journey. I'm glad to be part of this amazing competition. Thank you for @woman-onthe-wing for hosting this contest and for her amazing work for SCC.

If you like my post, please dont hesitate to upvote and resteem. Thank you for reading.

Cheers,

All work and images are original and mine. Photos were taken with Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000.