Bailey's Irish Cream Cupcakes

Today was super fun and so I wanted to share with you! My cooperating teacher was out for the day and so I got to teach all day long! It was exhausting, but also fun.  And now, I am so ready to tell you about these guys: 

I started off my day with a few meetings about Algebra and Geometry with the other teachers who teach those topics.  Then, it was time for Algebra 2.  I had a substitute in the room, but she really let me take the lead and just sat back.  Today’s first lesson was about graphing in three dimensions.  With some handy manipulatives, students explored graphing in three dimensions with their groups.  Following a brief discussion about graphing 3-D things on a 2-D sheet of paper (things can get messy) we took a quick activity break. 

I led a “group juggle” activity.  In this activity, the entire class juggles three objects.  Every person throws a stuffed animal or other soft object to someone else and, following the same order, you try and get three or more objects flying through the air without crashing or dropping.  This is a good way to get people saying names and since I am fairly new, I was trying my best to learn all their names!  Also, the challenge of not getting confused or dropping any objects makes it a fun challenge for the students. 

After our 5-minute break, the students returned to their seats for the next lesson: The Cooling Corpse! IN this lesson, students use exponential relationships to solve a murder mystery.  The students acted out the murder story and then got to work in their teams.  They got to be detectives and use math to figure out who the murderer was.  It was so fun to see them get into this and learn more about exponential relationships.  It was a fun class all around.  Plus, the next class was the same thing! I got to do this all again, but better because I had already practiced it once!

After a long day, it was time for lunch and a little planning time before working out and then returning home for dinner.  PHEW!

Now, I am watching Pretty Little Liars (great show) and getting ready to share an amazing recipe that I made recently: Bailey’s Irish Cream Cupcakes.  I brought these in for my teacher friends and they were an instant hit! These cupcakes were absolutely delicious!

Bailey’s Irish Cream Cupcakes (adapted from Recipe Girl)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 tbsp cake flour

2 3/4 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup non-fat plain greek yogurt (I used Chobani)

10 tbsp unsalted butter (room temperature)

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

3/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream

Frosting:

1 cup unsalted butter

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

4 tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream

2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare enough cupcake pans for 24 cupcakes.

2. In a small bowl, mix the chocolate chips with the 1/2 tbsp of flour.  Set aside.

3. In another medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt.   

4. In a large bowl, beat the butter and greek yogurt with both sugars until well combined.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until well combined.  Beat in the vanilla.  

5. Alternate adding the flour and Baileys starting and ending with the flour until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Fill cupcake wells almost to the top and bake for about 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool.

6. Make the frosting: beat the butter until light and fluffy.  Slowly beat in the powdered sugar.  Beat in the Baileys and vanilla.  Frost cooled cupcakes.

Enjoy :)