Single Serve Vegan Pistachio Cupcake and My Last Lecture

Single Serve Vegan Pistachio Cupcake

Single Serve Vegan Pistachio Cupcake

I am posting the recipe of the Vegan Pistachio Cupcake I brought to my Last Lecture Monday of last week at IUP.  I only brought three samples of this version to share with the vegans in my class.  It tasted very close to the 105 mini Pistachio Cupcakes I brought which was based on the recipe posted previously in this blog.  The vegan version does not have eggs nor sour cream found in the original.   It was made with vegetable oil, milk, pistachio pudding and lastly homemade yellow cake mix which were also used in the original.  Somehow the stripped down vegan version was surprisingly as delicious and with great texture as the original.  The recipe is at the end of the post.

The Last Lecture

The last lecture I gave Monday last week was not modeled after ongoing series of lectures where academics give hypothetical "final talks" wherein they deliver and share to the whole world what matters to them if they knew it was their last chance.   It was not my intention to fashion my last lecture either after what the late Randy Pausch gave in his famous Last Lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in 2008 wherein he eloquently spoke about words of wisdom intended for his very young children whom he knew then he would be leaving eventually since he was dying of pancreatic cancer.  Mine was literally my last lecture for the semester and at IUP since I was retiring at the end of the semester.  It was on the last chapter that I cover for my CHEM 101 classes, Radiation.  I did have a post in this blog which was more both autobiographical and philosophical at the same time which I gave during the retirement party given to me two weeks ago. 

Though my last lecture was business as usual, I did want to use five minutes of my lecture time to speak about the relevance of chemistry.  The topic was on Radiation, a part of which was its use as therapeutic treatment for cancer. I wanted to convey the message that it saved my life when I had the rare cancer of the sweat glands three years ago. Since 2013, I have used the mask I am wearing in the picture below as a show and tell of this important fact.  However, I never wore it the way I did in this picture below looking like a headless person with the pose that sent the iphones of the students clicking for posterity sake for their facebook pages.   Anyway the mask was really frightening to see not to mention my emotional account about how it was used during my radiation treatment.  I am glad I was able to lighten up the situation with this headless pose complete with the finger the symbol of which I have no clue what it is for.

I was debating on whether to share the pistachio cupcakes I brought for them at the beginning, or pass it out during the lecture or at the end after the lecture.  My "advisers" in the class suggested the best time to be at the end of the lecture.  It was a jampacked lecture wherein I covered almost the whole Chapter 9 so there was no time left at the end of the class period for an impromptu party.  Some did come down who had time before their next class and sampled the green pistachio mini cupcakes I brought wherein I used the original recipe for Pistachio Cupcakes  found in a past post .  They must really liked them.  One of the students emailed me right after the lecture for the recipe asap.   I also brought mini vegan pistachio cupcakes which I asked three students to try and they said the vegan version is better than the original one.  For me both the original and the vegan are equally good.  Here is the recipe of the Single Serve Vegan Pistachio Cupcakes.

Single Serve Vegan Pistachio Cupcakes



Ingredients

3 tbsp homemade yellow cake mix or store bought

1/2 tbsp pistachio pudding mix

3 1/2 tbsp milk of your choice

1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/8 tsp almond extract

Place all the ingredients in a cereal bowl and mix them with a fork till they are well blended.

Transfer the mixture to a ramekin or coffee cup that has been sprayed with cooking spray. 

Microwave for 40 seconds till the tooth pick comes out clean.  (I used a 1100 watt oven.  Baking time might be longer with a lower 750 watt oven). 

You can top the cake with Cool Whip or your favorite frosting.  It is good as is however.

Pictures and Cards 





Here are a motley of pictures:  pictures taken by DaSean, one of my students, after my Last Lecture; pictures of my former students who visited me at my office to bid good-byes; and several pictures of my CHEM 101 students during their finals two days after my last lecture.  I was so preoccupied with so many things I was not able to take my students' pictures during my last lecture. 

Noah photo bombing Dasean's pose. Thank you Noah, Kylie, Victoria and Lexie for the homemade card.  Your kind words plus that hilarious quotes made my day that day and any day I read them. 

DaSean with me.  Thanks for the pictures and the beautifully written thank you note that came with it. 

I am with Cassie Smolic who came by to give me the infinity scarf she made shown below.  She gave me a very touching thank you note for teaching her CHEM 101 and 102 which helped her get into the Dietetics Internship program at IUP.

I love this scarf and this pose.  Ha ha.

Chelsea Territo who was in my CHEM 111 lab.   Thanks for the wonderful words of wisdom in your card, Chelsea.

Breanna O'Sullivan, a former CHEM 102 student, and one of the many SI leaders I have been lucky to have these past few years.  Thanks Dr. Sally Lipsky and IUP for this wonderful SI program.  Thanks Breanna for the tea and mug plus the care you gave to my students last semester in CHEM 102 together with Lauren Comunale.

The students during the lecture finals.  In the foreground, is this semester's SI leader, Justin. Thanks Justin. To all my students, my very best wishes for the future and thank you for the effort and time you put into learning chemistry.