How the Amazon taught me to bake cupcakes

Wow.
Welcome back to the interwebs, Candice.
Now, while I really like you all and I really like blogging...I have to confess. I really didn't miss the internet at all this past month. Like, none.
Zip, Zero, Nada, Negative.
It could be because I was hanging out with these gorgeous people the whole time...maybe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Sorry for the overload of pictures, but I really like these people, okay? Okay. Moving on...)

 

I think I checked facebook once and even then as I was scrolling through my news feed, I got bored. And so the fact was reached that the world wide web was completely unnecessary for survival (or even happiness). This, and the realization that my life is going to get topsy turvy pretty soon, caused me to set aside a lengthy period of time to consider giving Purple Door Bakery a break. (and by "lengthy period" I mean 3 whole hours. That's a lot of hours for me to think about one thing, guys. Seriously.) I made nice pros and cons lists, and then I crossed them out and made different ones. In the end, I decided to keep it going as long as I can. I mean, I already took a mini hiatus for the month of June anyway. So for now, PDB is still chugging along.

That being said...let's talk cupcakes!
Yeahhhh. Cupcakes are pretty much always going down around these parts. It's a thing.
So yes. Show of hands, please. How many of you lovelies have been to the Amazon?
Nope, not the website. The jungle.

Right. If you haven't, you should. It's incredible. (This is connected to cupcakes eventually, I promise.)
Incredible people, incredible rivers, incredible lightning storms.
Incredible starry skies, incredible hearts, incredible opportunities for God to pick you gently up and thrust you into a story you never thought you would tell, much less live right out.

You know, it's pretty unfathomable that the person who imagined, designed, and put together every detail of the universe can still somehow know you perfectly.
God knows my favorite song and why it makes me cry (even though, to this day, I still don't know why myself.) He knows that when I was a girl I wanted to be a red-winged blackbird.
Confession: sometimes I still have days that I want to be a red-winged blackbird. This, along with why my favorite song makes me cry, is a mystery.
And He knows that when I am very happy (or unhappy) or very relaxed (or stressed) I like to bake. And He knows (yes, the all powerful, jaw dropping, magnificent God knows) that I like cupcakes.
The reason I know that He knows this is because of the Brazilian Amazon.

Ha! I love it!

On Sunday, June 23, 2013, in the small town of Caqueta, I woke up at 6 am to a tiny kitchen with no electricity. I hand beat enough butter cream frosting to decorate the five dozen cupcakes I had made during an impromptu prayer meeting the night before.

It was hands down the best baking experience of my entire life.
Better than any of the wedding cakes I've done, better than the time I sold my first cake, better even than the satisfying "pop" of the lid on my first can of successful jar of jam. It was just amazing.

I managed to make 5 dozen Bolinhos de Acerola e Morango without measuring cups, spoons, an electric mixer or American ingredients. The oven didn't even have degrees of temperature. It was a stick-your-hand-in-and-see-if-it's-hot-enough oven.

And to be doing something I really enjoyed for children I had never met (and yet somehow already loved) while praying with a group of women in two languages. Asking for grace and truth and Christ given power to cover ourselves and the men with us?

Yeah. You guys all need to visit the Amazon.
And make cupcakes there.
And if you do, I promise that it will only be the tip of the iceberg...there are so many things that happened in Brazil. Making cupcakes there just happens to be something that pertains to my frivolous baking blog.
That in and of itself is just SO DARN COOL. :D