Never stop sowing seed.

"Never stop sowing seed." My dad said these words with great simplicity in a poignant way.

We were driving home from our family Christmas party where close to 200 of my dad's relatives gathered to share a meal and an afternoon celebrating Christmas.

We got in the car afterwards and I could he was thinking about something. But he wouldn't say what.

The car slowed and we pulled into the cemetery and then it slowed again as my eyes lifted to a familiar sight. My grandmothers heart shaped headstone stood out quite clearly to me and I thought.

I thought about this woman who I had never met and never known but who my heart filled with love for as tears formed in my eyes. I had heard many times from my dad about how magical Christmas was growing up for him and how special it was and I knew he missed his mother greatly.

I too missed this woman who I had heard so much about. Who's love flowed down through the hearts of her 19 children. This woman who was constantly giving of everything she had. No, I had never met my grandmother but I know in my heart I aspire to be like her.

And then we stopped in front of a grave much fresher. Fresh pain comes too as we have had much loss this year in our family. We had a much larger turn out at the family party this year but there was a noticeably somber atmosphere.

This year has been a year of great growth for me. It wasn't easy or happy all the time. I used to be a very closed off person...quiet, stoic, seemingly ignorant to emotions.

But all this has changed. My heart has is open. It is feeling. I find myself confronted with tears at things that, in the past, I would have fought against responding too. I tear up when I think about the children in Cambodia who have nothing. I was greatly moved when I read an article my cousin wrote about their journey through adoption. I find that my heart has become tender to these things.

When John the Baptist was beheaded, Jesus went of to be alone. But the crowds still followed. Instead of turning them away to grieve in selfish solitude, Jesus had compassion; true charity and love and he healed their sick.

I've learned this year the importance of opening up your heart. It is not always pleasant to make yourself vulnerable, but where pain abounds, love abounds so much more.

You cannot truly give without love. I know my grandmother loved and sowed seeds of love. I know my Aunt Dot loved. And while bodies may die, those seeds never do. Like a gentle wind blows the seeds of a dandelion to various places, our seeds of love travel far beyond where we could imagine and perpetuate throughout time.

I am keenly aware now of the changes that have taken place in me and I rejoice. I am thankful for the lessons and principles learned. I am grateful for a heart full of love, open, honest. I pray for a heart like those great women in my family. A heart ready to constantly give and sow. And I will remember those words "never stop sowing." Because each seed will go out and grow. It will touch others hearts. Perhaps it will open other hearts up also. And while it is true that tender hearts feel pain, it is necessary to have a tender heart before love can flow from it. And love, like blood that is pumped through the veins, carries a healing power. It carries hope and plants seeds.

So never stop loving; never stop sowing and always keep your heart open.

Thank You!

It's been a crazy week.

7 pounds of butter, 8 pounds of flour, 4 pounds of sugar, dozens of eggs and many sleepless nights later I realize how big and how fast Cupcakes for Cambodia grew.

I expected a few orders here and there...

I thought maybe some people might be interested in the cause.

What truly blesses my heart is too see orders pouring in and people freely giving donations just to help out.

I thought that things would be slow at first, but boy was I wrong. I pretty much have to stop taking Christmas orders because my schedule is jam packed (or else I'll have a night like I did last night where I ran out of sugar at 4:30 in the morning and still had cupcakes to bake. I finished them the next morning after a very much needed 2 hours of sleep).

And I am by no means complaining. I am simply in awe of how much people are willing to give (I am also in awe of how many cupcakes some people can eat hehe :)

So this is a simple thank you to everyone to everyone who has contributed through ordering, donating, building the website, supporting and helping, and telling others.

I would also like to thank SEAPC and everyone involved who on a daily basis gives of themselves to provide children in Southeast Asia a home, food, education, the Bible, medical care and so forth. The more I get to know those in Asia and those in America, the more I am awed, inspired, and thankful for each and every one of you!

I truly appreciate you and wish you blessings to you and yours this Christmas season.

Dream

Let me just preface this blog with a side note that as I sit here and write this, the weather is absolutely perfect for writing. It is December and while I would love snow, I really don't mind a soft gentle rain pattering down on the roof while I write. In fact, it may be my favorite weather for writing in.

Anyway, sometimes inspiration comes at the oddest of times and when you least expect it. I just spent my weekend doing absolutely nothing as I recovered from all the baking and working last week and in preparation for the next 2 weeks of baking as Christmas quietly approaches. So I wasn't trying to think deep thoughts or really even think about anything...I was really focused on sleeping and doing nothing.

But then I picked up a book, which transported me to another dimension you can say, and once the thoughts got going, I just ran with them.

I've been thinking dreams lately. I guess you could say the idea of "dreams" the notion of it, the imagination, the beauty of its wild wanderings has always been with me. I've thought about dreams a lot. I would consider myself a dreamer.

a dimension of dreams.

One of the favorite stories of my childhood that my dad tells about me was when he took me to Mosquito Lake one time when I was about 3 or 4. It was a beautiful sunny day and he said that as we were getting out of the car the Lord spoke to him and said, "Watch her." This was not like a "watch her, something bad is going to try to happen," but more of a "watch her, watch how she acts and thinks and what her mindset and imagination is." He proceeds to tell how, with childlike innocence devoid of any prejudice or preconceived ideas, walked up to an older African American gentleman who was fishing and started a conversation about how his fishing was going, not caring about the color of his skin, his age or income or background.

When we were through with our adventure that day and started walking back to the car, I laid down on the pavement and told my dad, "Lay down and lets watch the clouds."

I love that.

I love how the imagination of a child works. Unless they have been preconditioned or taught otherwise, they are not bound by societies limitations regarding income, race, family background, religion, tax brackets, political parties or professions.I love how children don't think about whether doing something like laying down in the parking lot will look foolish or not.

And every once in a while I find the need to rid myself of all those ridiculous boundaries and prejudices that have snuck their way in too.

I like to be free to dream the impossible, the improbable, the unlikely, the unknown.

I like to take those cloudy areas and just lay down and watch them become clear cut goals in my mind.

My favorite movie growing up was Pocahontas. I loved the beauty of her wild freedom, the way that she seemed bound by nothing and her attitude that anything was possible. I think that stuck with me.

I have always sensed purpose. I have always sensed the need for freedom and imagination. I didn't necessarily say, "Hey, I dream of baking and taking a trip to Cambodia and trying to help children over there."

painting I did to serve as a little reminder :)

But I did allow myself to dream big, so when the time came I didn't automatically limit myself and say "I can't do that I'm only 18. Its not really going to make that big of an impact. I don't have time. I didn't even graduate from highschool."

I really don't believe that we were created with that kind of thinking. And I love talking to other people who dream. I recently had some great conversations with people. And when you start bouncing back ideas off of each other and there is no one there to instantly throw up barriers and questions, its amazing to see what you are capable of dreaming.

How big, how wide, how long, what kind, how far, where?

These questions should be asked and answered with the intention of creating a solution to fit the enormity of your dream, not as a doubtful response and excuse to not do something.

So I think that this is the season to start dreaming. Without dreams , nothing great could be accomplished. This is an easy task because Christmas is coming and the hope and energy that surrounds this season gives us the ability to dream easier.

Just start. Just do it. It doesn't matter if it is one of those wild thoughts that runs across your mind like wild mustangs across plains. Run with it...just see what happens.

:)

Believe!

This is quite possibly the most wonderful time of the year.

There are so many things that I just love as fall slides into winter and holiday preparations begin. I like waking up to freshly fallen snow, breathing in deeply the cold clean December air. I like crackling fires and black and white Christmas movies. 

first snowfall of the year

But most of all, I love this time of year for what happens to the human spirit. Some people say its a "magical" time of the year. I prefer to say that it is a time when believing becomes alive and faith becomes real. There is expectancy in the air, and generosity in hearts. 

I believe is a special time because, for the most part, people and put aside their differences and focus, with a united mind, on others. I feel love and compassion well up on the inside of me when I see acts of kindness and generosity. 

Call me naive, but I still think that its the one time of year where people think less about themselves and more giving towards others. Just walk pass people crowded around present donation booths in the mall, or long lines at the Salvation army gift wrap centers. Look at local rescue missions, food banks, churches and charities to see volunteers who give their time and energy with a smile on their face and joy in their heart.

I also love time with family, the tradition baking, cooking and feasting, present wrapping, tree decorating.

   

But what I most love about this time of the year is hope, belief and faith. The air is full of hope, expectancy. In in the midst of the most desperate of times, there is a hope that surrounds this time of year. The hopes of the hopeless are filled with hope and perhaps even belief that Christmas miracles still do exist. Movies like Miracle on 34th Street express this sentiment, and the importance of belief in faith in our lives. Believe that goodness still exists and is active in the lives of others. Believe in the impossible, impractical, and unconquerable. Believe in the unseen and unknown.There is the warmth and a renewed faith as I watch human beings give of themselves for others, their spouses, and children. There is excitement and buzz in the air. That is hope incubating in the hearts of people. Hope and expectancy for the season. Hope that dispels the darkness and brings joy. And as that hope continues to grow in hearts, it spills over into acts of love, bursts of joy, smiles on faces, and faith in action. Yes, I love this season most because of the hope and belief that surrounds the season and the contagious effects it causes. Be blessed and filled with hope and belief this Christmas season! 

Simple.

The other day I decided to clean out my room.

You see when I was in Cambodia and Laos my wonderful mother painted my room, bought me a new desk, and bedding. And when I came back I found the bags she had put all the stuff in that was in my desk.

And now, about 2 months later, they are still there.

Sitting...taking up space...getting in the way.

So I started going through all the bags. I had grand visions of carrying my new bookshelves up to my room and arranging everything perfectly, neatly, and in order. I imagined sectioning off part of my room and dedicating it to baking supplies/bookies/study material.

But I started going through the bags.

At the top of my first bag was some electronic stuff. My iPhone packaging, warranties on my keyboard, the first guitar string that I ever changed (I'm an incurable senitmentalist).

But then I got to the good stuff.

Stacks of colored paper from the past three years of academic decathlon. It had consumed my life, and at one time I felt so connected and that it was so important that I absolutely had to save some of the resource guides (especially social science from my junior year when I won a gold medal and economics because I was the wiz kid for economics).

And of course....poetry. Poetry all the way back from about 7th grade. Sappy, disgusting, "what was I thinking when I wrote that?" poetry during those awful middle school years when you were lovesick constantly.

Thank God for his grace and the maturing process.

Poetry was for many years my way of releasing thoughts and feelings. I was never good at keeping a journal so I wrote. Sonnets, free verse, sometimes just short descriptive passages...there was alot of it.

Decathlon materials I can see parting with but my poetry? It held so many memories, the fragility of my youth, the thoughts and experiences of my adolescence, my dreams and imagination running wild.

But it was a part of me that I right then and there decided to let go of. It was something that should have been done long ago.

I guess when I came home from my trip overseas (the first of many more to come!) my focus, perspective, and fervency changed.

I wanted a fresh start and a simpler approach to life, and hanging onto my immaturity and the childish play-things of my youth would not help. I felt suddenly deep inside in that moment that I walked to the trash can with all my youth behind me that I had just stepped into my mature, adult life.

Life is alot like the condition of my room was.

Often times we lose focus and sight of our goals and get distracted. It happens to me all the time. I know the plan, its simple and just requires focus and dedication. And then I think "I really need to learn how to use twitter, I'm so technologically impaired," "I need to work on my relationships with friends and my social life," "I need to work on my wardrobe."

In reality, none of it really matters. Because by the time I master twitter a newer social media network will come out that I'll be clueless about. By the time I've wasted three paychecks on updating my wardrobe next seasons styles will hit the runways. And by the time I set up coffee appointments with friends I'll be so stressed about fitting them all in and trying to be pleasant that I won't even enjoy it.

It's not that there is anything wrong with new clothes, social media, or my friends, but I realize now that its not the main focus. When you focus on the main thing, all the minor things fall into line because my priorities are straight.

The same is true with baking. I work best when I start with a kitchen that is mess free, with all the ingredients where they should be and all the equipment cleaned and put away.

I've so enjoyed some of the conversations I've had with my friends overseas because (especially when we talk about the Word) they confirm this simplicity of life.

So I'm trying to live life without all the complications, and its pretty simple.

Find the plan. Follow it.


1 Corinthians 13:11
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.I have put away my clutter filled childhood and have stepped into an adulthood where trusting God and following His plan to live a simple life is my focus. 

Simple. 

Let the Baking Begin

Yesterday, I mentioned to my dad that since the holidays are nearing maybe I should advertise on facebook that I will take orders for baked goods, with profits going to New Hope Orphanages or child sponsorships via SEAPC.

This was after I made a batch of apples cinnamon bread which he couldn't stop eating and demanded that it go. Samples! I could make samples for people to try and then have an order form sitting next to the samples! Of course, once you get someone hooked, then they have to buy some, right? So I will be making samples and sending it down to his office and another office, thanks to him enlisting the help of a very generous business associate and brother in Christ. Pray that this goes well!

Also, here is a rough draft of the "Cupcakes for Cambodia" Story that will be attached to the order form so people will understand my heart and God's plan for this!

Cupcakes for Cambodia…

About a year and a half ago, I became seriously interested in baking. I realized how many kids my age didn’t know how to bake (or cook) anything from scratch, and immediately accepted the challenge of mastering home baking from scratch. I became obsessed with baking everything from scratch: if I was making cupcakes, both the cupcakes and frosting had to be made from scratch. It soon became a passion and filled up all my extra time; cupcakes became a particular specialty.

Years before my baking obsession had started, my dad became acquainted with a missionary who worked all over Southeast Asia building orphanages, schools, and starting micro-economic development projects. His specialty and obsession was walking and praying: through cities and villages and for people and over lands that would eventually become transformed into homes for orphaned and abused children. Our family knew we were supposed to be connected with this man and his ministry, SEAPC which stands for Southeast Asia Prayer Center. Around the holidays our families would get together and Mark would tell us about all the new and exciting projects that were going on. We supported them financially and in prayers, as well as participate in their Coins for Kids program to build orphanages and schools as well as support other special projects.

The spring of 2012 I was a senior in highschool, deciding what I was going to do with my future. Other students were filling out college applications and touring universities, but I had prayed that past December about what God would have me do with my future. I just didn’t think that college at that point was part the plan, so I patiently waited. By spring I knew I was supposed to go to work for the family business, which supported SEAPC as well as other ministries internationally, but I also knew that my passion for baking wasn’t and accident. I had a God given dream to use my skills and passion to further His kingdom; God had placed a dream in my heart to start a bakery and donate all the profit to Cambodia to fund orphanages and schools, or child sponsors.

I had the opportunity to visit Cambodia in September of 2012. It was a life changing experience. We toured 5 New Hope orphanages as well as several schools that are partners with SEAPC. They house about 400 orphans, with plans to build an orphanage in every province. Driving through the country I saw the conditions of some of the children living outside the orphanages, as well as heard stories of those who get dropped off at city dumps because their parents can’t feed them. When I got home, I knew it was time to become more active and help these kids. God has plans and dreams for these kids and a future. There were so many success stories I heard of kids who grew up in New Hope homes. I wanted to give more kids that opportunity. I knew it was time to start doing something to make that happen.

So this is how I came up with the idea for Cupcakes for Cambodia. Despite the name, I bake many other things including cakes, pies, bread, bars, cookies, brownies as well as any requests you might have. My goal is to make baked goods with excellence that will sell at a reasonable price and send the profits to build New Hope orphanages as well as sponsor children. 

Children at the Siem Reap orphanage

Without ever firing a bullet.

It's Been Awhile.

And I do apologize, but adjusting to life back in the States was not the easiest thing. I was not really functioning normally my first two weeks back at least. I seemed empty headed I'm sure, but in all reality my head was filled with thoughts of Cambodia, Laos, and Singapore. A constantly flashing of memories from the past 15 days kept replaying themselves, on repeat. After the thrill of seeing what God is doing in a nation so different from mine, seeing with my own eyes, traveling by bus from place to place and interacting with such a great group of people almost constantly made it hard to come back and sit in an office away from everyone. What was harder was being confronted by the American ways of life and thinking. It's an experience like no other, and for a long time everything just seemed so meaningless.

What was not meaningless, was welcoming a new life and miracle into our family, my niece Gabrielle Brynne!

But I remember walking through the mall to find our baby a new outfit and listening to the conversations and with glazed eyes watching everything pass by me and thinking "this is so meaningless."

The drama, the superficiality, the vanity, the materialism. The heaping up of an empire of dirt that fades and burns up into nothing.

So, I was pretty upset. But my life had changed. I had just come from a place where children barely had clothes, and most of the ones outside of the New Hope orphanages had clothes that were filthy.

Children walked around, seemingly unsupervised. It was just after the rainy season so everything was saturated and swampy. I remember seeing a few of the children from the village outside our university playing in about a foot of water/rice paddy.

Starting in the 70's when the civil war and Khmer Rouge turmoil happened, the Cambodian people fried spiders for food.

And we complain when we have to eat leftovers.

I felt the need to do something. I felt a desire to pour out all my efforts to help these people. I expected poverty and scenarios like the ones I saw, but when I thought "This is a person's home and life. I wouldn't want to have to live like this, in these conditions" is when it hit me, this isn't just us touring through, this is a person's life, day in and day out.

Something had stirred inside me during those long exhausting days in the hot humid Cambodian and Laos jungles as we traveled by bus over paved and dirt roads, past mansions sitting next to mud huts and past temples where impoverished people gave the best of their food on an alter to a dead god so that he would be pleased and maybe they wouldn't go hungry again.

We walked through a city stupa and shrine and I saw people who lived in mud huts come into gilded temples filled with beauty and wealth and leave their best in there, to go on and live there life with utter poverty and despair.

Buddha did not offer these people hope. You could feel the hopelessness hang heavy and thick in the air, suppressing, crushing and killing the spirits of these precious people.

You looked into the eyes of people as you drove by down the streets and saw the utter despair, the complacency, the lack of self worth and purpose.

But let me tell you about the people who SEAPC has partnered with...

These people who have such a dream and vision for the children and youth of Cambodia.

The are areas christened the "Killing Fields" in Cambodia from the mass slaughters committed under the reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

And in those same areas men and women of faith are building orphanages, agricultural centers and schools and calling them "New Hope."

Out of the killing fields comes fields of harvest. The pastors and leaders and overseers of these projects have dreams to change a communist, depressed nation.

Without EVER firing a bullet.

They are reaching the youth and training them spiritually and physically to love Jesus, work hard, get good grades, be number one in their class and go on to be managers and overseers of places of business. Children who have been raised in New Hope orphanages have gone on to be doctors and business men. In fact, the houseparent of one of the new orphanages we built had been an orphan himself in a New Hope orphanage.

And here he was, pouring back into the next generation of Cambodian leaders, doctors, lawyers, preachers, and parents.

All of this was constantly on my mind for two weeks.

But, I think I have changed my outlook. As I look back on Cambodia, I choose not to see a nation, struggling to bounce back from decades of war and killing. I choose not to see the hopelessness, desperation, and frustration of a people who can't feed their family or find a job.

I choose to see a people who have a dream, who are determined. I see hope shining in the eyes of those people. I heads lifting, and dreams growing bigger. I see potential and fields of harvest in such beautiful nations.

Sometimes wars are won with guns. But in my opinion, wars are best won with faith, hope and love. Without ever firing a bullet.

The Seeds You Sow and the Life that Grows

My Uncle George and Aunt Dot at a Relay for Life event

I'm not exactly fantastic at keeping up with my blogging...and my deepest apologies. I have really no excuses this time, only determination to consistently become better at it :) The more 
I become interested in food and baking, the more I follow and learn from other bloggers. One of my favorites has got to be Deb from smitten kitchen. So basically, I hope to be posting more frequently in the future. I also hope to be sharing some recipes, or at least links to recipes along with adaptations and tips that I used when baking them. For instance, for my sister in law's 30th birthday I made her a pink lady cake, which I made from a recipe on smitten kitchen. Unfortunately, my cake baking began at 11:30 p.m. and didn't end until about 3:00 a.m. and somewhere in the middle I ran out of baking powder...what's a girl to do? So I obviously decided to Google subsitutes for said baking powder and came up with this. I woke up the next morning before church to frost it only to find out that my sister in law and brother couldn't make it to our house for dinner. My aunt had passed away the afternoon before so we brought the cake along with us when we went to visit my uncle and family. The afternoon passed by filled with laughter and tears, full of memories of Aunt Dot, 

My Grandma Swogger

Grandma and Grandpa Swogger, and my cousins childhood memories. It's been a long time since I have had a Sunday that I've enjoyed so much, and to top it off the cake was a hit. I try to look for lessons in my baking or cooking, as well as in stories, because I believe that things just don't happen. God gave me the Holy Spirit to lead me and teach me, and like Jesus illustrated spiritual principles through natural examples, so does the Holy Spirit. The body of Christ is supposed to be like that tight knit community of baking bloggers. It seems like a silly example, but as brothers and sisters in Christ we are commanded to love one another, just as Christ loved us.

Aunt Dot at her 80th birthday party

We are supposed to be there when one of our brothers or sisters needs a helping hand, prayer, wise council, or even just a shoulder to cry one. And I have to admit, at first I was disappointed that we couldn't have the fun festive celebration for my sister in law, but my seed was still sown, and the somber cloud that could have hung over our family in this hour of mourning melded into joyful remembrances as we reminisced about times past over warm home cooked food, fruit, and dessert that family had brought. We celebrated the life of a woman who was a fighter, beating cancer numerous times, a mother who raised a family in love and devotion, a wife who had an inseparable bond with her husband. Galatians 6:9 comes to a new light as it states, " And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint." Don't lose, heart...never give up or quit on your seed; act nobly; do right. In the APPOINTED season we WILL reap...IF we do not loosen and relax our courage. I know my Aunt Dot didn't, and now she reaps the ultimate reward of spending eternity with her Lord and Savior Christ. Everyday we have the option of seeing what is good and wholesome and sowing good seed, or focusing on the negative and downcast and sowing and reaping curses. Your choice...like Galatians 6:9 says, will you fight or faint?

Touching Hearts

So in my introduction post I mentioned my heart and my passion for Cambodia and Tibet. Even now as I sit and think about it, about the possibility and dreams that God has dropped into my heart it overwhelms me to the point where I want to cry. I find life so beautiful, so fresh and full of meaning lately and I truly believe its because everything within me is striving to accomplish God's purpose for my life: this specific purpose to help children half-way across the globe! South East Asia Prayer Center (SEAPC), the missions my family is connected with and helps, has a project currently in Tibet and the surrounding area. Because of the high altitudes in Tibet, it is my understanding, that more children are susceptible to congenital heart disease. The procedure which corrects CHD is very simple and not too expensive in the U.S., but in the Tibetan countryside where there are not doctors or medical facilities readily available, and families simply cannot afford it, children die from such a simple, fixable disease. However, SEAPC and the head of the ministry, Mark Geppart have surveyed and treated thousands of children and families across the countrysides of Tibet, while ministering the love of Christ. This amazes me so much! It was this specific project which really inspired the whole cupcake idea. I wanted to specifically raise awareness by making heart shaped cupcakes with red frosting, whose proceeds would go specifically funding even more screenings and heart procedures for the children of Tibet, to mend the holes in their heart while the Word of God heals the holes in all areas of their lives. The more I thought about it the bigger the dream grew...needless to say my dream is now a runaway dream and I don't want to try to suppress, catch, or stop them. I want to chase them. I want to connect people across the globe, use everyday measures, something as simple as a cupcake to change the life of a child. Everyone deserves life and a heart full of dreams. Everyone.

Patient and her mother

Find out more about Touching Hearts.

Chapter 1 of my story

Ok...so I'm new to the whole "blogging" thing, but I must say that I recently have spent hours searching every nook and cranny, investigating and researching various cupcake and baking blogs and websites....in search for the perfect cupcake recipes and mouth watering pictures. I found a few favorite websites that were very relatable and had creative recipes.

My search for cupcake recipes was not only inspired by my love of baking and the need to find trustworthy recipes for my mammouth task of baking hundreds of cupcakes for my graduation, but because I believe people are passionate about things for a reason and purpose. I am passionate about baking...but I believe it has more purpose than racking up the calories for me, my family, and friends.

I am a Christian and my family is involved with a missionary who does extensive work in Cambodia, Tibet, Laos, and Central America. The more I learn about the work that they do, from microeconomic development, to heart screenings, to building schools across Cambodia, the more my heart burned with a need to help. An entire nation is being changed and lives being rebuilt without firing a bullet. Needless to say, I am more than elated that I will soon be traveling to Singapore, Laos, and Cambodia for a total of 10 days.

cupcake I baked right before this blog!

It wasn't long before my passions became intertwined; I believe God placed a huge dream in my heart which is this: to use my passion for baking for a bigger cause, one that can help children in Cambodia, effect the lives of families in Tibet, and raise awareness and action from those who would buy the cupcakes. My dream is to one day (very soon) open a bakery where a portion of the profits of every cupcake go straight towards aiding and education children in Cambodia. Until then, I am perfecting my skills and finding more people to become as passionate about this as I am.

Well, that's my story. Enjoy the pictures, stories, and create memories of your own!



p.s. if you want to learn more about getting involved in what's happening in Cambodia, check out South East Asia Prayer Center.

These are cupcakes from the 4th of July 2011