I Can't Even Make Carrot Cake

What are holidays like for people living overseas?

That was my question as my wonderful Sister-In-Law told me we were having a bunch of friends over to celebrate Thanksgiving and she was inlisting my help for holiday cooking. I signed up to make a gluten free Carrot Cake that I've made before that went over well with our family. However, making a Carrot Cake overseas is actually QUITE a process. You have to make everything from scratch, even the applesause that goes into it, since cake mixes are pretty expensive here. But as I began cooking, I quickly learned that God was teaching me a wonderful lesson.

The lesson began with me walking the twenty minutes in the Thailand heat to the import grocery store to buy the cream cheese for the frosting, only to get all the way home and realizing I purchased processed CHEDAR cheese. Praise the Lord that my sweet brother drove me to buy cream cheese the second way.

As the lesson continued, I started the cutting, pealing, and grating process of the carrots as my applesause was simmering, my three sweet nephews and one beautiful niece start talking to me and helping me. Which caused me to forget totally about the applesause until the smell of burnt sugar filled our pourch. I burnt the applesause. I knew it was bad when the littlest of my nephews, who is three and loves apples, wouldn't eat it. I had to throw it all away. Alright, I thought. So it wouldn't be as moist, that's okay, isn't it?

But the biggest part of my lesson, was using the rice flour instead of the normal kind, which is what makes the cake Gluten-Free. You see, the rice flour wasn't rice flour. It was corn starch. Everything in our house is labled in Thai, so that's a little inconvienent for me because rice flour and cornstarch look exactly the same.

When the cake came out of the oven deflated in the middle and dryer than a bone, I went in my room and bawled my head off. I cried to the Lord, "Jesus! I can't even make carrot cake without you!" He taught me over this Thanksgiving holiday that I need Him for everything. For breathing, joy, purpose, direction, and yes, even baking a Carrot Cake. He showed me He is always with me. What a sweet lesson to learn! And although my "Gluten-Free Carrot 'Bars'" (named by my sweet Sister-In-Law and friend A.) were super dry, the whole pan got eaten and it turned out to be a very sweet day.