Cupcake Brown is a force to be reckoned with - an imposing figure of beautiful and proud womanhood.

By Clea Myers

The buzz is electric when she enters the forum that is hosting 'An Audience with Cupcake Brown' in East London's Bethnal Green Road.  Having to yell over the applause, she asks who has read her best-seller, A Piece of Cake, and quickly re-phrases, asking who has not, while the cheers and whoops drown her out.

Cupcake Brown lost her mother at 11 and then experienced an abusive childhood within the US child welfare system. By 13 she had turned to prostitution, drugs and alcohol. Her downward spiral was exacerbated by her involvement with street gangs in San Diego.

Eventually crack proved to be her nemesis, prompting her to make the decision to live, or die. Since starting on the road of recovery from abuse and addiction, she trained as an attorney. She now practices law in one of the largest and most prestigious American law firms and works as a motivational speaker.

After reading a moving excerpt from her book, Cupcake takes questions, revealing her strong but quirkily gentle personality.  Here's a selection. 

Q: Having had a horrific experience in care yourself, would you ever consider becoming a foster-parent? Do you want your own children?

A: No and No! I don’t believe that everybody is meant to have children. Raising children takes dedication, time and commitment. I don’t want to cheat myself of time. I do have a son...and that’s my cat. 

Q: I was always hoping you’d make it through at the end of each chapter. Are there triggers that you still encounter, that make you go back in time? How do you cope? 

A: Yeah, there are triggers. One thing about me is being vigorous. You can’t go through life, any life - good or bad - without negative memories coming up. There are times like when I’ll see a pretty little baby and I’ll think of my baby that was killed. There are times like Mothers Day and you see nothing but cards and stuff everywhere and I miss my mom and my grandmother.

What I do, when these feelings come up, is I feel them. So many times in society we’re taught not to feel things that are bad, not to acknowledge when bad stuff happens. When I remember something sad from my past, I acknowledge the sadness, I acknowledge it was messed up - and then I move forward. 

Q: Is everything true in the book? 

A: Yes, it is all true. We don’t want to believe that this (extensive child abuse) is going on. 

Q: Do you feel you should do any work towards supporting or changing the foster system in America. Do you do any charity work? 

A: My concern when some one asks that is that we don’t actually have a grasp of the atrocities that do exist in our world. My story started in 1976 when Dashan Daniels was killed by his mom. Right before his death there were three allegations of child abuse made - by the police, his school and the neighbours. Each time the Child Protection Service called the house, but they never actually made a visit.

We’re still losing children now. Not only foster children are abused, all children including natural children, step-children, neighbours' children. I advocate on behalf of abused children. 

Q: Do you have a faith now? 

A: In the beginning I hated God because I blamed him for my mom’s death. At the end I blamed him for my disease.

Now I am a Christian but I’m not a religious person. I’m a spiritual person. When I was living behind that dumpster, if you’d sent a religious person to me I probably wouldn’t be here today. I believe everyone has to get to God in their own way.

Q: How do you maintain your recovery? How do you maintain sobriety on a day-to-day and year-to-year basis? 

A: I am still involved with 12-Step meetings. This September I will celebrate 19 years clean and sober (Applause). Even though 19 years is a long time, I believe in celebrating baby steps.

So for me I became successful in recovery when I got one day clean. And every day after that was icing on the cake. And before you get 19 years, you have to get 19 months. And before that you have to get 19 days.

I still do it one day at a time. Some days I feel like a drink - it’s hot and I’d like a beer - or a joint. Or if I’m tired I feel like a line of coke. I tell myself you can do it tomorrow, just not today.

The evening continued with book signings, gifts of bookmarks she’d had specially-made for her fans and photographs.

And pink and yellow cupcakes were handed round...

Check out Cupcake’s UK dates for 2008 at www.cupcakebrown.com.