Akriti Kakar on World Chocolate Day: Chocolate is like an antidepressant for me

“I don’t have a sweet tooth, but chocolate truly melts my heart,” says Akriti Kakar, as she poses exclusively for Hindustan Times on World Chocolate Day today. Calling it something she cannot resist, the singer adds, “Be it in the form of a piping hot chocolate drink or decadent chocolate cake — if I start, it’s hard to stop. Chocolate is like an antidepressant for me.”

Apart from indulging in chocolate delicacies, Kakar also likes to try her hand at cooking some. “I make cookies and brownies very often, where I fuse chocolate with coffee, roasted almonds, banana, sea salt, berries, home-made caramel or candied orange. They turn out real yummy! Fresh out of the oven, gooey soft cookies have been a recent hot favourite in the house,” says Kakar, who is mum to her eight-month-old son, Mehraan.

Ask if she has exposed him to chocolate yet, and Kakar says, “I want him to be away from any kind of processed sugar foods, including chocolate, for as long as I can, because there will be a time when there will be no stopping him. Though every time we have a cake at home, he dives right into it with his tiny little cute hands, smashing it and making a puddle right there.”

Meanwhile, it’s said that chocolate isn’t a great thing to have for singers. Ask her about it, and the 37-year-old says, “Excess of anything is bad. Chocolate, for me, is a mood lifter, not my main binge. Also, it has a bit of caffeine so one should take it in moderation anyway. I do avoid having chocolate on days that I have to sing.”