McVitie's Dessert Inspirations...:Sticky toffee cake bars

Product name: McVitie’s Dessert Inspirations...: Sticky toffee cake bars
Purchase details: £0.79 for a pack of five bars (Home Bargains)
Calories: 144 per bar
Country of origin: UK

These new McVitie’s Dessert Inspirations...:Sticky toffee cake bars were another product that caught my eye because, like the Milky Way: Cake bars, they made use of a non-chocolate sponge. The sticky toffee flavour also attracted me, of course, but I still nearly left them on the shelf. It was only when I spotted the pale, gooey cream on the mouth-watering picture that I read the description that finally twisted my arm: ‘moist sponge topped with a toffee flavour cream, a layer of sticky toffee and covered in a smooth milk chocolate’.

Made by United Biscuits, I loved the rich chocolate colour of the packaging, and the individually wrapped bars were a decent size to boot. The sponge was clearly a little more than your standard Madeira cake with some added colour that brought its appearance more in-line with a less-aerated bread. This was topped with a generous layer of fudge-coloured cream, a slightly thinner layer of a much darker caramel sauce (13%), all encased in a chocolate shell (35%).

The bars emitted a sweet chocolate scent through which a slight hint of caramel also made itself known. The latter was much more apparent in the taste. For starters, whilst not as moist as the Milky Way: Cake bars, the sponge had an added brown sugar element. The silky smooth cream then provided a lovely, deep caramel flavour, and the sauce was even richer. Combined, there was almost a smokiness to the experience.

There’s no pretending that these bars were like an actual sticky toffee pudding, but I didn’t expect them to be! Instead, like their name suggested, they had simply been inspired by the dessert. They were much lighter and had a gentler flavour, but they also added something positively different to the cake bar market. The best thing for me, though, was the fantastic way the toffee sauce oozed out as I took each bite of the treat...fabulous. 

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 7.88/10