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

McVitie's Milky Way: Cake bars

Product name: McVitie’s Milky Way: Cake bars
Purchase details: £0.99 for a pack of 10 bars (Home Bargains)
Calories: 120 per bar
Country of origin: UK 

I was attracted to this great value pack of McVitie’s Milky Way: Cake bars as, unlike most other cake bars, the sponge wasn’t chocolate flavoured.

Containing no artificial flavours or colours, and no preservatives, the bars were ‘baked under licence for Mars UK’, and came in packaging that featured the usual Milky Way branding.

The ‘individually wrapped light sponge cakes, with a creamy filling covered in milk chocolate’ were of a decent size and, outwardly, didn’t look dissimilar from standard Milky Ways. The smooth chocolate coating with a drizzle design made up a surprising but impressive 42% of the product and, inside, the pale yellow sponge looked very neat, topped with a deep, white creamy layer.

At the risk of sounding daft, the bars smelt like...well, cake and chocolate! That’s not to be confused with chocolate cake, though, as whilst both elements were present, the aroma wasn’t exactly special or enticing.

Despite its large quantity, the chocolate shell was quite thin and bendy, allowing me to pick some off to sample the different parts of the bar on their own. The chocolate itself was milky and sweet, whilst the soft sponge tasted very much like standard cake, with a slight vanilla element. It was the topping that stole the show, however, with its whipped cream feel and a taste that was quite like a standard Milky Way’s nougat.

All in all, there was no doubting that these light Cake bars were aimed at kids since they tasted very sweet and innocent. However, although I enjoyed the individual components, I did find that when eating the bars properly, they had a slightly strange aftertaste that I couldn’t put my finger on. Unfortunately, this did detract from their standalone enjoyability.

On the plus side, I really loved their soft and moist feel. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that they had one of the best textures (if not the best!) I’ve ever had in a cake bar.

As far as the connection to the Milky Way brand goes, there was certainly an element of the familiar childhood taste there, but this definitely wasn’t as good as the real thing. Did I mention that I loved the texture, though?!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 9/10
Overall score: 7.75/10