*Posted last weekend on ciao alongside a picture of the finished product*

~Carnation Caramel~

Carnation Caramel is part of the Nestle range. It is designed to be an ingredient for baking recipes and is described as being 'caramellised concentrated milk with sugar'.

Carnation Caramel is presented in a round tin with a ring pull lid. The tin is mainly red and features all the relevent product information as well as a recipe and picture for Banoffee Pie. The tin can be recycled after use. There are no artificial colours or preservatives in this product and it is marketed as being ideal for dessert recipes. Once opened, Carnation Caramel can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Carnation Caramel is suitable for vegetarians and has a minimal ingredients list of milk, sugar and disodium phosphate which acts as stabaliser. Each 50g portion contains 149 calories, 27.6g of sugar and 2.0g of fat.

A 397g tin of Carnation Caramel can be purchased in supermarkets such as Asda and Tesco. Expect to pay around £1.56.

~My Thoughts~

My fiance absolutely loves banoffee pie and I occasionally pick him up a shop bought one as a treat. After spotting a recipe in one my magazines, I realised just how simple it would be to make my own and decided to do just that! I will add the recipe and total cost at the bottom of this review.

I am a fan of Carnation products in general but my fiance has literally banned me from buying condensed milk as I have a habit of eating it straight from the tin (naughtly I know!). Anyway, I was aware they offered a caramel version (as I have used it in the past) so when it came to buying ingredients for my banoffee pie, this is what I went for. I'm not sure if other brands offer this type of product as I have never noticed them but Nestle is a trusted brand and I feel £1.56 is a fair price for this type of product.

The Carnation website gives lots of recipe ideas which are very tempting including pancakes, adding to muffins, caramel chocolate fudge cake and toffee apple tarts - drooling as I write this! Basically any dessert or food item that requires some form of caramel ingredient - this is the one for the job! I used this for my banoffee pie but in the past I have used it to make an apple crumble and I believe my sister made caramel shortcake with it too so it really is versatile.

~Appearance and Uses~

Once the tin is opened, there is a sickening smell of caramel - it is extremely sweet and I sometimes feel my dentist is frowning at me for just opening the tin! Carnation Caramel is thick and I always like to give it a mix up in the tin as it is rather gloopy and slops out the tin rather than pours out. It looks like thick melted caramel - golden brown with a glossy appearance.

Carnation Caramel is very sticky which does make it a little difficult to spread but it also means it won't run everywhere like some other products. I spread it over the base of my banoffee pie and left it to chill for a while. When it came to adding the topping (bananas and cream), it looked lovely and shiny. Despite being chilled, it was still sticky to the touch but slightly firm and bouncy. The toppings sat neatly on top without slipping about or sinking and this really helped with the presentation of my banoffee pie.

~Taste and Finished Result~

Carnation Caramel was an essential ingredient in my banoffee pie. I was able to make a pie which gave 6 decent sized portions of pie but you may get more depending on what size of pie dish you use. We personally like each layer to be thick so probably had a thicker layer of everything but a small sized pie. I made ours today and we will finish ours by this evening- not through greed I may add, but because the cream we bought was short dated! I suppose the pie would keep overnight in the fridge but sometimes it is safer to consume on the day as the cream may go off when exposed.

Carnation Caramel added the perfect sweetness to our banoffee pie. I can never resist dipping a spoon in the tin before using this and the taste was divine - sweet, full of delicious caramel flavour and incredibly rich and smooth. In the tin, it does taste a little 'wet' which is difficult to get used to! Within our banoffee pie, it complimented the other layers and the taste came through perfectly. The banana taste was perfect with the caramel flavour and it proved to be a really enjoyable dessert but not something I would eat too much of as it does become sickly and the sugar content is enough to make anyone only want one piece at a time!

~Conclusion~

Overall I recommend Carnation Caramel. I personally wouldn't just use it as an ice cream or pancake topper as it would be a waste of a tin but for desserts/pies where a full tin is required, this is perfect. Carnation Caramel is tasty and is of a high quality so I can highly recommend it. I will be trying out other recipes with this caramel in due course. Each time I have used this product it has peformed well. It is something I would buy it for a specific baking activity rather than have in the cupboard as it would be too tempting to open it for a sneaky taste!

Our banoffee pie cost approx £3.50 to make and took around 30 minutes to prepare and serve with minimal fuss.

Thanks for reading :)

***Recipe***

For a banoffee pie that will serve 12 (apparently though we got 6 decent portions) :

*Melt 100g of butter (I used Willow block butter and melted on the hob)

*Crush 250g of digestive biscuits (I used Tesco Value and crushed them in my blender though you could put
them in a bag and beat the living day lights out of them!)

*Mix the butter and digestive crumbs together and press the finished mix into a 20cm tin ensuring you cover the sides and base (I didn't bother with the sides). Chill 10 mins.

*Spread the tin of caramel over the base and chill until you are ready to serve.

*Chop 4 small bananas over the caramel (I used 2 large bananas and thinly sliced them)

*300ml of whipping cream - whip it up and spoon over the bananas (I personally bought the pre-whipped Tesco cream as I can never whip cream properly!)

*Top with grated chocolate (I forgot so finished off with sprinkles!) but I feel a sprinkle of cocoa powder would be lovely too. Serve and indulge!

You can also make small, individual pies and you can also use chocolate digestives and mix 200g of melted chocolate into the caramel for a chocolate banoffee pie.