Bring sugar and water in a large pan to a boil without stirring. Reduce heat and let simmer. Once the colour starts to change, watch your caramel very closely:

Very light caramel won’t really have that bittersweet caramelized-sugar flavour. The darker you go, the more bitter and complex the flavour gets, but you don’t want to take it so far that it tastes burned.

Take the pan of the heat and let the caramel cool for 5 minutes.

Pour 200ml milk into the saucepan.

Over low heat - simmer until the caramel has dissolved, take pan off the heat.

Mix the rest of the milk with the sugar, corn starch and egg.

Whisk the milk slowly into the egg mix.

Put the whole lot back into the pan, stirring all the time until thick and boiling.

Take the pan off the heat and pour pudding into a bowl.

Cover with cling-film to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool for 2 hours in the fridge.

Whip heavy cream until firm peaks form. Fold in 2/3 of the whipped cream into the caramel pudding (using a spatula works best), use the rest to decorate.

For the Caramel Shards: Repeat step 1 & 2.

Pour the hot caramel on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Let cool completely.

Using a rolling pin, break the caramel into little shards.

Divide the pudding into serving glasses, decorate with caramel shards and the rest of the whipped cream.