Sweet little girls (7)

I believe the answer is:

caramel

'sweet' is the definition.
(caramel is a kind of sweet)

I don't understand how the rest of the clue works.

(Other definitions for caramel that I've seen before include "Shade" , "Toffee-like sweet" , "It's produced by heating sugar until brown" , "Cooked sugar" , "Sugar solution heated till brown" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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