Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Guayaquil over Au Bon Vieux Temps' Tentation Chocolat

Friday, I did the pasty thing. Still cold a little rainy, but it stopped by the time I got to Sora. I made all the lights but the last (where I took the pedestrian overpass) and managed +10 km/h for a little under 3 km. I tried the Pain au Chocolat and it was okay as a snack but not impressive as a pastry, for which the few layers were either too thick or under-baked, I thought. Of course, it would have been better warm, but I'm criticizing the basic structure.

I went on to practice in order to reinforce the correct path (so I don't have to stop and confirm it next time) on the Minami-Aoyama--Nishi-Azabu Loop and then that the café/boulangerie across from Gaien is still closed, so I don't have to alter my Minami-Aoyama north loop to include it.

Saturday morning was the run for the cake-off. I had a cancellation of my 10 am appointment and could go to Au Bon Vieux Temps early and get the Tentation Chocolat before it sold out this time. I note that the all-male staff (I think) aren't as friendly as some places, though that could just be to me (though it could be more about being sleepy part-times). I've had experience with too friendly. Anyway, after confirm the no changes in line-ups and two relatively close stores, I took the train back to Shinjuku and, after waiting in line for a while at Jean-Paul Hévin (they are really busy with chocolate sales, for Valentine's Day, though they've closed the chocolate bar and use that for the shorter line for cake, as well as higher-end chocolate sets), I got the Guayaquil.

Eating these, I was thinking that I must be comparing two first-round cake-off winners, because these were so obviously great, but actually this was a runner's up second round. I can't fault either. The Tentation Chocolat is almost entirely an extremely dense chocolate cream (or maybe it's a creamy ganache). The Guayaquil is a straight chocolate sponge (I suppose) layer cake, with just a little ganache and chocolate on top. In the end, I feel that the Guayaquil wins for making a traditional chocolate cake so good.