A. Lecomte, Gateau au Muguet

Since I was nearby and shop hours were about to be shortened (but not closed, unlike the first emergency restriction period), I stopped at Shibuya Scramble to get a second cake from on of the (possible) fine shops. Not that this is really on the second, since the main shop is near an highly frequented area before I starting blogging. This is pretty standard cake from them and attractive to me, so it's probably not my first time I've had it, though it would have been several years ago at least since the previous time.

The name is Gateau au Muguet, from the A. Lecomte counter at Shibuya Scramble Square, and the inside is just pralin cream, which was good, but not so exciting. This cake won't overshadow your tea but it's not interesting enough to keep this shop in the fine category. At least it's good enough to keep from wanting a pause in visiting such shops.

A la Bonne Heure, Strawberry Shortcake

Maybe due to little running, I haven't been as motivated to keep up, but I'll do one now. On Saturday, after a wasted morning, I went to Midtown to see what they might have for me. Still the same couple cakes from Ryoura, no surprise, but I'm now ready to work through the huge list of fine shops needing a second cake and it's convenient to get an A la Bonne Heure from there, even if the selection was only from two. I went with the Strawberry Shortcake, which I'm appreciating more these days. As it happens, I appreciated this one too: cream, strawberries, and some sponge to balance it and make it cake. Sometimes simple is best, and this seemed excellent, so I guess this shop will make the cut, which is only going to leave a minority but is going to take a long time to get around to. 

Lotus, Matcha White Chocolate

The other new cake from last Sunday was a second cake from Lotus, from which I had an excellent apple cheesecake. Selection is limited to things that slice well and probably have good shelf-life. I went for Matcha White Chocolate, knowing it was a long shot. It wasn't bad and lived up to the name that I can call it good, so I'll call this a fine shop and leave it at that.

Ginza Sembikiya, Setoka no Mousse

I had an excellent first cake, so I finally followed up and got this cake. On the minus side, once you take the plastic away, it's not that good at supporting itself, but so it goes. The official photo is a little better, but they went for texture over strength, which I appreciate. This from Ginza Sembikiya, maybe the least widespread of the Sembikiya. They have a main shop in Ginza, but also a counter at Ginza 6, where I went, since I was coming from Mitsukoshi and it's connected underground, though I guess the main shop almost is. They also had a +1000 yen sponge strawberry cake (which is huge for a piece of cake in Japan), but I passed. This is Setoka no Mousse, where Setoka is a kind of mikan, as one can see. It's really nice and I can say excellent, especially since I don't get so many mikan cakes. The mousse is mascarpone cheese, of course, so it's just a medium. I guess I'm going to need to get back there and try the strawberry cake. Hopefully I can get it when I can split it with someone.

Atsushi Hatae, Caramel Noix

Still way behind, The last cake from two weekends ago was a second cake from Atsushi Hatae, that was nominally listed as a fine shop based on one excellent cake but a priority among those shops, so it's at the ahead of the line, along with a couple other one-cake-sampled shops that had an excellent cake. This was chosen because it was close to a quite fine shop I visited and was the farthest away of the high-priority fine shops. Anyway, they have pretty elegant cakes with varieties that appeal to me, so I was optimistic. I chose Caramel Noix, which I knew was going to be somewhat a challenge, since the basic construction is a dependably traditional but unexciting layer cake with what's a fairly mild flavoring. Nevertheless, they pulled it off excellently, so I can advance the shop to quite fine and expect to get a couple more cakes from there in the near future. 

Marbre Vegan, Gateau Chocolat & Strawberry Shortcake

 Unplanned, got a couple cakes from a shop that replaced Frips. As the name implies, a vegan cake place. I choose a Gateau Chocolat and the other cakes was Strawberry Shortcake. The other cakes available were an apple tart and a blueberry tart.

The shortcake seemed fine and not so different from others, though I'm not the best judge. The chocolate flavor of the Gateau Chocolat was fine, so I a believe them that it's fancy French chocolate. As cake, it wasn't bad but it doesn't really have the texture I want from cake. It's a little dry, though not really in a bad way or a café cake that's sat around too long (or is made to be able to sit around a long time). Anyway, sorry I can't rate them better and I won't resist interest in trying other cakes from them, but I won't actively pursue them.  

Le Pan, Yasutomi Yuzu and Praliné Paris-Bres, Gateau Le Pan, & Chocolat Orange

My first choice was Yasutomi Yuzu and Praliné Paris-Brest. The choux pastry was typical. The Yuzu cream was fine. The pâte pralinée was quite dense, like the chestnut paste of a mont-blanc, which I don't have any problem with in general. The cake was good and did balance some different good tastes, though maybe the whole wasn't exceptional compared to the parts. Still, a good cake that increases my confidence in this shop.

The second cake, which I only had one forkful of, is called just Gateau Le Pan and is a standard Japanese strawberry shortcake. It seemed good to me and was confirmed by the other partaker.

The third cake we could agree was the best, the Chocolat Orange. While a traditional combination, the balance is not automatic. This was a very rich chocolate which went with what was like a mikan orange, though I don't know the details. I say rich, but it was not dark chocolate, but rather Valrhona milk chocolate mousse, apparently (I found their whole cake ad). Anyway, it works for me. I'm going to label this was great, as I'd like to have it again, which makes my first great Kobe cake, though that's from a small sample that isn't likely to get that much bigger, as I don't get down here so much as I might have first expected. What I can I say: Tokyo is more comfortable for all evolved. Anyway, next time I come back this shop should be my top priority, as I think I've visited all the main ones that aren't available in Tokyo. I'm curious about the main shops of a couple of those, which might have something to explain their longevity despite the low level of good they exhibit in Tokyo. 

Jouvaud, Douceur aux Mûres

Working my way through the potentially fine shops (I need to cut more than half), since Jouvaud visited Isetan, on Wednesday I went to get a second cake from them. The name was definitely Douceur aux Mûres, and that's a blackberry on top, but it's seasonal, so nothing on their homepage. I plan to get back there Saturday morning, so I'll get what else is in it. I suspect fig and chocolate, but I'm not sure. Certainly, it has an odd taste and I wasn't happy with the uniformly soft texture, but I did feel they were trying to do something, so I've giving them the benefit of the doubt. Still, two good cakes isn't going to make the cut, so I can't expect to ever get cake from them again. [Update] As I suspected from info on another berry cake, the other mousse besides blackberry is earl grey tea, which isn't that unusual.

In other news, Tuesday I actually tried to get new cake from the list of neighborhood shops. I was told the Stadium Café was open later when there is an event, but they weren't open Tuesday, when there should have been an event. I'll try again Friday, maybe. Instead, I tried the Glorious Chain Café. Their cake of the day was actually apple pie, so they aren't going to be a cake place for me. Still, I decided to try it. They heated it up without warning me (which took more than 5 minutes) and it was ok but sort of looked like a perfectly manufactured pie, which is what it was. Came with ice cream, which was good as ice cream. So I wasn't so satisfied except about checking them off the list of local places that need visiting.

   
 

Juchheim Die Meister, Schokosahne

This one will be quick. I used my second coupon for the Odakyu food area to follow up on a second cake from a potentially fine shop. This time was Juchheim Die Meister, which is also found in Isetan, where I had gotten the first cake some time ago. There might not have been another choice, and certainly there wasn't more than one on a Friday evening, but I was happy to get Schokosahne, which is their chocolate cake. It's layers of milk and dark (I assume) chocolate cream between sponge layers. Not exciting, but the chocolate taste was not bad. The problem was almond slivers. Otherwise totally soft cake with little hard spikes (hiding somewhere)? Sorry, that doesn't work for me, but I'll give it an "OK". I'll actively avoid this chain in the future and be suspicious of the Juchheim family of brands.

  

Wittamer, Thé et Raisin

Had some coupons for the food sections of Odakyu. The cake selection is pretty weak, but I never willowed the "fine" list of shops that seem to be just average, so now I'm after getting second cakes from all, which should take a few years. The first of two counters (and coupons), was Wittamer, which is a Belgian brand, apparently. It's pretty widespread, though this was also probably where I got my first cake from them. This time I steered clear of the obvious choices and when with Thé et Raisin, maybe because I previous takeout cake was a basic chocolate cake. As the name suggests, this is tea (Earl Grey) and grape (though it actually is raisin, the dried form), with some rum. It was a well-made cake with no out of place flavors. Good but bland in a competent way. Certainly, being a safe place to get consistent cakes had it's merits, but I don't expect I'll need to visit again.

The above was the cake from Monday night. Full disclosure, I had some non-patisserie cakes of high quality Saturday afternoon as a part of an afternoon tea set. 

I think the ones with berry halves are actually pear, whereas the little one's above are chestnut madeleines, with the larger ones to the left behind the glass desserts being sweet potato mont-blancs. The middle layers was savories and the bottom was mainly tiny scones. This was also at Odakyu, in that it was their 20th floor lounge in the Southern Tower of the Century Hotel at Shinjuku.

Ron Herman Café: Cheesecake and Mont-Blanc

I was busy on the weekend, but did a first visit to the Ron Herman Café in Sendagaya and had lunch and cake for two. The cakes were their Cheesecake, which has fresh grapes, and a Mont-Blanc. For a café, this place has a pretty good selection, which was one reason for choosing it, plus it's not in a crowded area, though fairly busy (not sure where people come from, since it's far from the standard shopping areas, and yet they continue, though obviously on people's radars). Too much gelatin on the top of the cheesecake for me, but definitely good cake, with amount of sour cream sourness that I miss in a lot of cheesecakes here. 

I thought the Mont-Blanc was also definitely, but it was pointed out that it had a sort of amateurish disorder. The base is about 1 centimeter thick of something between a dense pound cake and a sablé-type cookie, which is a bit unusually, but probably useful for a café. I suspect both the base and the cheesecake are prepared in advance at a remote location and the top parts are added locally.

Anyway, good enough that it should count as a cake shop on my local running map, but not good enough that I'll probably get back to it now that I've had two cakes.
 

Repos, Fromage Vanille & Fraisier (Muscat)

Got cake for two on Saturday from Repos (a.k.a. P. Ease), a fine shop that had given me one excellent cake from their new counter at Isetan. This time, I chose the cheesecake, Fromage Vanille, and a Fraisier, though with Muscat grapes substituted for traditional strawberries (also cheese based, but mascarpone is tasteless, so it doesn't really count; it's just a medium). 

While more soufflé-like than my preferred cheesecake, it was still definitely good. 

The interesting thing about the Fraisier, besides the contradictory name, is that it comes with olive oil that you pour over it (though I guess that's a standard thing with them for this type of cake, Muscat or not). It also was good, and interesting, but I was less convinced. This will remain a fine shop in my list.

Sanjikken, Sachertorte and Cheesecake

Had a visit to a café/coffee salon (with waiters) on Aoyama-doori near Omote-Sandou Sta.: Sanjikken. It's on the second floor, so I had never seen inside. We (cake for two) were lucky, as we were seated rather quickly. When we left, there were at least ten people waiting. I considered it worth visiting even if I don't need to hit every café and coffee shop, because they advertise cake, specifically the Sachertorte by picture, on the sign by the door. I haven't had a sachertorte for a while, but it seemed excellent, perhaps the best I've had. If I finding myself needing something in a Starbucks again, I'll get their to compare as some sort of reference so I know I'm not just imagining things. This seemed to be a one-layer type, with apricot jam on top of the cake, under the icing, but I suppose it's possible that there were two layers and I just couldn't tell. I'm too hurried to check the two main schools of sachertorte now.

I also has some Cheesecake, which was soufflé-type, I think, rather than the dense type I prefer, but still definitely good, so the shop gets in the stable part (won't get denoted when I finally have enough better shops to split this bloated group) of the fine shops group.

Pomology, Pomology Strawberry and Tart Melon

Last Friday, probably as my last department store cake for a while, I got two cakes for two from the just-opened pomology. One is a signature cake, Pomology Strawberry, and the other was a Tarte Melon. Both of these feature high-end brand fruits (one assumes from the price), though I'm no connoisseur of fruit, so even though these were both good cakes, I didn't find them so special.

Can't remember what my run was back then, so I'll say that I've clear revised neighborhood course clumps up through the Jinguumae central clump, which gets me 40.3 km of clumps. I've got some of the individual loops beyond that done, though most of them need revision.

Good Morning Cafe Nowadays: Homemade Cheese Cake and Angel Food Cake with Vanilla Cream

Continuing Saturday, after running, I toured the Suga Shrine area and end coming up the other side, in Daikyou-chou and stopped at some place that wasn't even on my map, Good Morning Cafe Nowadays. Their location seems terrible, so I don't know where all their customers are coming from, I suppose from the Keio teaching hospital.

 Anyway, we go cake and tea for two, I think. I went with the Homemade Cheese Cake, which was definitely good. The other is Angel Food Cake with Vanilla Cream, which is definitely too light for me: vegetable oil and baking powder? But I suppose angle food cake works as a medium for toppings, which I can understand, so I see it at buffets with ice cream. Anyway, it was also good as a support for cream, sauce, and almond slices. There's another with chocolate if we stop there to rest again, chiffon cake, but that's as far as the dessert menu goes in that direction.

Emporter (Yotsuya), Harmonie and Gateau Fraise

Was mostly busy over the weekend. Saturday, though, I went a couple new places. One was only semi-new, and without cake: the Pierre Hermé in Marunouchi, which sells drinks, some suitable gift items, soft ice cream, and a few baked goods. We got Marron Pie and some ice cream (orange and passion fruit, maybe). The Marron Pie counts as a pastry, though it was after 4 pm, so I'm not called it fresh. Still, it was well made, so counts as excellent within that scope: no complaints.

The soft ice cream was fine, though not within my scope of interest, even with the macarons (which were particularly hard and not like macarons I've made, so I'm suspecting the modified recipe to produce something more robust and cookie-like to stand up being stuck into ice cream, though the shape was correct).

The actual cake came from a new shop in the root clump of loops in my neighbor running course, Emporter (a name shared with a Setagaya shop). I asked for a recommendation, and had suggested Harmonie, which is white chocolate with a (suitably) limited amount of raspberry. The other cake chosen was the Gateau Fraise, though I would have gone with something dark chocolate.

I thought both cakes were good, though that standout good. However, my co-eater was quite impressed by the Gateau Fraise and its generous amount of whipped cream.

Since Japanese strawberry short  (which even the name card gave as a description) is not my thing and my partner definitely does like them, I'm to assume superior power of discernment and record the strawberry cake as excellent, which at least puts this shop in the solid part of the fine shops (important, since this this and the category above it are grossly bloated, so it would only take about ten more new shops to force me to create a new lower category for most of these shops).

Kyobashi Sembikiya; Mont-Blanc and Marron Shortcake

By request, I got two cakes from Kyobashi Sembikiya via Isetan. Actually, I was down on this shop based on non-cake items, I think, or at least I can only find a review of yogurt and fruit, which was okay. I choose Mont-Blanc and the other cake chosen was Marron Shortcake. It's a fruit shop, but these are probably the only two non-fruit cakes, though chestnuts are maybe the least nutty things called nuts, being high in starch, I think, rather than oil and protein.

The Mont-Blanc as actually good, better than I expected, though not distinctive. The Marron Shortcake was also good, even compared to other fruitcakes. Two good cakes makes this a fine shop, though about know a couple hundred of those, so no hurry to go back.

I tried running to Ginza Mitsukoshi later and would have gotten cake for a cake-off if they hadn't been sold out, but I wasn't really surprised that they were. On the way back, I did two new tiny loops clockwise, the Akasaka 3 loop and the Yotsu north loop, both added because of having St. Marc Cafe shops. Actually, there is another just north of the street-level Akasaka 3 loop, but I can't even add that as part of a loop without messing up some other part of the map, so I just have to run a link along there.

Camélia, Carmelina

Camélia, Carmelina

Went to Camélia in Ginza for a second cake, since the first one was excellent. Got the cake I was looking at, Carmelina (the "n" is silent in the Japanese at least). This is a relative thick dacquoise base with large bits of hazelnuts under cream made of caramel and mascarpone cheese (based on a user post; I didn't try to research the card that closely, since I forget during running anyway). Definitely my kind of thing and excellent. I like the flavors, though the usual ones, and the texture mix is great. This seems to be a quite fine shop. I'll probably be back next week for the third cake. I only ran one way, walking back to protect the cake, and my side, which is still giving me trouble. I'm probably over stretching it, so I'll watch it. It's not the side that needs the most stretching anyway.