Aigre-Douce, Tarte au Citron

Back on Sunday, the last day I had cake, due to their cake-off the day before, I was back in line at Aigre-Douce. This time I ran about 1 km and walked the rest of the way, as well as walking back. As I've noted, I've had a lot of less than good from here,  so this time I went with a cake that was similar in type, though not in flavor, to the caramel tart that I so much. I got the Tarte au Citron. It was definitely good, relative light, as lemon tarts good, which is no criticism. It was a good choice, even if I still haven't found a new great cake from there.
 

Cake-off: Aigre-Douce's Tarte au Caramel Salé over Rue de Passy's Opera Pistache

As a 5th round cake-off of two cakes with three wins each, I first went first to Aigre-Douce, which is always super busy. Now, that means a long line, enough that they have to be careful about their neighbor. Under former conditions, it was crazy crowded inside, so I prefer the current situation, actually. Anyway, they only have one great cake available, at least for the last several years, and I get it every year, Tarte au Caramel Salé. It actually rather soft among caramel tarts, which might be what makes it great. I went by bicycle, which it was strong enough to survive. I took it home first before going out again to Rue de Passy to get, not their only great cake (the shop is a level above A-D), but the one great cake they always have, Opera Pistache. I'll have to keep my eye open for the other, as I missed it for the current round, I think. This is a more solid, dry cake, like torte. I was happy with both cakes and deciding wasn't an immediate thing, but in the end Tarte au Caramel Salé won again, despite the distinction have coming from the shop that's given me the most less than good cakes. But I have to keep trying.

Aigre-Douce, Mousse Chocolat Framboise

 This is going to be really short. I went for a new cake to Aigre-Douce because its caramel tart won a cake-off. I've had one other perhaps great cake from there, which I've never seen again, and a couple excellent cakes, and a couple good cakes. The other four were all just ok. I got the Mousse Chocolat Framboise, and this makes a fifth ok cake. The chocolate mousse is inside a sponge exterior, which is a terrible idea. Plus, too much raspberry for me. So soft cake which adds no texture other than to destroy the mousse effect, which is anyway already pretty destroyed by raspberry that includes seeds. And yet, I might be back there in another year if their great cake wins again. I should say, though, that their pastries seem pretty top class, even if I can't understand the appeal of most of their cakes.

 

Cake-off: Aigre-Douce's Tarte au Caramel Salé over Atelier Kohta's Classic Chocolat

Two Sunday's ago, I did a cake-off between the next cakes ready for fourth-round, both with two wins to one loss. That said, all their wins were against cakes that got bumped from the greats list. This holds true this time, as expected. While Atelier Kohta's Classic Chocolat is excellent, it doesn't really deserve such repeated attention. Aigre-Douce's Tarte au Caramel Sale I have more confidence in, so it doesn't just win by default but maintains its great position.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-Blanc over Aigre-Douce's Tarte Caramel Salé

Strictly speaking, I'm not behind posting, though I am behind on other types of communication, due to other obsessions.

Friday night, I worked on testing my memory of (near) neighborhood course loops. I got at least Minami-Aoyama 3&4 loop correct clockwise this time, after failing again on the Jinguumae central loop. As a snack, I got Salted Butter Bread from Pier's Cafe (I'll translate the name as), which is a croissant like roll with basically two layers created by a little butter between them (versus an actually pastry croissant, with a lot of layers with butter between). It was good and it was fresh (in that it was not wrapped and kept toasty hot by a heat lamp (so it was still warmed after I ran the loop). I had thought this was claiming to be a bakery cafe, but I was misinterpreting a single advertised menu item. It's a just a cafe, but I'll keep it on the map.

 Saturday I ran during the day. I started reasonably early, but had an afternoon dentist appointment, so I didn't want to stay out too long. I combined trying to do neighborhood course loops with getting missing photographs of new sites. For example, Crayonhouse, which has simple cakes and tarts.

What I actually bought was a wholewheat Croissant from the grocery section. The actual making has the name Natural Pao and they're in Chiba, but I'm not going to Chiba. It was definitely good. Probably because it was wholewheat, it didn't get soggy from being bagged, but it still had croissant layering of crisp buttery layers. I was not expecting the snow, which in Tokyo was supposed to be in the mountains mainly or at night, but not the morning. Not that there was a lot, but my smartphone glass is cracked and I want to protect it from moisture, so I might have done a different kind of run if I was sure that the clouds wouldn't keep all their moisture to themselves. I got as far out as Aobadai 4, where I now have photos confirming the sites on a little loop.

Sunday, I first went to P. Clair de Lune, where I had not confirmed ahead but was hoping to get a Chiboust. Alas, the chef was not able to source ingredients. He asked for my number and said he would call when he was at the preparation stage (so that would give me a couple day's notice). I was a little unsure whether that was good, since that means it's going to be too late to get what I wanted to pair it up with, but I would like ti have it again anyway. We'll see whether I come up with something else I want to match it against, since Jean-Paul Hévin at least is ending three items from it's line-up (not sure why they only list 2 on the web site; maybe they aren't offering the third everywhere now but don't want to be bothered with being precise about when and where it will finish it's appearance). Not sure when it will end, but not sure when it will end, so I switched to what would have been the plan of doing a third-round cake-off with JPH's Mont-Blanc. Unfortunately, now I was in the opposite direction from Jiyuugaoka and wasn't feeling excited about running another 20 km run to see whether they had what I wanted. It seemed more reasonable to go to Aigre-Douce, which was 9 km away, for the one great item that I know of in the line-up, Tarte Caramel Salé. Not that busy at JPH around 11:30, but we're going up on Valentines Day, which is peak chocolate madness, when they shut down the chocolate bar and use the space to sell cakes and the primo chocolate sets (for people willing to pay double to avoid the line for their regular stuff). I was not disappointed by either cake and I could not easily choose between them. In the end, thinking about which one I would least want to drop from the list (not that I do that to losers), I choose Mont-Blanc, which is a standard for me as a mont-blanc, though I can't think of any better format for sweet caramel than Aigre-Douce's Tarte Caramel Salé (because Sadaharu doesn't provide theirs again for me to check, though January was when last appeared, so I'm keeping an eye out).

Aigre-Douce: Meringue Gourmandise

As promised, I did another run to Aigre-Douce in response to their cake's win in a cake-off. I took a pretty long path, feeling the need to get some more exercise to burn off eating too many homemade canelé yesterday (they had stuck to the mold and tore, though I'm not sure whether that means that there was too much butter or not enough, but I plan to bake them longer next time), and also getting lost at one point, though I didn't go any further out of my way west than I had intended from the beginning).

I choose cake poorly again. This time it was Meringue Gourmandise. Merginue sounded good, or at least different, although it was just plain baked meringue of the crispy-all-the-way-through type, which I'm not against but not sure was the right choice for this shape of cake. Sandwiched between two pieces was custard and caramel cream, which is what is visible. The problem is the type of caramel, which is not sweet and is used in what the Japanese call Purin (pudding) and apparently other people call crème caramel (not sure why) or just caramel pudding. I don't like pudding at all, though the only other America who's commented about it to me said that they thought it was a great thing about Japan, it being ubiquitous. According to wikipedia, it used to be ubiquitous in Europe, but apparently they got over that. Hopefully Japan is moving in the same direction, but not fast enough. Actually, until I got toward the end of this cake, it was good enough, but then the "pudding" flavor took over, so maybe it's really the interaction between the pudding or caramel, or maybe it's just time, since one bad characteristic is that the flavor I dislike stays as an aftertaste (a touch of coffee will do that too), which the meringue probably did not help with. I shouldn't be surprised, given my track record with Aigre-Douce. Maybe next year.

Cake-off: Aigre-Douce's Tarte Chocolat Caramel Salé over Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha

Friday, I finally went inside Binowa Cafe, which is a place I found along my neighborhood running course opened by a "traditional confectionery research company". It's a little rustic as a café and the selection is small and overpriced for take-out, but they advertise canelé, so I figured they deserved to be on my map as a source of pastries/cakes. Their Canelé was excellent, having a nicely crunchy crust around a moist, flavorful, and spongy (versus dry or overly gooey) center. I can say that it was excellent, but again, I'm not sure similar quality couldn't be had much cheaper without a more direct comparison.
The run basically looped around Shibuya station and back back along Gaien, so a long run for a Friday night.

Saturday, for this week's cake-off, I set up a second round for Jean-Paul Hévin's seasonal cake Matcha against Aigre-Douce's Tarte Chocolat Caramel Salé for no other reason than the latter was the next first-round-winning cake on the list, not because they are well matched. Not a long run for a Saturday, but I did enough running during the week that it wouldn't hurt (or maybe would me hurt less) if I gave my feet some rest. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling the Matcha today. Could be that I was eating it in too small of bites to get the full impact (though the cherry was coming through fine) or that the sweetness of the tart interfered with it, but I definitely preferred the tart, which is what matters, and that's fine: it's a great tart. I'll give Matcha another chance next year.

So it looks like I'm going back to Aigre-Douce again tomorrow instead of down to Jiyuugaoka. I wouldn't otherwise get to Aigre-Douce these days because I've had too many disappointing cakes from them, but they vary, so hopefully I'll get lucky tomorrow. They still haven't put Fraicheur Framboise back in the line-up after more than a year of looking.

Cake-off: Tarte au Caramel Sel over Bonheur

I was finally successful in getting the next cake-off going and did not have any trouble running (at least at a 9 km/h pace) despite yesterdays extreme run and 11 km with pauses in the middle felt rather short. Not sure that I'm getting the name correct, but I think Aigre-Douce called it Tarte au Caramel Sel, and I was quite early, so it was not sold out (just, I had to wait for the other early people's orders to get processed). It was also early enough that Bonheur was not actually available when I checked in at Avançons on the way, though they confirmed that it should appear soon ,and it was there as promised on the way back.

Bonheur and Tarte au Caramel Sel

This time I arranged my Aigre-Douce bag better, so that was fixed, but they still put both cool packs against the back of the box, so it was not well balanced; I shifted the outside one to the front. The Bonheur was definitely good, and I approve of the general design, but at this point of my experience, it does not seem that special. It's nice, but very mild. The caramel tart, however, still has strong appeal to me in terms of not being mild: it appears to my sweet tooth and has a strong flavor. So I don't have any trouble calling this cake-off for Aigre-Douce.

Cake-off: "Le Suprême" over "Miroir Cassis"

Saturday, I did a two-part run, first up to Aigre-Douce to get Miroir Cassis, that I have an ambiguous "great" report on, so I wanted to resolve that. I had forgotten how poorly their bags fix their boxes, so that it's impossible to keep them level. To make matters worse, they put cool packs both inside and outside the box, both on the back, so it would take a pretty well fitted bag to keep it from flipping over. Needless to say, it was pretty banged up from trip home, which was longer than necessary. Next time (I'm planning to go back Thursday), I'm taking a route that sticks to main (straight and relatively level) and bring a good back that I can repack in, as needed. This was about 11 km, with slightly more of that 10 km/h versus 9 km/h.

The second run was to Paris S'éveille for Le Suprême. This has blueberry and chocolate, so I wasn't sure what to match it with anyway, which was why I paired it up with Miroir Cassis, which is at least fruit. This is a mousse cake, though, and they advised me to get it home within 1 hour, which running wasn't going to accomplish to I used the train. At least I saved myself the cost of the sports drink that I would have needed to run back, though the front chocolate sheet stuck to the box and broke when I pried it loose. I varied my running route just because I knew I would cycle the next day and most of my route would otherwise be the same as Thurday's, so that added about another kilometer, to make it about 12 km at 10 km/h.

It was a pretty lopsided contest. My original estimation that Miroir Cassis was not great, and I'm not sure that it even qualifies as excellent, though the texture is good, I appreciate the mini macarons, and the fruit taste is nice. But Le Suprême is rich and blue berries provides an uncommon accent. So, in recognition, I also need to get back to Paris S'éveille.

I should also mention that Friday I tried Henri le Roux's Noir Signature tablette bar/tablet, which was definitely excellent, though I'm comparing to months-old imported chocolate from the grocery. I haven't had other chocolatier tablette chocolate for quite awhile.

La Candeur: Marjolaine

Had a long run today, and there are many mistakes to report, so I'll get to it.

First step was to get to Aigre-Douce to look for previously blogged great cakes. Not surprisingly, now is not the season for fresh raspberries, which was the cake I was looking for, although they did have the salt caramel tart that I liked. My route deviated from the plan on the initial roads and then I ran into trouble where Meiji Avenue goes under Mejiro Avenue, as I did not find the stairs that Google says are there (actually, I did not remember where Google said there were stairs, but the only ones I saw to use were on the wrong side, so I should have stayed over there, which was in the shade). I ended up with an extra 400 m. Problem is, to stay on budget, besides not adding distance, I needed to keep the outbound to 10 km/h and this about 6 km stretch ended up 11 km/h, which  I did not even realize, so double penalty there.

At Aigre-Douce, to power my next stretch, I got their bostock for 280 yen. This was definitely good. It seemed lemony, though maybe I was misinterpreting almond liquor or something.

Next 14 km was to Yu Sasage, and this time I stuck to the plan. I was only slightly slower then the first strech, but this brought me within the 10 km/h range. This time, neither of their great cakes that I've had were available, probably because it is the wrong season. I should have bought another snack there so I wouldn't be so hungry that I ate my cake at the actual target for cake. Got a photo, though.

First time to La Candeur, so got a little confused at the first turn (plus, I couldn't remember the details of the plan, so I took the main road south after rejoining Route 20). Seems like a nice shop, and very new looking. The selection was nice. I went with a traditional cake, Marjolaine, which was perhaps a mistake, but I'm too much a slave to the classics.

As I said above, I almost immediately gave into temptation and ate it at a park. This was the wrong temperature for this cake, which, based on the fact that two of the filling layers are whipped cream, should be eaten about 10 degC (which was the ambient temperature, but it would have taken a while to reach that, and I've already said that I was not patient). Anyway, I've made this cake myself, and this seemed to be exactly by the book and taste about how I would expect. So it was definitely good, although, as chocolate, chocolate whipped cream never works well for me, so again, this was perhaps a bad choice. It did make me think about making this cake again, but I don't really need this shop's (but not because it's worse), so that's not an indicate that it's excellent. Too many Tokyo shops to give them a second chance, unless they visit Isetan, in which case I should.

Back (about 14 km) was supposed to be 9 km/h, to stay in budget, and I was definitely slower, but was still in the 10 km/h range, which was a bigger deal the being fast and long on the first stage, so I'm over my running budget by 3% now, though since I only get to expand it every couple weeks, that's not unreasonable (my expansion pace is 10%/week, but only 10% of what I actually ran for one week starting two weeks previously, so it's easily interrupted). My raw distance the last 7 days was 90.8 km and the 12 km/h equivalent (what I actually use in my budget) was 80.7 km. I won't have a lot of running budget for the next block of weekdays, since the budget won't get upped until next Sunday and this weekend is taking up the majority of the current budget. Still, I can plan out a couple training runs, one second visit, and one new shop for Tuesday through Friday so I'm fine. Might run early Saturday, before my first appointment, but not enough for my budget to matter, since I'm busy that weekend. Tomorrow I'll rest, but get some bread.

With that all planned out, now I need to figure out where I need to go to research great cakes for comparison in two weeks so I can start figuring that week's schedule.

Aigre-Douce: Miroir Cassis and Canele de Marquet

Had a real run of 12 km, still at a slow speed of almost 7 min/km average, but no problems, so I plan to run again tomorrow, despite making my goal of 20 km for the week today. I worked hard to keep in shape while I couldn't run, so if my right lower-leg tendon is happy, nothing else should give me trouble, although my hips while I was running didn't quite seem used to it toward the end (no problems, though).

I ran to Aigre-Douce, as a great shop that needed further visiting, and got Miroir Cassis for 530 and Canelé de Marquet (the last one, which was somewhat hidden) for 230 yen. Up until the actual time of ordering, I thought that I was going to get the cake next to the cassis one, but suddenly realized that I had misread the name and it was actually something I've already had/blogged, so no time to read the card. I'm counting on memory and a description lifted from Google. I had also already picked out a different baked good before I as a new canelé to try, as well.

The cake was very good, and I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt that it was great, because I can't think of any way to make it better that would not make it a different cake completely. The cassis is in the mousse outside and inside there is lemon panna cotta (cooked cream) and red fruits gelatin. Outside, are what look like macarons to me, although called something different on the blog I was comparing with.

The canelé is different from other ones in being more wet/custardy inside, although not in a bad way. Still, it didn't stand out.

I tried to make canelé today and failed, but not in a discouraging way: they burned. My recipe says 26 min for 20-gram size and 45 minutes for 70 grams, so I went with 40 minutes. My forms are very short compared to regular ones, and I don't know what that implies. The burnt taste is enough that I wouldn't want to give them to anyone else, but not enough to stop me from eating them, so I put the remainder in the freezer so that I at least don't eat them all today. Struggling to decide how many minutes to try next: 35 min or 30 min. I suppose 30 min, since I might theoretically back them back to bake longer if they aren't done, although I'm not sure whether that would work.

Ikebukuro H&C, Aigre-Douce and Shirokanedo

There was light rain, but I went out and did the Ikebukuro History and Culture course, as shown on the map. It took 34'01''60 to get to the end (for some reason, I didn't look up the direction first and did it in reverse; I'll try to straight that out for next time) and another 1 20'29''57 to give up on finding the beginning, which included one long double back where I missed a turn and a circling back around Kishimojin (characters, Demon Child Mother God) because the online map which I copied into my map book skips it but the markers (if I were going in the correct direction) go right past it. The online map makes up the distance by moving the route "before" that further west, which doesn't seem necessary, except to get people off a narrow street. I suppose I should have done both versions there just to see what was on the posted route, but following markers in reverse, it screwed me up for the next turn. I'll take a look next time. The railway crossing "after" the temple near there seems to have been under construction for years (at least it was a couple/few years ago when I last traveled it, which at least at that time of day required two guys to direct traffic). An advantage of the following the intended direction would be that it was be mostly downhill instead of uphill. Anyway, there is lots of room to improve my speed.

From Ikebukuro (where I verified that Pierre Hermé has at least a few cakes at the Seibu counter), I went to Aigre-Douce to get cake and then hurry home and shower in time to be no more late for my appointment than the other person was. The cake was Fraicheur Exotique for 600 yen. I'm not sure what made it exotic, maybe some sort of citrus fruit in the meringue on top. The chocolate was the watery chocolate that I don't like, although not the worst I've had by any means. I didn't have much time to explore this when eating it, but the name suggests that this was chocolate whipped cream between the layers of chocolate cake, which might explain why I was not impressed with it (whipped cream is not a good filling in general, in my opinion). This was not revolting, but still disappointing enough that I reviewed my ratings so see whether this should stay a great cake shop. It's had a couple great cakes, so I'll give them another chance before I demote them.

My appointment was for shopping. After, we just barely had time to get some cake at Isetan, and Shirokanedo was chosen. I would have chosen elsewhere (as the counter: I got to choose Isetan), but was okay with it. I've had a couple cakes from there since they replace the California place but didn't get into them. The cake was Ichigo ("strawberry") Tarte for 594 and a Wafuu (I think, but I didn't have time to take notes, but means "Japanese-Style") Mont-Blanc for 810 yen. It's Isetan, so I can update the names later, when I have time. The tart was fine. It was a very flaky crust, with the flakes being radial, which was interesting, but still not a substitute for great cake. Just a little custard (and no whipped cream). The Mont-Blanc was actually the best of the day. It was not as good as Jean-Paul Hevin's, but otherwise very good, as it should be for the price. Still not particularly interested in this place (which has an actual shop that I should put on the map), but I'm willing to eat things from there again.

Speaking of whipped cream, I received cookies from La Primeur, and they were fine. I also really like the cookies from Henri Charpentier, but would have been more disappoint if there had been select today.

Aigre-Douce: Tarte au Caramel Salé and Mille-Feuille

I tried timing a run to a cake shop, pausing the timer when I had to pause for more than a couple seconds for lights (no map checking needed). Apparently took 36 minutes for 6 km there, which seems about right, as I was doing a pretty good pace for me. The run back with cake was similar, although I didn't run the full distance: stopped at a Lawson 100 for groceries and they were a little too heavy for running (or at least, it did not seem great for my shoulders). Timing seemed to motivate me to run hard. I was really tired and slept in the afternoon. I guess I better take it easy tomorrow (although that might just mean that I run slow).

One cake was Tarte au Caramel Salé (salted caramel tart). Besides the caramel, this has some chocolate and was great. The other cake was their mille-feuille. It's just a basic version without any fruit, nuts, or icing, but very good. It was a good choice as a second cake. They were 480 and 560 yen, although I don't know which was which.

22 km day off loop run.

The rain mostly stopped and I got in a long run with only a vague plan. I went by Avancons, but decided that my expectations were not that high, so why bother and continued on to Aigre-Douce. There I got the Caramel Chocolate Brownie. After I ordered it, I noticed that it had coffee (and why? Does the pistachio cake have tobacco mixed in, you know, for the flavor?), but didn't back out. After all, maybe the coffee makes it better. Well, it did not kill it, but it did not really make it good, so I'll just leave it as a cake for someone else (caramel and chocolate sounds good, but only if the caramel is fairly sweet, and no coffee, please). I don't remember how much it was, but probably around 500 yen plus tax. They have another chocolate, which I'll try another time. They were really busy for a Monday afternoon, though. Lots of people making big orders, so my cake was already melting by the time they got around to closing the box.

Next, I went to Fraoula, because I could, although I did not do much better. I got their chocolate, the Tomoe, for 453 yen. On the one hand, it was nice to have chocolate without the coffee. It has rum as well, apparently, although I could not taste it. I'm not sure what to call this type of cake. It's not baked, but it's more granular than a mousse but isn't fudge dense. It's kind of a standard texture, so there's probably a good name for it. Ultimately, it did not work for me, although whatever the rum was doing worked, as there was not a problem with too strong a chocolate taste, just its sort of a lot of one flavor that is not enough. It's pretty and I like the macrons, but I don't need it. It would be good to split with someone and have with tea or wine (although there is no space for a cafe there).

I looked around for a third cake, although I had not intended to visit anywhere else. I swung by Takagi and passed from not knowing what to get, went to Toshi Yoroizuka, but they did not have the cake that I had in mind, and so I ended up going to Henri le Roux, which like Toshi Y. is in Tokyo Midtown, but is actually a caramelier, if that is the right word for a master maker of caramels, the only one that I know. They have some little cakes too, which are also available at their Isetan counter, but the draw for the Midtown store is the Kouign Amann. I got the chocolate and C.B.S. (salt butter caramel). These are definitely great, especially the C.B.S. It's sort of croissant-like as far as being flaky and buttery, but of course there is caramel inside, so it's also chewy, not dry. Next time I'll maybe get the C.B.S. again and try the pineapple. These are 324 yen per, so like little cakes.

Sunday without running: Fraoula and Aigre-Douce

It as a rest day, so I was lazy and did not take notes. After other shopping, I went to Fraoula and got (update: bostoc?) the below. The first is salted caramel macarons, although they just seemed like macarons to me. The set was only about 400 yen, which is reasonable. They are slightly smaller than average, but not tiny. I recommend with tea or sharing, since by the third one I was finding them a little too sweet. I wish I could remember what the other thing is. It's from the baked things and is only about 200 yen but is better than most cakes. It involves a lot of eggs. There are almond slices there, but the taste is of maple. Whatever it is, it is great and I get it when I can.

This sad thing is a Charlotte aux (or maybe "de") Framboise. Again, I've demonstrated the futility of trying to use the bicycle basket to carry cake. If I go on a ride, I should just eat where I go. Anyway, there is some raspberry in there, but actually the main part of the center is a light lemon chiboust, or maybe the chiboust is the top part, but that does not seem to match other things I've seen called chiboust in Japan. Anyway, the middle part is semi-frozen, or starts close to that, and then there are some raspberries on the bottom. I'm not that much into Charlotte's, I guess, although I've had ones that used more a biscuit for constructing the ring around the soft middle, which I like better.

This was supposed to be based on my mother's recipe for cheese pie (cake), but I did a major substitution so it doesn't taste like anything I've had before. Also, you're not supposed to brown the top, but I can't see that it's hurt any thing. The inside seems a little soft, if anything, so it's not overcooked. It still tastes good, but I'll try to do it properly next time, as I'd like a firmer texture in the cooked cheese. Also, I should not have used the pie crust (although so delicious with olive oil) recipe that goes with it, since it's definitely a pie crust and I'm using 14 cm tart forms (just bought a third one Saturday: they're expensive). One of these used a leftover tart dough from my custard tart experiments (with only two tart forms), so I'll eventually compare the crusts.

Full disclosure, I also finally failed to resist the cinnamon bun at La Saison near Sanmiyabashi Station. It was as a large cinnamon bun should be (especially if it is 400 yen plus).

Back: ~9 km to Aigre-Douce: Fraicheur Framboise

I've been not cake-running in Tokyo, so no posts. There was a lot of running at least one day and exercise everyday, and much searching for good cake in a land where rollcake is king, putting sponge cake in tarts is apparently okay, and even places that are trying to make high-class French cakes use too much gelatin (which usually means any gelatin, but I don't make cake myself, so I'll allow a certain amount might be necessary structurally).

Anyway, I got a run in, only there was other less runnable shopping than cake and some busy streets, there there was maybe 1 to 2 km of walking involved. I went to Aigre-Douce, near Mejiro Station (目白駅), which is a great shop. I got the "nouveau" Fraicheur Framboise （fresh raspberries: フレッシュール フランボワーズ) for 530 yen. I can't read the text in my photo of the card, but something about the cacao in the chocolate is strong, and of course there are raspberries. The peaks are not hard, so maybe it does not count as a meringue. So, once again, I need to go back to update this entry. No problem for this great cake from a great cake shop, although it is out of the way.  

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Look, my photos line up: progress. This second cake is from Avançons again, which is not so far, being one station away and on the way back. This time, I got a great cake, so there is a reason they sell out when I have to work during the day. This one is called Bonheur (ボヌール). The base is a tart and the top mousse part is mostly caramel, I think, although maybe there was currant in there besides the one that slipped down when I automatically yanked the little decoration with the store name off without thinking. Whoops. The cake was 450 yen and I think great, but I might just be thrilled to be back in the Tokyo cake-running business. 

Tomorrow is rain and Isetan's visiting store is a rollcake place (even in Tokyo), so maybe no running or cake tomorrow.