Cake-off: Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré over Yu Sasage's Ardèche

Friday night, I tried again to get the Matcha Croissant from Sadaharu Aoki at Roppongi, but they were sold out. In good news, they had the new seasonal cakes, right on schedule (the main seasonal change is every 3 months, whereas I'm not sure when JPH well change, so I have to keep watching, though the café menu has). I also decided that the Nino Caffe next to Nogizaka Station deserves to be on the neighborhood course, so that loop needs a slight adjustment. I didn't get cake from Sadaharu Aoki, since it wasn't a cake day, but got a Cinnamon Raison Roll from Cinnabon near Roppongi Hills. It was okay. I should have microwaved it; I knew better. Notice that it isn't doused in frosting. The guy at the register seemed to have never heard of it and had to take the sign I pointed at and ask someone else. It's not a regular menu item, apparently.

Met someone in the morning, so I set off a little before noon for running. I limited myself to just a few pictures to add to the neighborhood map. I like to break up the run a little, but figured I didn't have much time, since I wanted specifically Ardèche from Yu Sasage. I would have gone to Ces Jours if that had failed and done a cake-off tomorrow. I took the train back as far as Shinjuku Station and got Plaisir Sucré from the Ladurée there (which still has take out, even though they eliminated the seating). Ardèche was relatively subtle next to the brute force of Plaisir Sucré, which I gave the win. I think Ardèche maybe doesn't need to be on the great list. As much as I like this type, I have enough already on the list that I like better, tough this was definitely excellent.

After lunch and tea and cakes (and a rest to update my map), I went out again around 4 pm and tried to capture photos of some missing sites and found a few new sites as well, so needed more time to adjust the map. The Moto-Azabu--Roppongi loop has gotten rather convoluted. This chocolate shop is probably the most important addition. Still shows up as a luxury fashion shop on Google Maps.

Yu Sasage, Ardèche

Did a west run to Yu Sasage in Minamikarasuyama, Setagaya-ku, in response to their cake-off win with Perfum, the only cake of theirs that I've put to the test. I tried to take pictures along the way, though I only seem to have a few. Anyway, the weather was cold and there was a little snow, so I didn't want to expose my phone with a cracked edge.

I always have trouble choosing, as my mind is not that organized after running and people are waiting in the cake shop so I feel pressure. The thing that made me pause was that they have a Fondant Chocolat ? Rouge, whereas I've been looking for their Fondant Chocolat aux Framboises for cake-offs for a few years. This is apparently the correct season, as I had it originally in Feb. '16, so the current Fondant Chocolat is probably a close match, but maybe not. Instead of finding out, I got Ardèche. This is very similar to the JPH cake I want great cake to match against: a chocolate cylinder with a hard coating. In this cake, the inside is very moussie: chestnut mousse and (Western) tea mousse chocolate, along with chocolate caramel ganache. This is actually a fairly mild cake, almost a milk chocolate taste, whereas I'm easily impressed by less subtle applications of sugar and nuts. This did have some crunch in the base, along with the coating, so there was sufficient variation in texture.

I'm not sure how it will hold up against further scrutiny, but I think it's not unreasonable to designate it as great. I'll try to get it again Monday and put it in a cake-off against the JPH cake. I don't have anything to match the loser against a second round, though, assuming that I still think that cake is good. My best bets are if 14 Julliet has reintroduced Au Lait Noix (they were back with having small cakes again last time I checked, but a smaller different line-up that definitely didn't have that one) or Les Cacao has put Cuba back in the line-up (haven't seen it since 2017). Not sure that I'll have time to check that latter this weekend, but I wouldn't mind an east run Tuesday or Wednesday, not to let F. Cassel go too long without a visit.