Dalloyau, Chou Cubique Fraise

Continue on about last Saturday, after Midtown, the next cake stop was Ginza Mitsukoshi, where I wanted to get a cake from Dalloyau. Actually, the cake I wanted was not there, but the overall goal was just to get a new cake, so got their Chou Cubique Fraise, if I've got that right. I worried more about the pastry versus a normal cream puff, but it was fine. Too much fruit in the custard for my tastes, though, even if it was good fruit, making a good cake. 

Dalloyau, L'Isolent Fraise

Catching up, last Sunday evening, I walked over to Dalloyau for a new cake and could. I got their L'Isolent Fraise (I assume from the phenetic Japanese). The macaron is rusk, I think, and the cream is coconut cream, which are both fine. This ended up being definitely good, certainly as good as I expected and good enough that I need to hit them again, since I let myself get behind in keeping them up with Sadaharu Aoki.

Frédéric Cassel, Pavlova Fraise

I had the afternoon off, so after a little running (about 1 km, which is the most I'm trying in a given day), I did a long walk to Ginza, which I got a new cake from Frédéric Cassel in response to their cake-off win. I got Pavlova Fraise, the first pavlova I've had from them. Best guess as this will become the new base cake for the monthly theme. Compare to other pavlova, they went light on the meringue, which is reasonable, and more healthy. Instead, it featured more cream, which they say leans toward cheese, which I could see. The fruit is strawberry compote with a hint of balsamic vinegar, so that's new in my ingredients labels. I'll say that it was excellent and look forward to other flavors, if this is a series.

Ginza Sembikiya, Ichigo Shortcake

Last Saturday, leveling up my quite fine shops that are available, I went back to Ginza Sembikiya and got their Ichigo Shortcake, which is not cheap, so I wouldn't take it as a first cake but figured that it represented what they were best at, so I'd try it as a 4th cake. I was not disappointed. Though I don't know one strawberry variety from the other 500 Japanese varieties, so I can't really say how great the strawberries themselves were. They didn't have that many, so I would guess that they're pretty special. It's shortcake, so just whipped cream, sponge, and fruit. That was enough to make this a definitely excellent cake, probably the best I've had. I'll have to reevaluate my attitude toward other high-end shortcakes. This guaranteed that would make a cut of the quite fine shops under the theoretical assumption that I'll find a few outside members before I need to level up to 5 cakes, which is likely to take a couples years, so not an unreasonable assumption.  

Ginza Senbikiya, Chocolat Orange

While already next door, I made an attempt to get more cakes from a shop that was on the path to be a fine shop, Ginza Senbikiya, Chocolat Orange. The orange (or mikan) was seemly high quality, the combination of chocolate and orange wasn't really harmonizing in any useful way. Still good. Note, on a Thursday, no short cake. Guess it's too high-end for a weekend.

Juri's Tea Rooms, New York Cheesecake

As a partial sampling, I had most of a piece of New York Cheesecake from Juri's Tea Rooms, as takeout. Previously, I've had the afternoon tea set there, the best of which is the scones, though the cake was fine. This was also fine, or rather good, so it gets on the list of fine shops that I need to get a second cake from.

Lenôtre, Carré Citron Yuzu

Thursday last, I caught up for the week with a cake from Lenôtre. They got demoted, so they only get cakes from cake-off wins for the foreseeable future, but I saved one of those until now, when there is a new cake. This is Carré Citron Yuzu. It's not so different from the other Carré cakes, but these are nice moist fruity cake (versus cream, mousse, or sauce) cakes that have been excellent so I was interested in this one too. It's definitely nice, and I don't have other cakes like these from other shops, so I don't mind saying that this one was excellent too.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Maya

Thursday, I had the morning off and slightly ran to Fiorentina Pastry Boutique down in Roppongi Hills to find out whether they still have Estate in the line-up with they don't. That was as much as I could manage as far as running, so I walked to Ginza Mitsukoshi. The big goal was to get one of the new cakes at Jean-Paul Hévin, which I've never had before. There is also one that I've only seen in Kyoto previously, which was excellent, so I might have that again. I let one of the great ones from last month go without having again, just because I couldn't do a cake-off, which is unfortunately. This month, I don't have a match for Bergamot.

But for now, what I got was Maya, which follows the usual JPH pattern as far as chocolate cakes with layers of mousse. This uses Ecuador chocolate mousse, Provence honey nougatine, crème brûlée, a chestnut biscuit, and croustillant. This gives it relatively sharp taste (I don't really know how to describe chocolate), but that's good, great actually. 

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.

Camélia, Reine

I was free from late afternoon on Sunday, so I half ran half walked to Ginza and visited P. Camélia and got Reine, so a princess cake, perhaps. Anyway, lots of pistachio, including a nicely textured biscuit and a suitable balance of red fruits and a touch of chocolate. No surprise that I found it excellent, which makes four in a row from this shop. Still, haven't found a great cake yet, so it's staying in the quite fine group but I might get back to it sooner than otherwise from getting cake for two, as they'll have a counter at Isetan from April (I assume it's a 6th-month gig).

 

Frédéric Cassel, Mandarine Mangue

Was over at Ginza Mitsukoshi last weekend and picked up one new cake, Mandarine Mangue. It was good, but not too exciting. Maybe I'm just not into fruit enough. 

Frédéric Cassel: Saint Honoré Noix de Pécan Citron Vert

Last Sunday, after a visit to an exceptional shop, I walked (due to knee problems, but also because I was carrying one cake) to Ginza Mitsukoshi to get a new cake from Frédéric Cassel, trying to balance catching up the shops at the bottom with the top shops. I tried the Saint Honoré Noix de Pécan Citron Vert, which is self explanatory. It was good, but not their best saint honoré. Pecan is pretty rare in cake but I haven't had much luck with it so far.

Bocksun: Sachertorte, Strawberry Shortcake, and Matcha Mont-Blanc

I wasn't expected to have a chance to get cake from here, but they had a counter in shopping area and we got three cakes. The main Kobe shop is in Chuuou-ku, though so I'm sticking with that. I started with the Sachertorte, which was in three layers with apricot jam on top of each (my vague memory of differences in disputed recipes is about where to put the jam and/or layers). It was definitely good.

The second was a regular Strawberry Shortcake, and was also good. It did not stand out, but I wouldn't expect it to.

The final one was the oddball, the Matcha Bont-Blanc. This was actually the best, being excellent. The matcha is too strong by itself, but the whipped cream balances it. But those two makes too light and sweet a cake, but the almond (?) tart base balances them, so it works out. Especially given their convenient location (depending on the occasion), might make this an early one to revisit.

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. 

Jean-Paul Hévin, Bûchette Pop Music and Bûchette Victor

I got ahead with the second cake (but the following week I'm busy), but I got the two individual Christmas cakes from Bûchette Pop Music, Bûchette Victor (the third design is just the first one below with a different color, though the large scale cakes with the correspond themes are different from each other and from these individuals). I got these when I was in Ginza Sunday morning, reasoning that it was my best opportunity to avoid long lines and them selling out and that both are robust enough that a day at zero degrees in the cooler isn't going to hurt them.

There was half an hour of running, dancercise, and other indoor exercises, as usual. I had the Bûchette Victor first, the second one below, which is mango, like the full-sized version, and I think another fruit, though I can't remember what. The fruit wasn't so strong and it wasn't so exciting, though of course it has all the quality JPH parts of biscuit and mousse, so it was good. I liked the Bûchette Pop Music much more. It's suppose to be pistachio, and it has it's own posting on the web page (not sure why the other doesn't), but it tastes like whisky to me, or at least what cakes that say they have whisky taste like, which is all I have to go by. Anyway, the flavor went with the chocolate and nuts well, along with the texture and it was an excellent cake, as I would expect.  

 

Lenôtre, Schuss Fraise

Monday, because of a cake-off win with a seasonal cake, I went to Lenôtre at Ginza Mitsukoshi for a new cake, which was also seasonal. My target was actually a different cake that I had only imagined, having not looked closely apparently (or just misremembered), but the real cake, Schuss Fraise, looked fine (there is a season glass dessert, but never my first choice). This is a "rare" (unbaked) cheese mousse cake. I'm usually more a baked cheesecake person, though the dual rare+baked one are often the best. Anyway, their usual is citrus, but this one uses strawberries on top and strawberries and raspberries (for some tang) for the sauce. Definitely excellent, though when I reviewed, the Schuss Citron was also definitely excellent, so I shouldn't have been surprised. It doesn't get them back into the quite exceptional category, but they aren't far off, so something will eventually slip low enough that they'll get another chance at a new cake.

The exercise was running there and fast walking back, followed by dancercise, though I skipped other indoor exercises.

Frédéric Cassel, Saint Honoré Vanille et Goyave

Sunday evening I finally did my running for the weekend, but only to Ginza Mitsukoshi (I walked back). I was willing to be disappointed late on a Sunday but they had what I was looking for, the new cake from Frédéric Cassel, Saint Honoré Vanille et Goyave. Saint honoré were a standard for a while, but it's been 3 years since I've had one from there. Fortunately, they still know how to make excellent ones. 

This brings the net cakes up to 64, which is a nice round number, so it might be a while before I get back to them as I proceed through the list of exceptional, quite fine, and fine shops to bring them up to 8, 4, and 2 net cakes, respectively. Should take a couple years, but I'll probably not wait that long, even without cake-off wins.

Toshi Yoroizuka, Figue Noire

 Another quite exceptional shop visited Sunday for a new cake was Toshi Yoroizuka in Kyoubashi, Chuuou-ku, where I got the Figue Noire, I think (based on the phonetic Japanese). Not sure whether it has cassis (black currant), but it was certainly fruitier than I would expect from just fig, and quite sweet, more than I wanted, really, but I wasn't really feeling in the mood for sweets, which is more timing when I have cake. Nevertheless, it's fair to say it was good.  

Still one more exceptional shop to hit, but I have to wait until next month for Pierre Gagnaire to finish the current line-up. Being in an international hotel, they are hit hard by travel restrictions, so they don't even have all the cakes displayed on their poster. 

Frédéric Cassel, Mille-feuille Colette

As I posted previously, I loaded up on cakes Saturday, out of efficiency, though my cakes/week is fixed. At Ginza Mitsukoshi, besides the JPH cake for the cake-off, I got Frédéric Cassel's latest seasonal mille-feuille, Mille-feuille Colette. In this case, the cream is cinnamon cream and the gelatin middle is fig and raspberry, which was an interesting combination that harmonizes well, so I would say this is excellent, which most of this series is.

 

This was really the second cake (and third for the week, so three left for the weekdays), today, but the first was repeat, so I'll save it for if I come up with a cake-off with it. I ran in the early afternoon for research and wasn't surprised when the weekend-only mille-feuille was sold-out in the evening, but I was surprised to see Addiction, so apparently it's not ended it's run yet, just I'll have to ask for it if I want it early in the day, as they don't have display space, at least on the weekend. I've run into this before, but hadn't thought to investigate it that thoroughly. I should have asked whether the Framboisier is really done, but I'll wait until I'm sure that I want to do a cake-off with it if it's not. Anyway, I got the Saint Honoré Noix et Poire, which is the cake corresponding to this month's "inspiration". This is the 5th saint-honoré and was excellent, like 3 out of 4 of the others (the most traditional caramel one was the only one that didn't especially impress me). This is walnut and pear, as the name says, which is not a combination I've run into before, but both are mild but seem seasonal. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it, so I've lifted this from their site. Hope they don't mind, though I only had one.

The other new cake they have is a pumpkin (?) Halloween milk crepe cake, which sounds terrible all around, so I'm going to try to avoid it but might feel compelled. It might be the milk crepe cake that convinces me that milk crepe cakes aren't terrible, but that seems like a lot to ask.