Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Breteuil over Paris S'éveille's Saint Honoré Caramel

Still working through seasonal cakes I want to get to for fourth-round cake offs, I first ran in light rain to Ginza Mitsukoshi, arriving two minutes before opening. They weren't that surprised to seem me as their first customer at Frédéric Cassel, which I got the Breteuil.

After getting it safely home, I ran down to Shibuya in what was now snow, because I'm really greedy and wanted to also compare pastries. I got the regular Croissant from Sadaharu Aoki, since the next stop was Paris S'éveille, which also has great pastries. It was the next step, but I didn't go the shortest way.

At PS (still snowing lightly all the way), having successfully timed it to arrive between the interval that Saint Honoré Caramels are brought out and when the sell out, I was able to get this three-time cake-off winner. For the pastry, I got Croissant Orange.

For a first of the new viennoiserie-off, I'm giving the win to Croissant Orange. It's no secret what appeals to me about both: sugar. The SA uses a syrup coating and PS uses powered sugar. But I'm giving the win to Croissant Orange, for what it's worth. Not sure that this is as useful as comparing great cakes, since the bar is really lower.

The main event, however is the cake-off. At least on this day and in this combination, the caramel of the Saint Honoré Caramel was more bitter than I wanted. Also, the nutty creamy decadence of the Breteuil could not be resisted. It's a little sad to think that I'll wait another year before I have this gain, but I did squeeze in two cake-offs with it this season, so even a four-time cake-off winner can't really ask for more.

I tagged this with neighborhood run, but then failed to include the night run. What I tried to do, as a new project this year, is do neighborhood course "clumps" (at least two loops and including all attached links with sites), but I failed both. I added a new site and split what's become the Yotsuya 3-choume Stn. southwest clump into a Samon-chou-Yotsuya loop, which I could do, and a Daikyou-chou--Shinanomachi loop, which I failed on when it came to matching on the east and west ends of the north stretch. I tried the remaining Shinjuku Gyouen clump, but failed on a link, which was not consistent with another link, so I revised them to all use the shortest path (versus favoring hugging close to Shinjuku Gyouen).

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Praliné over Paris S'éveille's Le Suprême

Sunday, I fit in some running and cake. In the morning to early afternoon, I ran down to Jiyuugaoka and got Le Suprême from Paris S'éveille's for a third-round cake for the runner-up bracket (the one and one shops after two rounds). Stopped off on the way back to get the special-time Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Praliné, which was my main focus, though I still have another month before it's scheduled to be replaced. While at Paris S'éveille's, I got a snack to last me until lunch, their Croissant Orange, as a fresh viennoiserie. It was great, as I remembered. Some time I need to do a match up with the great croissant from Sadaharu Aoki, since these may be the only two great croissants I know of.

Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Praliné easily won, as it is decadent combination of chocolate coating, praliné, and meringue. I'm having my doubts about needing to sample Le Suprême, though I'll get a fourth round at least. The flavor combination of blueberry and chocolate is definitely nice and not something I have other exams of, but it's just a mousse cake with some glazing and chocolate that isn't that well integrated into the cake (though I guess it protects it from sticking to the box, and it was somewhat successful, though it doesn't stick to cake well either). Still, I enjoyed both cakes, so no disappointment.

In the evening, I went down and did the Jinguumae 5&6 loop clockwise. Note that there is illumination up on Omotesandou-douri Ave., so they close the pedestrian footbridges for safety (otherwise, people would crowd up there, and they aren't that wide or seem to be that rugged) and station cops at the crosswalks to keep people from standing too long in the street taking pictures, which I didn't try to do.

Paris S'éveille: Croissant Orange

Last Tuesday, I went looking for a pastry at Paris S'éveille, but I checked my cake spreadsheet rather than this blog, so I didn't know that I had gotten a Croissant Orange before. I was going there not just for another pastry but for another item from Paris S'éveille, who I intend to replace Pierre Hermé with as one of the two quite superb shops and also won the previous cake-off but they have no new cakes now. Fortunately, I've decided this time that the Croissant Orange is great and that new ratings now that I'm taking pastries more seriously override old rating (previously I had written that it was excellent). The amount of orange paste inside is actually fairly small but gives the correct balance, with the powdered sugar outside, so it's more like an orange version of a pain au chocolat than a croissant d'almonde, which often have so much almond paste that the croissant has a completely different shape, though there are different ways to almondize a croissant.

Sunday/Monday: Bubó Barcelona: Choco Deluxe

Had a long bicycle ride to visit some outlying shops to see what was available for upcoming cake-offs (for example, I would have had one Tuesday, but the necessary shops are closed, so I'll give it a try Saturday, though I may run into other trouble, as being sold-out is also a problem, and that's a bigger danger on the weekend). It was a relaxing ride, at least until I got to Ring Road 8, which I forgot how inconvenient/dangerous it is for pedestrians and bicyclists, so I should look for a different route when I perhaps do the same thing next month. No cake, also in preparation for the next cake-off, but at Paris S'éveille, I got a Croissant Orange (or something closely named), which was excellent. It's a fairly how croissant, and very crispy, with some orange paste inside. Not sure what they cut the orange with besides sugar, but almond paste seems like a good choice.

Monday, I got a second cake from Bubó Barcelona at Isetan, since their time there was almost up. It is Choco Deluxe, which is an all chocolate mousse cake. The center seems to be a little chocolate cream, surrounded by a lighter mousse, with a chocolate coating, of course, along with the outside decorations. There is a crunchy bottom and some more chocolate biscuit inside. Being strictly chocolate is limiting, but it is excellent chocolate, so I would like to compare this to other top chocolate, which is to say that I think it is great. Guess I'll be visited the Omotesando shop sooner rather than later, though it's going to have to get in line at least behind Éclat des Jours, which I hope to get to Thursday, and Il Pleut sur la Seine, which will have to wait for next week, as I owe Sadaharu Aoki a cake and want to do a couple cake-offs this week-end, to catch up a little.

There was also a little running. I did about 10 min running hard up and down a moderate nearly slope and then went to the Gaien course and practiced 500 m at a time 8, 8, 10, and 11 km/h speeds using a stop watch, before heading back. It was my first time for this kind of training and I expected hard running the next day, so I didn't work that long. Also, I had a late start.