Demel, Arriba

Tuesday, I again took advantage of Isetan being open until 8pm and my not working past that (not true every day this week) and visited Demel for a 4th cake. I got the Arriba, the other option having been a strudle, I think. Since Demel's signature cake is a Sachertorte, it's not surprise that Arriba is a very dense chocolate cake. It was good, with good chocolate, but I guess I don't need a whole piece of this dense of cake, not without some whipped cream or fruit sauce to bring in some variation, but it's unfair to imagine what I might like better, when it did a fine job to being as intended, I'm sure.

Thursday: Demel, Black Tea Torte

I'm behind writing from injury and having other things to do, but I'm past the immediate peaks of both, I think. Still typing one-handed, although some of the other hand's fingers could and may help out, although they're tired now (can't use chopsticks with my off hand for much).

Last week, leg still not right, though progressed more toward pins and needles than burning. Got cake from Demel, their Black Tea Torte, which seemed my best bet, among four choices. It's 540 yen and pretty substantial, so a good deal. Not sure that I could really identify the tea. I suppose there was chocolate in there too (besides the decoration), but too long ago to remember well; certainly not a major amount. It was definitely good, nice creamy torte, but was special, to make me look forward to having it again.

The same day, on the baking front, I managed macaron-like chocolate sandwich cookies (with chocolate ganache filling), that were actually delicious, but since it was the actual macaronage step where I failed, I won't call them maracons or show a picture (shells were both deformed, due to too thick batter, and cracked, although that might mean they needed more than the 1 hour of drying I gave them, though maybe they wouldn't have if they had been less fat). Since I've got them looking right but too dry previously, from overbaking, I can probably do better next time.

Need two more post to catch up, and then there is the email to answer.

Demel:

No running, although I did an indoor workout, which seemed okay, so I may try running tomorrow. The pollen count is really high, so it is hard to tell whether the cold has passed, but my nose doesn't seem infected, even though it is still afflicted.

Went to Isetan, which is still crowded from being White Day week (Monday). At least Demel finally has more cakes, so I got a Truffletorte from there for 756 yen. This is not my favorite type of chocolate cake, being layers of thick ganache, but I respect this particular one, and not just for being huge. It's good enough that I'm going to say that it is excellent. I have to be precise, because I'm finally going through all my posts and classifying cake shops as Great, Excellent, Good, etc., leaving whether I'm particularly interested in them a separate issue. Their rank depends on the cakes I've had, and I'm of course interested in the Great and Excellent ones, but I'm most interested in the ones on the borderline or for which I don't have enough information to judge. Still, I intend to get at least two cakes from each of the Excellent ones (or potentially excellent ones) before needing to get back to the Greats (from which I've sadly had to cut Aigre-Douce, which just wasn't measuring up, although it's definitely Excellent). I'll report when I've finished, but it's all being updated on the map.

11 km to Demel: Sachertorte

Today, I was doing 1 min/1 min intervals, but not sure how many I did before I just ran, due to crowded sidewalk and then being in a hurry to arrive before closing: less than 15, but probably more than 10. I went down the usual route south through Aoyama Cemetery to go to Jouvaud, but they were sold out of fresh cake at 19:10. I was prepared to go to Takagi as a backup, but I've visited them enough for now and I had time, so I circled back to Isetan. They also were pretty low on cake at the counters that I was checking, so I settled for Demel and got, what else, the Sachertorte, which was 540 yen. This is a traditional Sachtorte: "A fine chocolate cake with a thin layer of apricot jam under the chocolate glaze, with a triangular Demel seal." The frosting/jam is really sweet, so you could get tired of this, but it's been a few years for me from here, so no problem. It was very good.