Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Fraisier over Pierre Gagnaire's Mousse au Chocolat et Yuzu

Having starting working through the two-and-two cake-off great cakes for fifth-round cake-offs and noticing the appearance of Frédéric Cassel's Fraisier, I worked it in. Also back, was Mousse au Chocolat et Yuzu by Pierre Gagnaire. The latter is a unique taste, but that wasn't enough to overcome my love of pistachio, at least when presented well, so the win went to Fraisier.
 

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.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille versus Jean-Paul Hévin's Guayaquil

Thursday, I took off in the morning and did got cakes for the cake-up skipped last weekend, when I was busy. Since I didn't manage to find a new great cake, I worked through my list to run a 5th-round cake-off for cakes that have only one loss. This pair has the advantage that they are both available at Ginza Mitsukoshi: Frédéric Cassel's Choux Vanille and Jean-Paul Hévin's Guayaquil. These are both pretty basic cakes in their ways, but great. Guayaquil is JPH's base straight chocolate cake; I still haven't tried the thing he showed on public TV of microwaving it to experience the change in flavor chocolate flavor from change in temperature, but that remains a good idea. It's got various layers, so there are texture variations, but the Choux Vanille still has a better contrast, or maybe I'm just a sucker fro the sugar on the pastry, but once again I have to give the win to the one puff pastry on my greats list. Check it out if you get a chance.

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. 

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Breteuil over Éclat des Jours' Baked Cheesecake

Sunday, I did the most recent cake-off, I did my second 5th round of the again, pitting two undefeated cakes against each other. The primary target was Breteuil from Frédéric Cassel, because it is a seasonal cake, whereas Éclat des Jours' Baked Cheesecake has been available year-round for as long as I've known about it. Both are perfect cakes, and it certainly wasn't clear eating which I would choose even halfway through them, but I decided to go with the pistachio wonder that is Breteuil, just based on person preference, but it wouldn't have been shocking to choose the cheesecake, which remains the best I know. Rough to have to wait another year to have either again, but there are a lot of shops out there and even a lot of great cakes to have again in Tokyo. 

This catches me up, as I did have time (or cake slots) for more during long workdays and short shop hours for Monday through Wednesday. Hoping for something Thursday, but my left side hasn't been in much shape for running, though I got my watch battery changed Monday (when I didn't work quite so late) and did intervals Tuesday quite late, despite being cold and windy for walking between runs outside.

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.

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.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-Blanc over Frédéric Cassel's Tan Gram

Did a weekend fourth-round cake-off between two from the undefeated bracket. The chocolate cake is Tan Gram from Frédéric Cassel, and this is quite decadent. The Mont-Blanc is the one from Jean-Paul Hévin; it is only available fall and winter, which might not sound like much of a restriction, but this is maybe the best Mont-Blanc out there, in my opinion, though that's totally about what a great almond meringue base it has, which is maybe not what true mont-blanc devotees focus on. Against my usual trend, I'm not giving the win to the chocolate cake, though this agrees with the recent trend of not being as excited about the more intense cake. In Tan Gram's defense, I should have worked out longer or at least waited longer so I was sufficiently hungry for these after a full lunch. However, JPH's Mont-Blanc would be hard to beat under any circumstances. Hoping to get to it earlier in the year for the fifth round. 

 

Frédéric Cassel, Mille Crêpes Potiron

The last of the cakes on Sunday was from Frédéric Cassel and catches me up with new cakes from them with still two weeks to go until the next month. This is Mille Crêpes Potiron, which has several things going against it. One, is I don't appreciate crêpes, at all, though my biggest exposure is milk crêpe, which makes rollcake look sophisticated, by my estimation, though actually stacking crêpes is does seem more technically difficult. The other is pumpkin (or at leas squash) as a cake flavor. Lastly, decoration cakes, even from good shops often sacrifice the eating experience for appearance. On the other hand, Frédéric Cassel has a good track record for taking types of cakes I've dismissed and impressing me. Also, this is not milk, it's rum and raisin, along with the pumpkin and the ever present FC staple mascarpone cheese (a neutral texture and taste medium for whatever you want to do). As it happens, this was the best of the cakes I had, and definitely good, which certainly puts it at the top of crêpe-based cakes and would make be consider future cakes, though I'll try to stay clear of milk-flavored, really in any kind of cake.

 

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.

 

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Addiction over Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron

I'll be busy next weekend and so these are both seasonal, so I wanted to get in another round before either disappears. This is a second-round cake-off (occurring today!) requiring only a short run to Ginza Mitsukoshi. One cake is yesterday's winner, Matcha Marron from Jean-Paul Hévin. The last time, I ate it with green tea, whereas this time was Indian tea (grown in China). That might be a little too strong for it, as it's pretty subtle (unusual for chocolate cake, but the amount of chocolate is pretty minimal), whereas fruity cake definitely suits a tropical fruit cake, so Addiction is two for two, taking advantage of its more extreme taste. 

Frédéric Cassel, Rouleau Poire au Thé

 Friday, I wasn't too late to try a run to Ginza Mitsukoshi. I would have been fine not finding anything, since I needed some motivation to run Friday night despite planning to run from the morning on Saturday. As it happens, supply was surpassing demand and I didn't have any trouble getting the target cake as reward for the last cake-off win: Rouleau Poire au Thé. I don't have much respect for roll cake, but the simplicity is sometimes an advantage when the goal is to show off fruit, at least. I can't say the tea was obvious, but that's okay. Certainly the pear was clear and I was feeling mellow enough about both roll cake and fruit that I could enjoy this and call it excellent. Just to mention the run, I didn't try to kill myself getting there and walked it back for cake safety.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Framboisier over Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre

 Cake-off back on September 10th, I did a second-round cake-off between two new-comers: Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre and Frédéric Cassel's Framboisier. In a way, both are these are pretty basic and there were reasons to give the win to either for this tough matchup. On one hand, this is maybe the only great fruit tart, whereas Framboisier is one of three nearly identify FC cakes, differing only in the fruit. But in the end, I really like the pistachio cream that is the main component of the Framboisier, and there is a lot of it, so it gets the win. If this were based on cost performance, though, I'd probably have to give it to the tart.

Frédéric Cassel, Tarte Myrtille

Back on September 4, I visited Frédéric Cassel for a new cake. Two weeks the previous month they had special domestic blueberry cakes. Next, they had blueberries as the month's theme. This cake goes by simply Tarte Myrtille, and was excellent, as usual, and suitably different from the recent maybe more traditional limited domestic blueberry version. This is almond cream in the bottom and blueberry cream on tip, with crepe added for texture, I'll say.

Frédéric Cassel, Framboisier Vanille

 The other cake I got three Sunday's ago from Frédéric Cassel was Framboisier Vanille, which had been my target during the previous week when I went to Ginza Mitsukoshi. Unfortunately, while good, vanilla is pretty weak as a flavor, so naturally then held back on the raspberries, which is fine, but the cake was still lighter than my preference.

Frédéric Cassel, Domestic Blueberry Mille-Feuille

Sunday the 16th, while busy, I had a window to run to Ginza and get cake, so I did. My target was a different cake, but I needed a pair and this was also new from the same shop, Frédéric Cassel. This was one of a couple cakes with domestic blueberries with a two week scheduled run, but I note that they must have liked blueberries, as they became September's theme. Anyway, obviously this is Domestic Blueberry Mille-Feuille. It's like their other theme mille-feuille, which are excellently made but don't vary so much and aren't my favorite type of mille-feuille (I don't like the gelatin in the middle, which I think also requires some sponge around it, which is just wrong for mille-feuille). I complain, but they tend to be excellent anyway. However, blueberry is maybe not the best choice, or I'm just getting too tired of these, as it was only good.

Domestic Blueberry Mille-Feuille

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Framboisier over Rue de Passy's Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron

Still trying to catch up. This was the first cake-off of August. Having just been in Rue de Passy, I saw that they had their Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron back in the lineup, so I finally had something to do a first-round cake-off with Frédéric Cassel's Framboisier. I could confirm both these as great (always a big issue for the first round), but I can't resist massive amounts of pistachio cream, so I have to give it to the favorite's cake, Framboisier. However, the Framboisier is at the end of its run, so it's the loser that will get the next cake-off.

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Frédéric Cassel, Domestic Blueberry Tart

Last Wednesday August 5th, I jogged (?) to Frédéric Cassel, just on the off chance of getting their blueberry tart on it's first day of a couple-week run. I was rather surprised to snag the last one, which makes three days in row of such success for new cakes, though maybe Monday's wasn't the last one. 

It's a fairly solid tart base (with almond cream) and while blueberries aren't the flavorful fruit (not that I'm that into any fruit, really), I was also happily surprised to find it definitely excellent. The announcement left off the name, but probably Domestic Blueberry Tart, based on the mille-feuille name, which I wasn't trying to get. Since they used phonetic "blueberry" in describing it, I translated the name as English rather than French, though I'm not sure what was on the card, if they even use anything other the the Japanese. 

Frédéric Cassel, Framboisier

I'm so behind, and Blogger is now disabled the old editor, so I'm stuck with only the one with the broken label adder (unless you want to have just one label, and then it's just inconvenient). Anywa, at least my map updating is finally coming along for the first batch of neighborhoods. I'm not changing the route, just I'm tired over overlapping lines. For created new routes, I've done all three for top sites, cake shops, and major parks, which go from as far northeast as Yotsu Sta., as far west as Harajuku Sta. (only the subway station), as far south as Omote-Sandou Sta. and as far southeast as Gaienmae Sta. I'm updating the calculation, but they all time me about 2.5 hours, with standard stops.

This cake as from a visit to Ginza Mitsukoshi. This replaces an almost identical cake with mixed fruit, which replaced one with strawberries. It's equally great in any case and apparently this one is going to stick around a little longer, so I hope to get in a first-round weekend (the real next weekend). Starting tomorrow, I need to catch up on two weekends, though I was working ahead with this one and didn't try to do the full week in the weekend last (real) weekend, so it's less than a week behind.  

Frédéric Cassel, Savarin Orange

Sunday, I was right back to Ginza Mitsukoshi, since Frédéric Cassel won the cake-off, and anyway, are top of the shops with new cakes. I went with the Savarin Orange, so no alcohol. Though orange, it has lime juice to make it more tropical. Inside is vanilla cream, but on top is the staple mascarpone cream on top of the orange. They recommend with tea, which works for me. This was excellent, fortunately, and certainly better than the previous savarin I had from their neighbor counter, though it might have had more volume (though at greater price). This restores them to the the current target level, though the target is about to get raised, and they're at the top, so they will probably get another cake this weekend, though 

I'll say ahead of time that I got one cake ahead on Thursday this week, whereas last week I was one behind, so there will be at least one cake less this weekend. 

I should mention that I also got a second pastry from Johan, a Pain au Chocolat, and it was good, but nothing memorable. They used to have a super decadent version that also had pistachio when they had a Shinjuku shop, but I haven't seen it in Ginza.