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.

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, 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, Framboisier

Heavy rain Monday. Tuesday, I rode out to Frédéric Cassel and got Framboisier in response to a cake-off win. This is lots of pistachio mousse with a nice balance of raspberry and was definitely excellent. The sponge base was a little boring for me though. Maybe because this is similar a strawberry cake they had, I wanted an interesting biscuit as the base, though that would distract one from the raspberry, so not for everyone. I rode it back, stopping for shopping and then went out again for a fast walk, 70 minutes, to do the Central Akasaka clump loops of the neighborhood running course, Akasaka 7 and 8 loops, counterclockwise this time. Felt property tired from exercise despite not running. My feet were mostly fine with it. I might trying walking farther tomorrow.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Framboisier over Cacao Store (Théobroma)'s San Juaquin Dos

Thursday, having already had three weekday cakes, I ran again for cake-off research, this time to the Yoyogi area, where I had more success. Cacao Store promised to have their (actually, Théobroma's) San Juaquin Dos through Saturday. Bien-être admitted the possibility of something, but probably not Framboisier, which they had in stock at that time, but it was too late to go back to Cacao Store. 

So Friday after, after failing again elsewhere, I visited both and got the desired cakes, moving up the cake off by one day. I suspect that the Framboisier was left over from the previous day, but some cakes age better. No running Friday, just cycling. These are both pretty standard cakes, which is why I designated them great to begin with, but this time I was not convinced that San Juaquin Dos really belongs, though it is excellent as a dense chocolate cake that probably also can survive more than one day. More importantly, Bien-être had several new cakes on Friday, so I hope they will still have them when Christmas cake season ends.

Saturday I got my flu shot, so I took it easy. I still went out by bicycle to buy some chocolate for baking, take a picture Lotus, a café in Jinguumae that does cakes until 4 am, and got a Pain au Chocolat from Shibuichi Bakery. The pastry wasn't that impressive, though it was still somewhat good.

Sunday, I had repeats of cakes and no running. JPH cakes are still excellent.

Monday, I went for a long run to add a bunch of loops to my neighborhood course by doing a one-way neighborhood course run, which is taking a lot of time to update (partially because I found mistakes from last time I updated it to add loops). I don't usually try to combine photo-taking with the first such run, but I wanted to make use of the opportunity. I'm working on the path west from Roppongi Hills to connect up to loops that I previously thought I could only get to by a longer way circling around from the north. It was about 2 hours of running, plus walking and taking pictures. At L'Atelier du Pain, there just south of Roppongi Hills, I got a Pain au Chocolat. Though it's not looking so symmetric, you can see on the left that it's got proper layering and that it's well baked, so actually it was excellent. Usually I never go to Roppongi Hills, so it's not that convenient a shop, but it's at about the 1 hour mark, so next time I go out for a neighborhood run along that route, I can stop there again.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Framboisier over Jean-Paul Hévin's La Figue

On Monday, a national holiday, I had a first-round cake-off for the seasonal (I assume) La Figue by Jean-Paul Hévin. I pitted it against a standard from Bien-être, their Framboisier. These both held up as great cakes and I really enjoyed them (it's good to live in Tokyo and know where the great cake is). I'm giving this round to Framboisier because there are a lot of chocolate cakes that I like a lot (and even a lot of cakes from JPH similar to La Figue, in different seasons), but it is the only great cake I know that gets by on just raspberry as the main flavor (the closest is Perfum, which is raspberry and rose), though white chocolate is usually a good assist.

I ran for the cakes (one at a time and one-way, taking the train back from Bien-être, though that requires at least one train change and either a few extra stations or extra fee to change lines) and afterward went for a long ride checking shops for great cakes that have yet to have a first round (the only missing ones for second-round are ones I visit regularly anyway and Cuba from Les Cacao). First though, I revisited Bien-être to correct a mis-order (I'm resorting to reserving cake, so I hope it doesn't rain hard again Wednesday) and get my loyalty card stamped. Next I hit Bubó Barcelona to try their Croissant, which was definitely good as a fluffy buttery pastry, though you can always add butter to hot bread and get similar results, perhaps, so I'm not as interested in it as their more decadent creations. Could check two shops (the third was closed, as it always is on Monday) for great cakes without finding them, but had a few-hour ride around the city.

Bien-être: Framboisier

For last Thursday, I cycled to Bien-être as a shop that should probably be promoted (from quite excellent to superb). In the past, I got overly focused on raising the cake count for such shops, but since mostly they fail as I get deeper into the line-up and cakes I initually ignored, now I'm trying to be more gradual about it (which also mean there are a lot of shops that need such attention).

I've gotten used to seemingly sudden changes in the line-up at Bien-être, but actually most of the cakes were familiar, include one that I haven't seen since last October when I declaired it great and then it was gone the next week before I got a chance to put it in a cake-off. This give me multiple conflicting priorities for the next cake-off, but I'll stick with two seasonal cakes, one temperarily at Isetan and get back to this one for the following cake-off.


For Thursday, though, I got the Framboisier, which was somewhat surprised not have gotten to before. The café space was full again, so it was for take-out. This is a fairly standard cake and I've been unimpressed previously, but this had the right levels of moisture

and sweetness, which are also very temperature dependent, so it's not clear that other shops are to blame. Anyway, while not a simple cake if you consider all the layers but somehow it feels simple, so I might get tired of it, but this is a great cake of a type that isn't heavily represented in my great list, so I'm hopeful that it will have staying power (and I don't feel in a hurry to put it in a cake-off, since it's been around for as far back as I can remember, as short a time as that is).

Cake-off: Yu Sasage's "Perfum" over Hidemi's "Framboisier"

As expected, today's running was a little tough, so it was all around 9 km/h, which is better than it might have been. First, I went to Hidemi to get Framboisier. I dawdled preparing, so I didn't arrive until 11:05, whereas 10:50 might have been better. Still, I waited only about 15 min, but most of that outside in the sun. For this cake, it was close enough that I ran it back, though, with the lights, I didn't make it within the 40 min that they recommended. It was +11 km round-trip.

For the second cake, I went out to Yu Sasage, which was actually cooler, though it was now early afternoon, so probably not actually cooler. I ran about 1/4 north of the main highly, just to vary the routine (there are parks, which is convenient, and a lot of pretty old public housing apartment buildings, which are not so scenic, but fine), since I've been over to Yu Sasage a couple times recently for research and have previous stuck to the main road for simplicity (usually, I was coming back at the end, so not the best time for complications).

Both of these are fruity cakes, which are not my favorite, so hard to judge. The Framboisier, in particular, was hard to determine what I had thought was great about it, but by the last bite, I was certainly appreciating the balance of raspberry, sugar, and cream (also, may the cake needed some warm-up time, though not much in summer) and think that it is definitely excellent. The other cake, Perfum, is a pistachio tart with a fruity (soft) meringue, or at least the gelatin under the meringue was fruity. This also I liked more as I ate it (and the two cakes went well together, so it was a happy pairing). I liked the more substantial base, even if the three components, tart, meringue and gelatin tended to separate (as did the layers of Framboisier) and the actually lighter flavor of the top worked slightly better for me. It's a weekend/holiday only trip, so I guess that will be my run tomorrow, too, though, I'll trying following the train line south of the main road rather than north. Like today, though, I think I'll take the train back with the cake, at list to SHinjuku Station, because I've been running pretty heavy and the heat is not great for me or the cake.

Culture Day run: Hidemi and Clair de Lune

Today's run is the one shown on the map, if you check before I add another one. It was 21+ km and involved 2 h 12 min of motion (mostly running, but there were crowds and a pedestrian bridge to requiring climbing stairs. Went through some crowded areas, but also was still sore (back and hips) at the beginning (now my feet are sore). Since I have a long run planned for Saturday, I've only got Wed. or Thu. for intervals to try to build actual muscle. Not sure whether another long run after only 6 days from the previous is okay, especially with 20+ km today, but we'll see.

Wanted to go to the cafe Kneten, as a Joshi+ recommendation, but they are closed Tue, apparently even when it is a holiday (I tried calling by phone, but no answer). I had several other places in mind, though, so no problem. I ended up visiting Patissier Hidemi Sugino's place. It's a cafe and 6 of the cakes are only for eating in, but the line for getting cake was not so bad (people go in groups, so it can look worse than it is). Since I was in no condition for anyone to want me in their crowded cafe, and it was 30 minutes after opening so the cafe space was already full with a few people waiting, I got a takeaway cake: Framboisier for 680 yen, which was great, so I'll need to visit again.

Sorry, not a great picture. Too bright outside to see what I was doing (and too tired to have the sense to realize how the shadows were falling). This is raspberry, obviously. Under the whole raspberries are almond bits. There should be a couple almond cake layers in there, but mainly raspberry butter cream, although fairly light buttercream as buttercream goes. Also, some red currant gel, although not sticky or wobbly (if there were enough of it) jelly, but more of a solid sauce that cuts easily. This is very fruity cake, probably from using fruit as the sweetener rather than some other kind of sugar, but the sweetness is just right.

After another 5 km, I got back to Clair de Lune for a second time this year. Maybe this was too short a distance (even though it took several more minutes to get to a park to eat it) for cake again. As I seek quality, I find that I have to cut down on quantity, and not just due to expense. The name is The Apres-Midi (I think something else might have been written in Latin characters, but this makes sense to me and matches the Japanese phonetic name) and was 600 yen. It's almost frozen and gives off a faint ice-being-cut sound, although it does not taste icy. Obviously there are figs on top (I put them on flat-side down, so they wouldn't roll off outside) of a sort of crumb topping. Not sure what the flavors are. Could be a little chocolate or could be fig. Not vanilla. I assume tea, but not strong. It was very good, but I became less satisfied with it afterward over time, which may have more to do with what happens in my stomach when I eat and jog. Anyway, probably not great, and the shop is still not convenient (in terms of distance and crowded areas that you have to pass through to get back inside Yamanote Line) although I'm getting a little more used to jogging on that side of town, so I've removed the shop from special consideration. If I'm in that neighborhood and need take-out cake, I would go again.