Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat over Paris S'éveille's Giverny

Running very far is not possible, so  I did a cake-off buying by bicycle, which is why the fruit maybe isn't as originally placed. Still, the cake managed pretty well. I started by going to  Paris S'éveille to get the Giverny, a cake with three wins and one loss. I matched it with the next cake in line that was convenient for the return trip. Since the Aoyama stop isn't open until noon now and there's bicycle parking at Hikarie, I went there to get Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat. In some ways it's a pretty lopsided match, since fruit cakes have a harder time with me than chocolate, but then chocolate cakes have to live up to my memories of other chocolate cakes to stay in the greats group, so it's fair to a certain degree. However, this turned out to be a really nice cake, with some thick chocolate cream in there and good texture. Still, the greatness of Giverny was not questioned. 

Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Giverny over En Vedette's Rocher

Did a cake-off, first going to Paris S'éveille to get Giverny. Only problem is, they were opening late and I arrived early. However, I hadn't done my stretches the day be fore and had no trouble filling a hour hour catching up. There's a little two set sort of park across the street with a phone booth where I could social distance and keep an eye on the door to make sure people didn't line up in front of me, which they didn't. Unfortunately, road vibrates caused layer shifting and scattering of fruit. After bring this home and having lunch with the extra new cake, I went out by En Vedette, also by bicycle and also getting one extra cake: my contribution to reducing unnecessary trips. Again, the road vibration separated layers, in this case the top decoration. No great impact on taste of either, I assume. These were pretty well matched. On the one hand, Rocher is a  fine collection of things I like, as far as being nutty and chocolaty. On the other hand, Giverny offered a different slightly fruity alternative and avoided being over sweet better, I think, so in the end I decided to give it the win.

Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Giverny over Sadaharu Aoki's Cheese Cake Citronné

Thursday, I verified another neighborhood running course loop by bicycle, this time the longer and more distant Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop, counterclockwise. The problem is I turned early toward the end, but checking the map, that's probably a better route anyway, so I should practice that version clockwise next. There was no cake, nor was there cake Friday, though I also rode that day, out to Ginza Mitsukoshi to confirm that F. Cassel has their Fraisier, which I'll put in a cake-off if I had a suitable match for it (either because something else becomes available or I'm able to get another great cake for a 1-round cake-off and the loser survives).

Saturday, I did a cake-off with, once again, a cake from Paris S'éveille, Giverny. Actually, this one lost one of two rounds, when I also questioned whether it belonged in the great list. As it's appointed a picked a cake that similar has lost one round and coincidentally I questioned it's inclusion, Cheese Cake Citronné  from Sadaharu Aoki. So the same situation as last weekend, which surprised me, as I did not think there were so many such cakes. I stopped by ABVT again and verified before things started selling out that they really don't make what would have been the cake-off cake any more before heading to Paris S'éveille. I'll go back to Paris S'éveille again tomorrow for a new cake, which wasn't out yet, so I confirmed that I'll probably want to arrive around 11 pm, since it's apparently a time-consuming cake to make. I'll cross my fingers that it's great so I that I can get in some first- and second-round cake-offs.

Finally, the cake-off: Cheese Cake Citronné is definitely excellent, and convenient, but I guess it really doesn't need to be on the great list. Giverny, which is also a mind fruity cake, is definitely more interesting, so it takes the win and stays, despite being a little worse for wear from the journey by bicycle. Sadaharu Aoki will also get another visit soon, however, as they have chocolate croissants and I've never had one but I've had a couple excellent croissant from them. I have to wait until next Wednesday, though since they're only available Wed-Sat.

Cake-off: Au Bon Vieux Temps's Marjolaine over Paris S'éveille's Giverny,

Just for the record, I went out Saturday night, before the rain got bad, for 40 minutes of running on the local neighborhood course. That was enough to revisit my southwest Shinjuku loop and the northern part of Sendagaya, so I can focus on central Sendagaya when I go out again. I think I'm going to try to revisit just at least the already mapped neighborhood course inside the Yamanote Line before I revisit though further out or work on new routes further out, though I've some new spots inside Yamanote Line that I overlooked previously or were cut off due to construction before that I'd like to do sooner rather than later.  It's going to take awhile, though, since I'm usually more interesting in running for cake.

Sunday morning, I ran to Todoroki in Setagawa to visit Au Bon Vieux Temps and get their Marjolaine for a cake-off. The run was 89 minutes, though I didn't use the most efficient route. That was about the limit for how far I felt ready to run this weekend, especially since then I had a two-station walk back to Paris S'éveille in Jiyuugaoka to get Giverny and then take the train back home. I've built up enough distance now to get to most shops that I want to reach for weekdays, so I should start doing some interval work to build up my strength so I can go at least a little faster.

As a cake-off, the Marjolaine was much stronger than I remembered and the caramelized to the point of almost a burnt taste really made it hard to appreciate the Ginvery. Perhaps I should have switched from comparing bites to clearing my palate more and figuring out what was great about the Ginvery, because its taste combination wasn't really working for me this time. I think any fruity cake would have trouble against the Marjolaine, so I should probably be careful with both cakes next time. As it is, I have to give the Marjolaine the win and mark the Ginvery as potentially not great. This was a second round of first-round winners, so the Ginvery isn't going to get booted from the great list for one poor performance. In a sense, this is revenge by Au Bon Vieux Temps for Ginvery's first-round win over its Chocolate Framboise. However, if the third round comes around next year, PS already has three double winners and two more possibles to ABVT's only one, so no reason to feel sorry for them. Now I need to use a weekend/holiday to visit ABVT again and try a new cake.

Cake-off: Paris S'éveille's Giverny over Au Bon Vieux Temps' Chocolat Framboise

As planned, I left early and went to Au Bon Vieux Temps to get their Chocolat Framboise to compare with Giverny from Paris S'éveille, which is just two stations away. Unfortunately, Chocolat Framboise was not ready as early as I arrived, so I recommend waiting until 10 am, which was about when at least some missing cakes appeared, for fresh cake from Au Bon Vieux Temps. I passed the time looking at everything else.

The run was by the recent usual path with no surprises except it was cloudy and a little misty rain, so I was not always on the usual side of the road (since I didn't need shade). Around 13 km at 9 km/h. This was to Au Bon Vieux Temps. I carefully walked my cake to Paris S'éveille to get it's competition, the Giverny.

Actually, I could have done a better job of matching up cakes, but too late now. The Chocolat Framboise is very rich chocolate with nuts a little raspberry, whereas Giverny is pistachio cream with only a little chocolat. Both are great, which is really the important information, but it was not obvious which was better. I'm going with Giverny because I like chocolate, so I've designated a lot of chocolate cakes great and I doubt that this one, which is simple in some ways, being sort of a nutty maybe semi-dry (demi-sec) biscuit with rich chocolate-raspberry (I think, but maybe just chocolate with separate fruit) cream, is the best, whereas I sort of respected the creamy layers of Giverny more. I'm looking forward to having both again, however, for example, when it comes time to do round two (including run-offs of round-one losers) with cakes that were confirmed great.

Paris S'éveille: Giverny

It's the weekend, so I went to Jiyugaoka by bicycle, doing some reconnaissance along the way.

Not part of the plan, but I noticed Roulé (by 1904), so I stopped and verified through the window that they have at least a couple cakes besides roll cake.

Failed to find the pastry shop in the Cerulean Tower Tokyu: it's not shown on the floor map, but I've now learned what restaurant it is next to according to the website. 

Failed to find Patisserie de la Famille in Sangenjaya (from Sweet Sonobe), but it seems to have morphed into Patisserie Susucrier, which was advertising birthday cakes prominently; I'll pass till I hear something good about it. 

Failed to find Patisserie Octobre, but only because I was looking at the Plaisir location, so now I know Plaisir has closed up [or perhaps not], although the name is still used for activities at Shinjuku Isetan's New York Week now. 

I had a hard time figuring out a good way to get from there to Paris S'éveille and kept going the wrong way. Finally got to the target Paris S'éveille and got the Giverny for 620 yen, this time take-out, so I could take a picture. This is pistachio and raspberries, which may sound familiar from earlier in the week, but this cake was definitely better than okay. It was at least excellent and I'm going to go with great, although that may just be by comparison. It's pistachio cream, raspberry, bavarian cream, on a pistachio biscuit on top of a lime-flavored chocolate crunch bottom. Quite satisfying in terms of flavor and sweetness.

Escaped without dropping more money at Cuoca, because I was just there and haven't had a chance to try out the recipe I bought the hazelnut powder for (or the carob powder I bought a while back).