Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges over Toshi Yoroizuka's Cassis

The first cake-off of September was a newly returned cake to the Sadaharu Aoki's lineup, Marron Fruits Rouges, and the only great cake at Toshi Yoroizuka's right now, Cassis. I think both feature black currant, or at least I assume that's one of the read fruits in SA's cake, but it's not hard to tell them apparent. The Cassis of TY is pairing cassis with fig, which might be a good pairing for fig, but fig isn't the easiest fruit for sweets and wasn't working particularly well for me, whereas Chestnut is often paired with cassis for good reason, and the Marron Fruits Rouges wins easily.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges over Jean-Paul Hévin's Saint Honoré

Friday, which as planned as a no-cake day, despite some business after work, I managed to get down and tackle the 4 little loops I wanted ending in Ebisu-Nishi. First though, I use a coupon I had for a 5% discount on a pastry from Patisserie Les Annees Folles nearby (on the other side of Ebisu Park). I hadn't had a pastry from there before because I had thought they don't have them (you have to look opposite the cake display, or just from the outside, through the window next to the door). I got a Pain au Chocolat, which I rated excellent based on proper construction and reasonable tasting chocolate, but see the later comment about pastries. I was successful at finishing of three more loops, but missed the lowest priority one. Unfortunately, by taking a different route, I went by the Salvation Army Hall, and realized that it deserved to be an official site (after see online pictures verifying it's basically a church), which means I have to shift the route to go by the front route.  This put the Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop back at the top of the list of priorities, thought that turned out to be the least of reasons that it should have been.

Saturday, I was the last cake-off of the season for Jean-Paul Hévin's Saint Honoré, which gets replaced in October. Being one and one, it was set to match up against another seasonal cake that I've been looking forward to revisiting, Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges. After a morning appointment, I headed to Isetan and got both. Before eating, though, I went out by bicycle to review again the Daita--Daizawa--Hatagaya--Kamiyama-chou--Kitazawa--Motoyoyogi-chou--Nishihara--Ooyama-chou--Shouto--Tomigaya--Uehara loop, which I need to get to eventually, This was my first time that I actually finished within the three hours allotted. I did split off southwest tip due to finding a fairly large overlooked road/track-side shrine. I also found a shop that changed it's name, a chocolate shop that opened a cake branch and another little shrine, plus verified a cake shop and coffee shop with baked goods that I had spotted online. I also ruled out a few things. I'm left with a 22 km loop that I know maybe half pretty good.

Back to the cake-off, JPH's cake was good, but I wasn't really feeling the greatness, so it goes on notice. The win goes to Sadaharu Aoki's, whose chestnut past cake is a much better construction to deliver the flavors than a typical mont-blanc (radial symmetry is not that efficient for balanced eating in complicated cakes), though wouldn't work with a lot of meringue and whipped cream, if that's what you're after.

Saturday night, I tried to do the above mentioned Daikanyama-chou--Ebisunishi--Hachiyama-chou--Nanpeidai-chou--Sakuragaoka-chou--Sarugaku-chou--Shibuya--Uguisudani-chou loop, as well as a little exploring of the Ebisu Stn. area, since I'm extending the course through the subway access tunnels in that direction. Unfortunately, I noticed two points where my course violated the rules: was on the wrong side of the road in front of a weird shrine didn't go past the front of a church. I used possible solutions made up on the fly without consulting the map, but neither turned out to be optimal, so this run doesn't count, though it wouldn't have mattered, because reviewing the Ebisu area, I font a chocolatier who had moved north to this loop just over the weekend, which I couldn't ignore. On the way, I stopped and got another pastry from Les Années Folles (for double the discount for being the second one before Sept. 30), this time Croissant aux Amandes. It was good, but nothing exciting and dry. Which brings me to my remark about pastries: I should give up sampling them at night and throw out all my old evaluations, because they just can't want that long. I want something to get on non-cake days at night, it's going to need to be something hardier than pastries (and cake), like macaron, which aren't necessarily best freshly made.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges over Viron's Bonaparte

Sunday, for cake-off day, as the earliest great cake available for a second-round, I tried Viron's Bonaparte again, this time against something not another chocolate cake, Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges, which was conveniently next in line, though it is available through November, so there was no hurry with it. I ran to Viron first and then ran carrying it north at least as far as Shinjuku Takashimiya, and then walked from there to Isetan to get the second cake and walked both home.

This time I had the Marron Fruits Rouges at my preferred temperature, and it made all the difference: definitely great cake. Again, the Bonaparte was not working for me, so I can't keep in among the great cakes. It was an early choice and from when I was more enthusiastic about Viron (though their Mille-Feuille is still definitely my favorite). These day, maybe I'm used to a moister cake. I wouldn't have minded some whipped cream on the Bonaparte, if I were ordering it in a cafe (which is not possible, since their cafes' serve different desserts than they sell in the bakery section).

In the afternoon, I went and checked the current line-up at Clair de Lune, which I should get cake from soon (they are third to sixth in priority, in no particular order). Since the previous pastry I got there was excellent, and I didn't get any during the last week, I got their Boulette au Marron and ate it within a kilometer (though I arrived by an unnecessary detour) at a park. I've never had this seasonal pastry from anywhere, I think, though I'm seeing everywhere now, it being the season. This is pastry around a baked (I think) chestnut, but also there is marzipan inside, which makes a differences, as far as balancing. Again, I don't have much comparison, but this seemed great to me. I also got a small bag of chocolate almonds as service, which I've saving to share, and I could have gotten a flower, but passed. It's their 5th year anniversary.

I also checked out L'abbricotier and Jun Honma, again to verify their lineups, again. This time I made proper notes, so I can move on the checking other places. I did go to check out a new loop in Honmachi, Shibuya-ku, and found that I was mistaken about there being an underpass to cross back over Yamanote-dori Ave., so I was wrong about being able to reach the north part of Yoyogi by curling the course back east. I can just barely get into Nishi-Shinjuku, where there is not actually anything I need to reach. At least I found a crosswalk with a signal for getting to Tokyo Opera City, where there's a bakery cafe.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-blanc over Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges

As planned, I did a cake-off with Jean-Paul Hévin's Mont-blanc and Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges from Isetan. First, though I did another run my Naitou neighborhood course, which I changed slightly again, just to avoid the main street another block, and the Daikyouchou neighborhood course, which I did without problems. I was only running 8 to 9 km/h, since it was raining pretty good. I again did most of the Wakaba neighborhood course, which is twice as long and I still haven't done all of. I found another few parks (though not public parks, and one is need in an alley, so I'm not sure that I want to go back in there to visit a designated evacuation area) and a church, so the course is getting a little complicated near Shinanomachi Station. Someday I do the whole thing, maybe by skipping the first two neighborhood courses, but I haven't even memorized all the names of the points of interest yet, though I was able to add a name of a park that Google Maps was hiding from me. I ran 58 min.

The cake was great. Both with chestnut paste and whipped cream, but the JPH one has its thick almond meringue base, whereas the Marron Fruites Rouges obviously has its fruit. Though the tastes are different, it's hard to choose between them, but I'm going with JPH's Mont-blanc, which remains the best mont-blanc that I know. One warning, though, is that it's sweetness can get overpowering by the end, so definitely be prepared with a suitable beverage (I'm drinking shincha lately at home).

Sadaharu Aoki: Marron Fruits Rouges (updated)

Hotter even today than yesterday, so another short run, just down to Tokyo Midtown and back (6 or 7 km) and with a shopping stop (despite carrying cake). Actually, I was after the green tea mille-feuille, which is exclusive to Midtown. I saw it there the previous time and the website shows it, but it was not there (though I didn't ask, and setting out on a Friday would not be surprising), but instead they had three new cakes. Isetan may have the same, but at that point I didn't want to circle back, which is several kilometers, so I bought the Marron Fruits Rouges at Midtown. I'll check Isetan tomorrow to see what they have, because they also had Cassisier (according to the card there), which is on my list of greats that I've been looking for, so final success on finding an old cake.

The Marron Fruits Rouges seems to be from their cheesecake line, with a thick layer of chestnut paste on top, whipped cream (not cheesecake; I should have let this thaw out more, perhaps, though it was having a hard enough time supporting the thick chestnut cream as it was) in the middle, and then red fruit, hazelnut biscuit, and Pâte sucrée (I read the card this time). This was definitely an excellent harmony of fruit, chestnut, and cheesecake good cake for both cheesecake and chestnut, so I'm saying it's great and hope that it will be around again when it comes time to do a cake-off with in.