Today was a big 2 km run toward (P.) Le Coin Vert (Kagaruazaka Tokyo) attached to The Agnes Hotel and Apartments Tokyo. The first kilometer was no problem, which is an improvement, though that might just reflect running first thing in the morning rather than after work. Last week's Wednesday 1 km was long and difficult. The Friday one was a little uncomfortable but mostly okay. Today, the end was a little uncomfortable, but not as bad. However, I decided to walk the rest of the way and then walk another 1.5 kilometer to Kitonomaru Park, which was too much. Fortunately, cake cool packs are dual purpose.

The cake was Renard for 500 yen, same as the cake I had recently from Avranches Guesnay. This is caramel mousse with hazelnut. I didn't actually remember what the previous one tasted like or its construction, but I write these things down, so I'm reminded now and know that I like the structure of this one better: I don't like an anchor lump in my mousse cake. This had a flat base with no surprises. I had hard a hard time deciding that it was excellent, but decided that it was and that I definitely want to follow up on this, so that might be where I go next Sunday. I might even make it there just running (although not back again).

As yesterday, I tried to survey some new potential targets added to the map from Sweet Sonobe and had much more luck. I had to walk some distance anyway to get to a train station, so I figured I might as well try before taking the train home, as I decided was the best plan. As it happened, my knee gradual improved so I was not having any problems by the time I got home. First was Palace Hotel Sweets & Deli, which is in the basement shop area. Lots of hotels have cake shops, and I've haven't found one that was especially good yet, so without a recommendation, I wouldn't bother, but this is in a fairly convenient area, so I should look into it, especially now, when my range is limited.

Next, I went to find Chocolatier Palet D'or in the Shin-Marunouchi Building. Actually, I've looked in here before and saw that they have expensive cakes, but I'll actually plan to visit now. On the basement level are igrekplus, which I've tried to visit in Kobe but found them close (Sannomiya) or without cake (across from Kitano Hotel), so I suppose I should try there, and 14 Julliet Tokyo, which looks okay, so I might as well add it as well.

Lastly, I went down to Marunouchi Brick Square to see Echiré Maison du Beurre, where there was a line (controlled by whatever you call those poles and ribbons that are used to define queues) but also mille-feuille, as promised. I also noticed that La Boutique de Joel Robuchon there has cake, so it goes on the map too.

Homemade project 1 and Avranches Guesnay's Renard

Last night, I did some dessert cooking, cheesecake tarts. I choose this next because I had a lot of cream cheese in the freezer, I needed some egg whites for other projects (the crust got me two), and I need some cream for a project. Actually, I realize now, that I need a little egg yoke, so I should have just reduced the recipe and had some creme cheese on bread, but it's too late now. Anyway, I ate the big one.

For professional cake, I bought Renard from Avranches Guesnay for 507 yen. This was this week's recommend cake, so I put off trying their dark chocolate cake again. Renard is a caramel mousse cake with a hazelnut cluster base and an inner layer of dried, at least to the point of being solid, orange, which worked, but was not a major part of the flavor (because it's not that big, just a few millimeters thick). This combination worked for me, although not to the point that I feel a need to seek it out. On the point of caramel, this was somewhat bitter, so not caramel-candy sweet, but not too bitter for me. Basically, the cake was excellent and I enjoyed it, but I'm stilling looking for a great cake from there after too excellent cakes, which is enough to keep my eye on it. First, though, I want to top up my a few of my great shops to 10 cakes, but I'll also get to the backlog of unvisited shops.

Cooking project number two, was to try to make meringue-based cake. It failed again: wasn't stiff enough, but still very edible and the Silpat demonstrated its usefulness. Could double the amount of nuts, though. Not shown is project number three, which was to make rum (because that's the only flavor I have right now: if I get into making chocolates, I'll buy more, smaller bottles, but my interest is still mainly cake) chocolate truffles. I did not manage to get them round, so I'll have to do some research before next time, but the taste seemed okay.