Akito, Marjolaine and Saint-Marc

Friday, I got two cakes to go for two from Akito. Actually, I had misunderstood where I was supposed to go for cakes, but I had been here once before the cake was at least good. This time I got to classics, Saint-Marc and Marjolaine. Or at least, I expected these to be classics (or maybe they are and I've been eating the modern improvements), but the Saint-Marc had really thick sponge layers (more sponge than cream), which I could never imagine as an improvement. it wasn't bad, just the diluted the taste of the cake from somewhat subtle to completely bland, so I can't say this was more than okay.

I'm not sure what was going on with the Marjolaine, which broke into dry pieces when cut and didn't have much texture, like there was no egg white in the biscuit, maybe; something seemed weird, anyway. Now I'm going to have to get abvt's version to remember what can be great about a marjolaine. Also only okay.

I assume that these were exactly as designed and I just don't like the style of cakes so much, but either way I need to stay away from this place, I guess.

Cake-off: Toshi Yoroizuka's Saint-marc over Paris S'éveille's Gateau Vanille

Was busy Saturday, but did a run from the morning, about 8:15, Sunday, taking pictures and adding sites along old neighborhood course loops that I haven't reviewed yet, picking off the near ones. I recently switched my target for the next cake-off, since I realized both were so easy to get that I could probably do on a half-day, so I would leave them for when I was busy on the weekend. Next in line, then, was Paris S'éveille's Gateau Vanille as a two time cake-off winner. If I failed to find it, there were three other cakes with the same status. Paris S'éveille has the best record in that respect, better even than JPH. But I had no problem there at around 11 am.

Next, I took the train back as far as Shibuya Stn. and then walked to B-E, along the way discovering a couple things sufficient to make a major course revision that expanded what was once just a run around a small block (for the Shibuya Viron) to a few kilometers (from about Shibuya station to near the southwest corner of Yoyogi Park). I could move a couple sites from the largest loop to the expanded one, which shrank the former down 0.8 km, which is very slightly helpful, as well as making the corresponding parts much simpler. Unfortunately, E-B never put their raspberry cake back in the line-up when they took it out for Christmas, which left me hanging with one cake. Being tired, I decided to look along the near train route and found it convenient to visit Toshi Yoroizuka and get their Saint-marc. Ended up being three train rides to get two cakes despite the initial running, but I avoided transfers, so all low fares.

As hoped doing a third round with two two-time winners, these were both really great cakes, so the decision between them came down to the last bite. Paris S'éveille's Gateau Vanille is probably the best vanilla cake I know, but somehow Toshi Yorizuka makes a cake that's half cream and yet the chocolate does not seem diluted at all, where I'd expect to get a milk chocolate effect (though milk has a different taste than cream). The orange liqueur, perhaps (along with a good chocolate base), brings out the flavor. (There isn't noticeable caramel in this saint-marc version.)

Only one great cake from January and no reappearances of any of the as-yet-untested one, so I'm still waiting for the next first-round cake-off of the year. I'll perhaps do a second-round one with one of the four available ones left at the end of the month regardless.

Le Pan: Saint-marc Praliné and Tanba Chestnut Mont-blanc

I ran first and got a pastry from Pane Ho Baretta, a d'Amonde Chocolat (?). Definitely good but heavy, as expected, and pretty messy, as there is chocolate on the outside. They had a lot kinds of d'Amonde, though just a few of each on display.







Just from Googling, I had found Le Pan as a cake source in Kobe. I've probably seen the sign pointing upslope on the lateral road between L'Avenue and Gregory Collet Patisserie, but assumed they just have cake. I got cake for later before putting the borrowed bicycle in working order and going around photoing shops for Kobe Patisseries map, being maybe less discriminating than I should be, since there are places that I seem unlikely to visit, though a note to that effect might be useful later.

The cakes were Saint-marc Praliné and Tanba Chestnut Mont-blanc. The saint-marc was good but did not stand out. The supposed mont-blanc was the third cake in that many days that was not much like the conventional form, or like any other. This one actually had very little paste, though there was a little more chestnut inside. The main body is rum cream. It had very nice flavor and texture, so I'll say it was excellent.

I seem to having a lot more luck in this second pass through Kobe cake shops, though that may because I've sticking closer to the central cluster rather than visiting every neighborhood shop that managed to get in a guidebook. I'm also willing to visit the old brands, like Juchheim, sometime, even though I consider them fairly low-level brands in Tokyo. Like Tooth Tooth, I'd like to at least give them a chance in their own shops (though, actually I don't think I've seen any Tooth Tooth cakes in Tokyo, just they have a French restaurant).

Sadaharu Aoki, Saint-marc Praliné

Jogged to Sadaharu Aoki in Marunouchi for a new cake. Unfortunately, too late for the Baba (I hope I understood right, that they weren't just sold out, it had ended its run). Guess I was too slow. The next new thing is a variety pack of little pieces of other cakes, which doesn't interest me, unless someone visits and I want to give them a sample. However, the main shop in Marunouchi also has Saint-marc Praliné, which I had only had a little of before, not enough to give a fair evaluation.

I also went to Ginza Mitsukoshi to make sure JPH hadn't stuck something into their line-up (since I don't have another good source for information), which they hann't but I got the little Boulette au Marron from Dalloyau again because I thought I didn't give it a fair evaluation before. The problem before was that I put it on top of my cake box for the trip back. I didn't keep it there, but pastries need to be warm and I didn't do anything to heat it back up. I tried it again, eating it as I crossed back west underground to Hibiya Park (I continued walking the entire way home, as Sadaharu Aoki boxes are too unstable to run with, being basically just big enough and in the same shape as their cakes), and I'm willing to change the rating of it to excellent.

The Saint-marc Praliné is subtle, which saint-mark usually are, but they could have gone heavy with the praliné, but didn't. It pretty much took until the last bite to decide that was great (i.e., I definitely want to have it again). I wonder, though, whether there was maple in the top caramel layer or that was harmonization. In any case, happy to find another great cake, even if it's not one that I'll see much after it's gone (I'm not sure whether it will continue through December or March, but I think it started this year as the exclusive Marunouchi cake and will have a one-year run). I don't feel in a huge hurry to do a cake-off with it, so I'll stick with the Mont-Blanc from Ryoura for the next one, but I should get to it next month, if I can find another great cake to pair it against.

Clair de Lune: Saint-marc

Decided to do another long run to one of the three shops new to the Quite Excellent category, Clair de Lune. Roundtrip, about 17 km, with a low 10 km/h out and a low 9 km/h back, which is still faster than I expected, since I had a long run Monday and another run Tuesday, so was still a little creaky, though not so stiff.

I past last time, so this time I took the Saint-marc. This is a simple cake that I like. This one was not particularly special among saint-marc, but they did a good job so I'm rating it excellent.

Was surprised to find myself running through a shopping arcade (though I often start on one main east-west street going back and work my way down to the next main one as the stoplights require. This is apparently Satake shopping street. Obviously, things close down mostly by 8:30, which is not very surprising.

Toshi Yoroizuka: Saint-marc

Still sore from yesterday, probably because I was still sore from Wednesday, so today was simple. I went down to Tokyo Midtown to visit Toshi Yorizuka and to bring the last of my Quite Excellent shops up to eight cakes. The running was at about 9 km/h and was actually slightly faster coming back, as I was in more of a hurry to take care of some other shopping and also I was maybe less still. It's about 6.5 km total.

It's been quite a while since I've gotten a new cake from there, so most of what they had was new to me or marked a new version of an old cake. Rather than take a cake marked as recommended, I went with a traditional cake, Saint-marc, which, at least in this case, had a somewhat caramelized top with orange liquor (or at least I think that's where the orange liquor was, though there was not a strong enough taste for me to say), a whipped cream layer, a chocolate layer that seemed too dense to be whipped cream but was in the same general family, and a sort of chocolate, maybe, hard biscuit on the very bottom as a base. This is a very basic, traditional cake, in a sense, despite all the layers, with a very simple taste but it's a good design and they executed it well, so I would say that this cake was great. Even though this is a major brand, I'm encouraged that a cake shop that isn't in the very top tiers could give me this level of cake, though I shouldn't be surprised. They aren't rated higher as a shop because their cakes tends to be either great or just good. One great cake out of eight is enough to push this shop to the top of its category, which means I might have to promote it again up to Superb to fill the gap. At the very least, I'll probably get another new cake from their soon to at least see whether that's reasonable.