A. Lecomte, Gateau au Muguet

Since I was nearby and shop hours were about to be shortened (but not closed, unlike the first emergency restriction period), I stopped at Shibuya Scramble to get a second cake from on of the (possible) fine shops. Not that this is really on the second, since the main shop is near an highly frequented area before I starting blogging. This is pretty standard cake from them and attractive to me, so it's probably not my first time I've had it, though it would have been several years ago at least since the previous time.

The name is Gateau au Muguet, from the A. Lecomte counter at Shibuya Scramble Square, and the inside is just pralin cream, which was good, but not so exciting. This cake won't overshadow your tea but it's not interesting enough to keep this shop in the fine category. At least it's good enough to keep from wanting a pause in visiting such shops.

Musée du Chocolat Théobroma, Caramel Orange

The other cake the Sunday before last was the cake-off reward for Musée du Chocolat Théobrom's win. I went intending to get their version for Forest Noir, which I would generally avoid, as I can't expect cherry and chocolate to come out well, but their best cakes have been chocolate. However, I ended up getting a cake I hadn't seen previously, Caramel Orange. It ended up being more eastern European, though that just means east of France, as far as being heavy on almond biscuit. It was good, so I'm not disappointed, and I'm caught up with the quite fine shops that aren't tens of kilometers from central Tokyo, which are going to be a problem now that Isetan isn't rotating visiting cake shops on a weekly basis.

Musée Du Chocolat Théobroma, Diable

Sunday, I started with this small item, which I got as my 4(+1 for a cake-off win)th cake from Musée Du Chocolat Théobroma, though most past purchases have been via their Cocoa Store shop nearer Yoyogi Park. This is Diable and is just what it looks like, chocolate custard on a chocolate puff pastry. It was definitely good, which is both better than I expected of the item just based on the concept and actually the second best "cake" I've had from this shop, so I was satisfied. 

Le Jardin Bleu, Tarte Chocolat Macadamia

Last Wednesday, for a third day in a row, I could get to a (now opening later) department store to get a cake from the current quite fine shop group. In this case, I wanted to get one of Le Jardin Bleu's cakes via Shinjuku Takashimaya, since the main shop is a long way away. Maybe because it is so far away (or because it was the end of the day, leaving only the least popular), I had only one choice, a fairly solid item that I imagine could be made far ahead. This is Tarte Chocolat Macadamia. The chocolate coating is fairly thick. The inside also has caramel, besides the macadamia nuts. So this is more like a candy bar than any typical cake, which is not a complaint. It was good, but that's probably not going to be enough to keep it in the quite fine group. 

Atsushi Hatae, Chocolat Noir

I was busy and then put off blogging, but not eating cake, so I'll update. On Thursday, I set off for Atsushi Hatae for a fourth cake, the target for the quite fine shops. Since the first three were all excellent, it's in no danger of getting bumped, regardless of the result, but I am urgently looking for something great I can put in a cake-off against the new to Tokyo JPH cake. This is the one I passed on last time for a less obvious choice, which means this is the obvious choice for me, as is also pretty clear from the picture: mostly chocolate. I think this is Chocolat Noir (tricky, because Noix would also fit, so I might have to update this later, but I'm not as mobile as I used to be, so I'm not sure when it's going to be convenience to do that). Anyway, thick chocolate, a little layer there at the bottom of pralin, and a good biscuit. Like the other cakes, sophisticated modern French petit gâteau, and excellent. 

Dandelion Chocolate, Mascarpone Chocolate Cake

Ran marginally farther than last run, which was Thursday, which means maybe an extra couple hundred meters, but probably still under 1.5 km. It wasn't as comfortable as I would want. Anyway, I made it to Dandelion Chocolate and got a new cake. They have perfect excellent record so far, which is enough to be quite fine and get a fourth cake. They don't have a huge line-up, so I could hardly double that anyway, but I would like to find a great cake, of course. I went with Mascarpone Chocolate Cake, which I've seen there before but haven't gotten. I was actually a little skeptical, since mascarpone is notoriously tasteless and just used as a medium for other flavors in cakes. I thought just the visible mousse/cream was the cheese, but the chocolate was fairly dense but cuttable, apparently due to cheese, and it definitely tasty cheesy, which is a first for mascarpone cheese cake for me. It was definitely excellent, so Dandelion Chocolate keeps their perfect record. Next I'll try the other shop with a three excellent cake record.

Viron, Menton

In a rare (though repeated the following day) event, I did not have to work late and went out to try to score a cake from one of the two three-excellent-cakes shops on the neighborhood running map. It occurred to me that I hadn't checked in at Viron, though, so I did that was was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a new cake, Menton. Like the only other Menton I've had, lemon was the main flavor, so I assume that's what Menton, France is famous for. Can't remember what the card said or tell for eating it what else is there besides custard, which seems to be the lemon part. There is thicker lighter area above it (and a nice nutty biscuit below it, almond I assume from the top) that's light brown; can you make just the burnt part of crème brulée, since this was uniform and mousse-like? Guess I need to swing by there again, though they won't have another new thing. Great cake! This works a lot better for me than a lemon tart in terms of balancing the texture of the custard against mousse, reasonably solid biscuit and some solid nuts and coating. I was looking for a great cake especially since I just had a new one from JPH, so this determines the next cake-off.

Tadashi Yanagi, Mont-Blanc

Working through the quite fine shop list to get them all up to at least 4 cakes, I picked up a Tadashi Yanagi cake, Mont-Blanc, from the counter at Shinjuku Takashimiya, as they are featured there on Mondays. It was good and had a meringue base, I think, both huge improvements over my previous Mont-Blanc. Unfortunately, that probably isn't enough to keep in it the quite fine category, but we'll see.

I note that I'm also going to want to go back there to get cake from Le Jardin Bleu for the same reason. Yanagi actually isn't that far away, even for Setagaya (they used to have a shop on Aoyama-doori Ave., but that's been closed for a while), whereas Le Jardin Bleu is deep in the western suburbs. Not that far but not as close as Yanagi, I note that Noliette doesn't have their counter there any more, so I should have visited them earlier at Takashimaya.

(Café) Le Pommier, Mont-Blanc

I'm probably not going to catch before the weekend, but last Sunday I hit a couple local shops. Imperfect is a chocolate shop that's gotten out of the cream puff business, so they no longer have anything that qualifies as fresh cake. Next in that neighborhood was (Café) Le Pommier, from which I got a Mont-blanc. I'd probably have a bigger selection if I went to one of the regular shops, but I was only looking for a fourth cake, so this seemed good enough. It's got the meringue-type base but the unusual feature is a chocolate coating. That's not a bad idea, but wasn't really making this special. Still a good cake, but probably not enough to keep this shop in the quite fine category. 

Viron, Praliné Orange

Wednesday (and I found this draft, but not sure what order they were originally), I visited Viron, thinking that they might bring out some new cakes just for Christmas, since they at least had one special Christmas cake last year. As it happens they did. I don't have my notes, but I got lucky and found a picture on Tabelog, so I got the name and confirmed the flavors. The memorable part was pâte pralinée, and I correctly remembered that the fruit flavor was orange. My memory is that it was definitely excellent, enough to consider whether it should be added to the greats, as a representative of fairly traditional cakes of nutty biscuit cake and cream layers, but I have Marjolaine, so I'm fine with not making a special effort to have this specific cake again, though I high approve. Also, it seems like a bakery patisserie kind of cake, so it's reasonable to want more like this. Considering that my backup plans was to try 1st cake from Pronto (which I was reminded recently has a shop in Aoyama, I was quite pleased. 

Viron, Pomme Caramel

Thursday (sometime in December, as I just found this draft), I had the day off to prepare for a busy long weekend. In the morning, I had a hard-to-get-to shop lined up, but more cakes from Viron is a higher priority and I'm not sure how long cakes introduced at Christmas will stick around, so I went there first and got the Pomme Caramel. This is was definitely a nice cake, but apple is a pretty weak flavor in general and they choose not to go so heavy on the caramel as to drown it out, which I can respect, so while good and enjoyable, and of course high quality, it wasn't something particularly interesting to me.

Atsushi Hatae, Griotte Pistache

Last Sunday, which was my most recent cake, from a relatively new place, Atsushi Hatae in Sarugaku-chou. Since the first two were excellent, I decided to take a chance on something a little different from what I might usually choose or the several nutty or chocolaty cakes and get the Griotte Pistache, which of course has nuts but pistachios are the fruity nuts and I've not particularly appreciated cherry cakes, but this one looked like a good bet as far as having a lot of structural aspects in its favor. Half the inside is actually white semi-solid, which I'm guessing was mascarpone cheese, just because it shows up in cakes a lot and has no particular taste of its own. It was choice dilute the pistachio and cherry. In general, I want a strong taste, but I can see where that might not be the correct choice and here I respect the balance struck and say that this bet paid off, as it was excellent, so it's going to stay pretty safely among the quite fine shops, regardless of how the fourth cake is, but hopefully that will be great. Many other shops to visit, so I might not rush it.  

Bien-être, Chocolate Roll

Last Saturday afternoon,
I went out by bicycle (since I can't run so much) checking a few places. For example, at Tokyo Midtown, I checked whether I could get a new Ryoura cake, but they only had one from that shop at the Dean & Deluca. I've seen more other times, so maybe I shouldn't give up, but I don't need to be in a hurry now as I am going through the many lower rated (but still good) shops seeing who to keep and who to cut, which is likely to take a lot of months. Last stop was Bien-être, which was due another visit by virtue of several successful visits to Viron as far as getting new cakes, which were mostly excellent but not great, so not enough to separate the two shops. Unfortunately, Bien-être almost never has new cakes. Saturday, they had two, both roll cakes, lemon and chocolate. I got the chocolate. It qualifies as good but doesn't belong in quite exceptional shop (though a shop in my top three regularly has roll cake, so can't hold that against other shops too much). I'm glad I didn't get greedy and get the lemon too. On the positive side, it was cheap, but I'd still say the local minimarket is the best place to satisfy a desire for roll cake. And still they have a slight edge over L'Abricotier, but only because I'm willing to ignore the one verrine. 

Viron, Chocolat St. Valentine

Second cake midweek from Viron was Chocolat St. Valentine. Note much to say about besides it being excellent. Lots of different textures in there and good base chocolate flavors sets this apart from ordinary good cakes.

Viron, Foret-noire

Thursday was a public holiday, so I planned visits to two quite fine shops. On the way, though, I stopped at Viron in case they had new cakes, having in mind that St. Valentines Day might bring something new to the slowly varying lineup, which it did. I decided after some hesitation to go ahead and get both cakes from Viron, leaving the quite fine shops for another day, even though one cake might drop Viron low enough in ranking that I wouldn't necessary need another. I have no regrets. The first cake (choosing and eating) was Foret-noire (as written on the card), which is chocolate and cherry mousse and some other mousse that I'm not sure about, maybe custard and chocolate. Anyway, the cake is quite creamy yet fairly stable for mousse. Overly, it gets a nice balance between chocolate and cherry that works better than another other such cake I've had (noting that I'm not big on cherry and chocolate). I won't hesitate to say that it was excellent. 

Atsushi Hatae, Caramel Noix

Still way behind, The last cake from two weekends ago was a second cake from Atsushi Hatae, that was nominally listed as a fine shop based on one excellent cake but a priority among those shops, so it's at the ahead of the line, along with a couple other one-cake-sampled shops that had an excellent cake. This was chosen because it was close to a quite fine shop I visited and was the farthest away of the high-priority fine shops. Anyway, they have pretty elegant cakes with varieties that appeal to me, so I was optimistic. I chose Caramel Noix, which I knew was going to be somewhat a challenge, since the basic construction is a dependably traditional but unexciting layer cake with what's a fairly mild flavoring. Nevertheless, they pulled it off excellently, so I can advance the shop to quite fine and expect to get a couple more cakes from there in the near future. 

Les Années Folles: Sans Farine

Two weekends ago now, I was working through the quite fine shop list to get 4th cakes and visited Les Années Folles for a new cake. They had various nutty ones and I chose Sans Farine. I managed to photograph the card, so I can report confidently that it had caramelized hazelnuts, royaltine "diplomat", which is maybe a kind of paillete feuilletine (crape flakes), vanilla whipped cream, and orange. Under the (uncredited) chocolate shell is layers of cake and whipped cream, though I can't remember the distribution of ingredient's beyond that at this point. It's a little packaged snack-cake like in design, but I like it and can call it excellent. This shop will make the cut.

Asterisque, Montmorency

Last weekend when I was nearby getting Chocolat Cuit for a cake-off, I stopped also at Asterisque I got a fourth cake from them as I work through the list of quite fine shops alphabetically. The top got messed up, so this was a reconstruction from the best side. The outside is obviously pistachio and this layer is fairly thick and drying than a paste but similar. In the middle is a balanced about of griotte cherry, not withstanding the top decoration. Definitely a sophisticated place and a cake along the lines of what I lick, so it's getting an excellent and they'll make the next cut to stay in this category.

Il Pleut sur la Seine, Le Turin

No cake and little running during the short week, but indoor exercise. Saturday I had a couple appointments, so didn't try a cake-off, but went for the last two (simple) exceptional shops I wanted another new cake for. After the morning appointment, I went to Il Pleut sur la Seine. They are only open a short time every week and they are expensive, but their main thing is the school, so maybe they do best with the basics. I got Le Turin, which if not basic, at least uses basic elements. The biscuit is hazelnut, which gives a special flavor and a nice texture. As the name suggests, the main flavor is chestnut, in different kinds of cream. The chestnut flavor isn't so heavy and it harmonizes well with the hazelnut. So good quality, interesting combination, and solids basic elements make this an excellent cake.

Pariya, Pecannuts Chocolate Shortcake

Finally really got a first cake from a shop in the Omotesando--Harajuku area, Pariya, which is a kind of eat-in deli. They also have a shop in Tokyo Midtown as of maybe a couple years ago. All their cakes are short cakes and bit enough that you could easily share them. I went with the pecan and chocolate, despite a recent complain about nuts slivers in an otherwise soft chocolate cake. This one has reasonably large pieces, all in the center, so you know when you are getting them. This cake is maybe 75% whipped cream, with very little cake, which is fine. I thought the chocolate as reasonable and the nuts were fine. It was good. I'm not sure whether the aftertaste was from nuts, milk cholate, or some unusually sweetener. It had a soft of banana flavor. I didn't care for it, but it wasn't actually nasty or anything. Milk would have probably been a better match for this than tea.  

Good is enough to get on the fine list, so eventually (in some number of years, as it's a really bloated list) I'll be back for a second cake.