A la Bonne Heure, Strawberry Shortcake

Maybe due to little running, I haven't been as motivated to keep up, but I'll do one now. On Saturday, after a wasted morning, I went to Midtown to see what they might have for me. Still the same couple cakes from Ryoura, no surprise, but I'm now ready to work through the huge list of fine shops needing a second cake and it's convenient to get an A la Bonne Heure from there, even if the selection was only from two. I went with the Strawberry Shortcake, which I'm appreciating more these days. As it happens, I appreciated this one too: cream, strawberries, and some sponge to balance it and make it cake. Sometimes simple is best, and this seemed excellent, so I guess this shop will make the cut, which is only going to leave a minority but is going to take a long time to get around to. 

Marbre Vegan, Gateau Chocolat & Strawberry Shortcake

 Unplanned, got a couple cakes from a shop that replaced Frips. As the name implies, a vegan cake place. I choose a Gateau Chocolat and the other cakes was Strawberry Shortcake. The other cakes available were an apple tart and a blueberry tart.

The shortcake seemed fine and not so different from others, though I'm not the best judge. The chocolate flavor of the Gateau Chocolat was fine, so I a believe them that it's fancy French chocolate. As cake, it wasn't bad but it doesn't really have the texture I want from cake. It's a little dry, though not really in a bad way or a café cake that's sat around too long (or is made to be able to sit around a long time). Anyway, sorry I can't rate them better and I won't resist interest in trying other cakes from them, but I won't actively pursue them.  

Bocksun: Sachertorte, Strawberry Shortcake, and Matcha Mont-Blanc

I wasn't expected to have a chance to get cake from here, but they had a counter in shopping area and we got three cakes. The main Kobe shop is in Chuuou-ku, though so I'm sticking with that. I started with the Sachertorte, which was in three layers with apricot jam on top of each (my vague memory of differences in disputed recipes is about where to put the jam and/or layers). It was definitely good.

The second was a regular Strawberry Shortcake, and was also good. It did not stand out, but I wouldn't expect it to.

The final one was the oddball, the Matcha Bont-Blanc. This was actually the best, being excellent. The matcha is too strong by itself, but the whipped cream balances it. But those two makes too light and sweet a cake, but the almond (?) tart base balances them, so it works out. Especially given their convenient location (depending on the occasion), might make this an early one to revisit.

Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, Strawberry Shortcake

Ran down to Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, at Roppongi Hills, who I was two cakes behind on, having promoted them from quite fine to exceptional recently. The corresponding hotel patisserie at Tokyo Midtown, who I need a third cake from won't reopen until Friday. I had shortcake on my mind, since they had three types last time and the peach was excellent, so I got the Strawberry Shortcake, though there were a couple other options. I tried to do a nearby loop with the cake, but between the dark and the rain, I missed the third term, which shouldn't have been a challenge, so I quit and came back. It was raining pretty good, so I used an umbrella and walked with my cake, stopping for groceries near home. The Strawberry Shortcake was good. As shortcakes go, the strawberries were fine. I would characterizing this one by noting that there seemed to be a lot more strawberries than cream between layers, though not a huge amount of either.

Factory Shin: Mont-Blanc and Strawberry Shortcake

Went to Factory Shin in Kobe as a café (just drink and cake sets). It's modern and frequented more by young people. The selection is still fairly traditional in the sense of being the simplest standard cakes of Japanese cake shops, but they are good. We had the Mont-blanc and the Strawberry Shortcake. The Mont-blanc was definitely good, but nothing unexpected or exciting except maybe the meringue base, which is fairly thick and very sugary (I would guess just sugar and egg white, versus an almond powder based meringue), which is a good thing. Also, I should note that while this was the most common type, a reverse mont-blanc (i.e., the "blanc" is on the inside under the brown chestnut paste crown), there is candied chestnut in the center.

Strawberry Shortcake is not something that much appeals to me, but this seemed very good, maybe excellent. Unlike the picture on the website, the whipped cream layers are just 2 or 3 mm thick, which I think is actually an advantage in this case. I see from their website that actually they do sell cake in Tokyo, through Seibu in Ikebukuro, so I'll label this as Tokyo cake as well, though I've never seen their cake counter, just seen people carry their bags, so I'm not sure what they actually have.