Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Breteuil over Éclat des Jours' Baked Cheesecake

Sunday, I did the most recent cake-off, I did my second 5th round of the again, pitting two undefeated cakes against each other. The primary target was Breteuil from Frédéric Cassel, because it is a seasonal cake, whereas Éclat des Jours' Baked Cheesecake has been available year-round for as long as I've known about it. Both are perfect cakes, and it certainly wasn't clear eating which I would choose even halfway through them, but I decided to go with the pistachio wonder that is Breteuil, just based on person preference, but it wouldn't have been shocking to choose the cheesecake, which remains the best I know. Rough to have to wait another year to have either again, but there are a lot of shops out there and even a lot of great cakes to have again in Tokyo. 

This catches me up, as I did have time (or cake slots) for more during long workdays and short shop hours for Monday through Wednesday. Hoping for something Thursday, but my left side hasn't been in much shape for running, though I got my watch battery changed Monday (when I didn't work quite so late) and did intervals Tuesday quite late, despite being cold and windy for walking between runs outside.

Cake-off: Éclat des Jours's Baked Cheesecake over Toshi Yoroizuka's Saint Marc

Tried to do a proper long run before Saturday's cake-off, which I did. This was a fourth-round cake-off between the last two available three-time winners. First I ran to Éclat des Jours to get their Baked Cheesecake. Then I mostly ran back to get Toshi Yoroizuka's returned Saint Marc from the Kyoubashi shop. Despite the three wins, I wasn't able to get into the Saint Marc for some reason. I'd think I was off chocolate, but that doesn't seem to be the case generally. It's possible that the recipe changed, but I won't think so. This is only it's first loss, so should get to again next year. If I can, I'll do that early, before it disappears again. No problem with the cheesecake which while not dramatically superior remains by best guess for best cheesecake in Tokyo; every time it wins, I'm kind of surprised, and yet it keeps winning. If it's not broke... 

As implied, recently I speculated that not doing enough exercise before eating lunch and then doing a cake-off might have interfered with my enjoyment, which still seems reasonable. In this case, I ran three times the distance, but I did get a snack from Éclat des Jours that might have nullified this, Chapeau. I got this as a pastry, although the shop person referred to is as "pan", so I was a little afraid about the inside, but this is plenty decadent and definitely more than one person should eat by themselves (not that the price hides this). Can't wait until I can get it again, but not on a cake-off day and maybe I'll try to get it home first.

Cake-off: Éclat des Jours' Baked Cheesecake over Michalak's Mont-blanc

Saved my running for later and went by bicycle to get Éclat des Jours' Baked Cheesecake as a two time winning cake for the third-round cake-off. While I was there, I decided to try their Pain au Chocolat (I ate it at the nearest park, where I was very messy: I need to use the paper bag it comes in better), which was excellent, properly made with delicious chocolate.

To get the other cake, I ran to L'Abricotier. Unfortunately, they aren't currently making their best cake (which doesn't surprised me from past experience, and I should have asked when I was there recently, but it is still on their website). I had a backup planned, though, so I turned around and ran to Isetan and got Michalak's Mont-blanc.

It starts as a mystery why the Baked Cheesecake is such a winner, but the more I eat it, the more I like it. The Mont-blanc, on the other hand, is a little strong, both as chestnut and sugar, so I really need to clear my palate more than I did eating it. The win goes to the Baked Cheesecake, which becomes the tenth cake to clear the third-round cake-off undefeated. I was planning to get to Éclat des Jours for a new cake this weekend, anyway, but need to plan an an additional visit.

Tully's Coffee, Cheesecake

On the third day of GW, we rest from cake shops, but I did take advantage of a visit to Tully's Coffee (not sure which branch, but maybe in Shinjuku) to try their cheesecake (since I don't drink coffee). It was definitely good, which is high praise for chain coffee shop fair. Couldn't get a picture without a shadow, but I'm not posting to Twitter anyway.

Libertable: Laitir

Finally got back to Libertable, which is an excellent shop that might be quite excellent, but so I need more information. This was only the sixth cake, I think. I went by the neighborhood route and finally finished a one-way neighborhood revisiting of the Kita-Aoyama--Jinguumae--Shibuya loop and the (central) Shibuya loop. It takes about 40 minutes by the shortest route on the neighborhood course to get to the south end of Shibuya station, from which I can cross into parts south. So actually I went to the ShinQ counter of Libertable, but it worked out and they had another cake that haven't had yet (Grace) so it's reasonable to go back there again, but I'll hit the Akasaka main store if that doesn't work sometime (there are a couple shops at ShinQ I'd hit for pastries as backup.

The cake is Laitir, which is baked cheesecake with epoisses cheese and cream cheese with marc cream and marc gelatin and streusel on top (soft of a reverse crust). This is the cheesiest-flavored cheesecake that I've ever had, I think, and is a pretty substantial ball of cheese, if obviously tricky to know how to approach it (radially, cutting between streusel and marc gelatin cubes). It's not my new favorite cheesecake, but it is definitely excellent and certainly recommended to anyone who likes cheesecake. Looks like more visits to Libertable are in my future.

Cake-off: Éclat des Jours' Baked Cheesecake over Sadaharu Aoki's Cheese Cake Citronné

Went out in the morning, about 9:30 a.m., to Éclat des Jours to get their Baked Cheesecake for a cake-off. Even by bicycle, it was plenty hot and today is a cool day compared to what's forecast for next week. This was chosen as a good challenge for Sadaharu Aoki's Cheese Cake Citronné, which was the next available cake in my great list of second-round cake-offs. Éclat des Jours' cheesecake, which has stronger citrus and sweetness, dominated this contest to the extend that it is not clear that I need Cheese Cake Citronné among the list of greats. Unfortunately, this type of comparison doesn't really allow for subtlety.

Cake-off: Éclat des Jours's Baked Cheesecake over Frédéric Cassel's Fraisier

The previous Friday, I tried to get a pastry from The Baked (or maybe that was Thursday, as I seemed to have failed to get anything that day), but they were sold out (or maybe they just don't sell pastries at night, which is reasonable). I was practicing my southwest Shibuya course, so I hit the next shop on that course, which was Chez Lui, which is open late. They had many flavors of canelé, but I went with the plain. This was definitely good, although softer than my preference, but a legitimate choice. I still need to get cake from there sometime.

Saturday, I ran out to finally get Éclat des Jours' Baked Cheesecake for a cake-off as a match against Frédéric Cassel's Fraisier. Even though that latter involves generally more expensive ingredients (pistachio), is bigger, and from a fancier shop, this baked cheesecake is really great, so it takes this first-round cake-off and suddenly I'm extra behind on visiting this shop, who unfortunately have a fairly unvarying line-up.

Dalloyau: Fromage Brulée

Finally got to that 20-kilometer run using the memorized kilometer points to see about doing 7 min kilometers for a long distance along my neighborhood map. Not that this was that long, but it was the next step. The first couple kilometers were perhaps too fast, around 6'10'' each, but that part is completely flat and the next kilometer, for example, has a few flights up of stairs up and a couple down, as well as an uneven park with some steps to cut through and a somewhat steep slope, so it was close to 6'50'''. Things settled close to 7' after the first several kilometers, so I was going too fast on average for the first part, but I actually went over a little three kilometers in a row around the 15th segment, so I'll probably have to expend some effort to go farther. Anyway, I didn't have trouble meeting my goal for 20 kilometers, but it doesn't seem a waste of time to do 30 km first before trying 40 km. First, though, I'll need to make a few more kilometer markers and memorize the next 30, which means I'll have to confirm the route through Yoyogi before getting back to confirming the new long loop through Akasaka and Roppongi that I was working on last week.

After the 20 km, I ran and walked over to the main Toukyuu Dept. Store in Shibuya. I also need to confirm the part of the map over there, some time, which I did a little of today for a new part that includes the department store and Viron across the street, which was good. I hadn't realized that I could connect that up by continuous neighborhood running. The main interest at Toukyuu is the Dalloyau. They did not have any that haven't see at Ginza Mitsukoshi, but they much more convenient today. As planned, I went with their Fromage Brulée, which is tiny, but that's fine; it's also proportionately priced. Like their Fromage Cru, this was excellent, being sort of an ideal baked (in this case) cheesecake along the lines that I would expect to make with a simple recipe, if my simple recipe actually worked perfectly. Maybe the thickness is important, as this is very thick.

Éclat des Jours: Baked Cheesecake

As planned, I did a cycling visit to Éclat des Jours Monday, but they did not have the expected cake (it seemed overly summery, so I'm surprised that it lasted through November). Instead, I got the Baked Cheesecake. I had low expectations, but it was great, an experience I've had with other cakes of theirs. It was fruity, with some citrus taste but obviously some other fruit adding flavor, like cassis or blueberry. I'll have to go back to find out, as I didn't visually examine it that closely enough or read the card closely (I didn't expect to want to know much beyond baked cheesecake). It makes me think of the more decadent American style rather than the types I usually get Fred Cassel or Pierre Hermé, so I assume that means lots more sugar. It's somehow richer and more airy at the same time. I'll have to update this when I go back to get this for a cake-off, though that probably won't be until next year.

Tuesday, I did actual running for the first time since last Thursday (though I did hiking in the hills Saturday and less vigorously Sunday. I went to P. Shima to get the first pastry for this week. They close at 7 pm, so I had to rush: 11 km/h there and 10 km/h back, though it's only about 2 km each way. I followed this up by filling up the hour with running over the west Yotsuya neighborhood course, which is essentially the first one, or at least one endpoint of the current string of 7 that I've tentatively learned. I didn't do all of it, just enough to see whether I remembered it. I'll avoid reviewing the map before I go again and finish from where I left off, but I was okay on main outer loop, though I think I'm going to drop a small bit that swings through an alley that just for the sake of minimizing overlap in the course, because it's not lit well enough at night and I'm sure nobody wants me back there anyway. I might reform other parts, based on my more recent philosopher of course making, though I'll wait until I complete it. I know there's a big loop at the other end of the course that could be avoided if I was willing to double back or overlap more.

The pastry was a Pain au Chocolat, which was great, even though it is hard to say that there was anything special about it except that it was exactly what I wanted. I'll work my way up to one-on-one comparisons, but I'm not ready to do pastry-offs yet.

Limevert: Fromage Citron

I planned cycling today when I was thinking that I would run longer on Saturday and would need the rest in order to run again on Monday, which is still somewhat true. It certainly will keep me from being worried about the weekday runs and I'm going to try again to do a 40+ km run next weekend, so it doesn't hurt to keep things lighter this weekend. Still, I planned longer (30+ km), and got more lost, making it even long, because I was cycling.

First I went up to Aigre-Douce again, just because I missed seeing or at least remembering their cake that was planned as the primary in the next cake-off (I found it this time). Then I continued along Mejiro Avenue to Yamanote Avenue and turned off onto Honan Avenue, which was correct, but

turned too early from there, though at least was going south. I eventually got to Limevert, where I got the Fromage Citron (540 yen), chosen somewhat arbitrarily from things I haven't had, but it was definitely excellent. It's cheesecake, of course, with rare cheesecake on top (mousse) accented with lemon and a thin solid layer of baked cheesecake on the bottom with another layer of citrus (the card only mentioned lemon, but the color was different here and not as sour, but it could have been lemon too). Note sure whether the fruit helped or hurt it, but I'd be curious to have it without.

Starbucks: NY Cheesecake

Didn't plan to get cake, but still had some points left and had a request for a break. The cheesecake is decent (420 yen + 8%), again, especially compared to other major chains, although I can't remember that well the last time I tried to eat other such shops' cakes, so that's just a general impression.

For running, I just tried out a new fanny pack (I think) for running by going down to Meiji Gingu Gainen and doing one around the track. There where two 300 m intervals at 13 km/h and 225 m at 9 km in between, but there rest of the about 3 km run was at 10 km/h.

Frédéric Cassel: Violet Étoile

I went to Frédéric Cassel and was tricked into getting the Violet Étoile (which was excellent for 777 yen), in the sense that there did not seem to be anything different from the regular Violet except for the start theme, for the upcoming holiday. The picture just shows the top. Still, excellent cassis cheesecake, which makes me think that I'm going to have to get around to trying to up my game on my cheesecake. 

In the meantime, though, I got the yearly 1 km of fresh cherries from work (you can opt out, but no substitutions), so I should have made custard instead of hazelnut pranilé French buttercream. The little that was in the refrigerator has gone into the freezer. Maybe I'll try to make a creme brulée syrup, but I can just eat them in yogurt. They'll probably turn by the weekend, though. 

On the running side, since I just ran yesterday morning, I only ran 16 minutes, this time in 2 min running and 1 min walking intervals, among a full trip to Mitsukoshi Ginza, which is on the order of 10 km, walking the rest. I'm not sure whether this is the running for next week or adding to this week. Only increasing 5 km a week would be pretty strict, but more than 7 km a week might be dangerous. Better safe than sorry, as long as I can walk and still get cake.

Frédéric Cassel: Violet

Was over near Ginza at night, so I went over to get a ninth cake from Frédéric Cassel, Violet, a seasonal cake, for 777 yen. This is a two-layer cheese cake, with rare cheese mousse over a baked cheese cake. On top and between is cassis, so there is a mild red berry taste rather than a lemon taste. The crust gave the impression of a graham cracker crust. It does not really redefine cheesecake, but it well combines several version and is excellent (and maybe there only another week).

That's two great shops in a row, so I'll aim lower next, probably Tuesday, depending on the weather. I've got my eye on a new place (to me) blogged by Sweet Sonobe. On the great shops' front, I miscounted: Jean-Paul Hevin is up to 15 cakes posted. The others are at 9 now, except Dalloyao, which is 13, and Henri le Roux, which only ever has the same 4 cakes. If I get all seven shops all up to 10, then I'll feel obliged to finally get back to Clover and Piece Montée (which was tonight's backup) to get all the potentially excellent ones up to 2 cakes each.

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.

Shinjuku History and Culture course

Got up early and ran the Shinjuku History and Culture course. I ran it in the official direction, although maybe I should have run it east to west, to avoid the sun, but I was more worried about avoiding crowds around Shinjuku Station, which was still busy, being the busiest station in the world, and I stand by that decision. There are markers along such routes, but you cannot count on them being easy to find, being correct (I've found ones that were mis-oriented, although not on this route), or even to exist. In my map, the routes are based on 2010 routes, which do not necessarily exactly match the routes shown on the markers, and neither of which necessarily matches where it's legal to cross the road. Today, I couldn't find the start or end marker or any markers west of Shinjuku Station (route 1, from Shinjuku Central Park to Shinjuku Station) except one north of the west entrance. I was under pressure from needing to get back and showered for a 10 am appointment, but no problem. Much of this is my old hill route, which I haven't been doing, so I'm somewhat out of practice on the steep hills, but it was not a big deal (I think: strange lump around my Achilles tendon). Total time from my original start was about 1 35' 17'', but I failed to mark my lap correctly (apparently, my watch lets you stop the chronometer even when displaying time of day, but you can't also advance the lap number). I'll estimate the Shinjuku History and Culture course time today as 53' based on at another 600+ meters my watch showing about 56'30''. I like this route, other going going by the station, but you have to cross somewhere and it shows you a lot of highlights: the center of Tokyo government, Shinjuku Station, Isetan, Meiji Gingu Gaien, Yotsuya Station, Akasaka Mitsuke Station, and various shrines and temples.

Made my appointment, but made the mistake of buying a snack at Doutor (a coffee shop chain store) without reading the ingredients. Margarine--what kind of monsters are they? Although, the butter shortage continues, based on the availability I see in the groceries. I do not know what the deal is. There is cheese, milk, and cream, no problem as far as I know, and yet the butter problems continue for more than a year. Some sort of market breakdown, I assume.

In the afternoon, I went to Lettre d'Amour [Closed], as planned. Rather than the usual course through Meiji Gingu Gaien, down Icho Avenue and through Aoyama Cemetery, I just took the Gaien West Road around just to check whether there was a marker I missed along there in the morning. Coming back, I had intended to taking my usual route, since I was running with cake, but I realized why my first route was smart: Icho Avenue was packed with people viewing the spectacle of leaves changing colors (which I don't really get), so I had to curve around the other way. The map shows the combined day's route, which was 29 km.

The cake is Myrtille for 600 yen, which is supposedly (and basically tastes like) a baked cheese-cake tart with blueberry mouse on top. The confusing part is "myrtille" is the French word for "bilberry", which is related to but different from blueberry. I guess since bilberries can be called "European blueberries", they decided not to make a distinction, so I'll assume the name is correct but the description is not precisely correct. Now I'm doubting whether other "blueberry" cakes are actually bilberry.

The cake is good. I didn't choose it because I thought it would be great, but because I intend to try everything and this was more or less next, working left to right and top to bottom (of course, they move things around) and perhaps skipping varieties I'm not that into and new things that might be temporary, although that's not a general policy of mine. I like cheese cake, but it is not a strong taste, so it is limited. The tart crust was good, the baked cheese cake inside was good, the macron on top was good, and even the slightly gelatinous "blueberry" mousse was good. I'm happy with still saying this is a great shop and was not disappointed by the cake.

Checking Joshi+ Sweet, looks like it got around to Mont-Blanc, so I added it to the map and should give it a try. Since I don't like the cake mont-blanc so much in general and there are many places in Jiyugaoka and I hadn't heard anything about this one, I hadn't visited or planned to visit before now, although I'll see it and looked inside (they are near the station and seem to do a good business).

Two days of running and homemade cheesecake

Yesterday, I got a late start running. I went down to Meiji Jingu Gaien to do timed laps, concentrating on my running form to avoid injuring my foot, this time. I was only trying to do 9 min a lap for a 1.3+ km course, so that I could do (even when workmen showed up and set up a parallel detour so that they could dig up the course). Only 4 laps plus the running to get there, so pretty limited, but I was already committed to making cheesecake. I had made one batch before before using a comprise between the recipe on the cream cheese package, the recipe from my mother, and what ingredients are convenient to me. The crust is 125 g of flour, 75 g of unsalted butter, 30 g of sugar, one egg yoke, and one teaspoon of water, which is straight from the SliceSy manual for by bamix (what I have instead of a food processor). My mother's is a pie recipe without the egg and using oil, and it just doesn't stick together well enough for tarts. The filling part is 200 g of cream cheese (because that's the size they sell), 60 g of sugar (usually I use caster, but I ran out so half brown this time), just one tablespoon of flour I think (Mom), 3 egg whites (because I've got a surplus in the freezer), 1 tablespoon of olive oil (to make up for the lack of yokes), 90 g of no fat yogurt (because that's what I have: Mom, 1/2 cup of evaporated milk, which comes in 170 g cans here; package, 200 g of cream, which would cost as much as the cheese), 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (0 for Mom, 2 for package), and 20 g of unsalted butter. 24 min is enough in my convention oven at 180 deg C. This makes 2.5 14 cm tarts, which is inconvenient, thus the need to make it twice (which killed my supply of unsalted butter, which comes in 200 g most commonly, but I've bought 150 g, which really doesn't take you far, with no reasonable replacement found yet due to the Japan butter shortage). Unfortunately, yesterday, I was having a bad day and didn't reset the temperature from making pizza, so the three I made were at 250 deg C: unexpected blackness. Fortunately, it's only skin deep, and I've verified it's okay today, although I'll definitely save the uneaten unburnt one for someone special.

Today's running was down to the same place and only two laps total, in which I did two groups of 5 intervals of 30/20/10 second running slow/fast/fastest under the constraint of making sure that my left foot was moving properly. I only covered half the distance as when I wasn't being careful and I was counting rather than using the new watch. I definitely can move up to more groups or longer intervals. At home, I did a little lower leg and upper body work.

Ginza jog to Frédéric Cassel at Mitsukoshi: Passion (updated)

Still feeling a little off, although the rainy weather might be related. Was able to jog to Ginza and back, though. It's probably not the first time I've bought from Frédéric Cassel, since I've been at Ginza Mitsukoshi and wanted cake in the past and there aren't so many option (but they do have a Jean-Paul Hévin, so no problem always going there). It's been years, though. Their visit to Shinjuku Isetan drew my attention, so I'm finally getting around to visiting them.

I got the Passion, which is passion fruit baked cheese cake layer, and a rare cheese cake layer, and a little raspberry coulis in between. The weirdest part about it is that there are two crusts at the bottom. The top one seems to be a passion fruit flavored biscuit. It was 756 yen, which is steep, but great, and no geese died to make it, as far as I know, so good job Fred. I'll need to get back there, although the only thing else that they had near closing time was the lemon tart, which would be okay, but not usually my first choice.

No running, Pierre Hermé: Infiniment Citron x2

Tried to go to the cafe at La Maison du Chocolat but gave up after a 40-minute wait. I don't have much experience with cafe's, but I think a 20 minutes cap is reasonable: if they can't get you in before then, get away. There is plenty of good places that I've been to that would break that, and I was okay, but not everyone is that into cake all the time, and you can get take out.

Later, at Shinjuku Isetan, got two special/seasonal cakes (which doesn't really get me to my goal of trying out all the regular cakes at all the great shops, but that's okay): Baba Infiniment Citron and Cheesecake Infiniment Citron. The second is lemon biscuit, lemon baked cheese cake, lemon cheese mousse, lemon marmalade, and sable. The baba version is lemoncello (a liquor), lemon cream, lemon whipped cream, lemon confit, and lemon gelatin. These are both great, which they should be for 700 and 800 yen, I think (although I don't now which was which).