Éclat des Jours, Tarte aux Fruits

While I was visiting Éclat des Jours for a cake for a cake-off, I also got a new cake for their previous cake-off win. My choice was between a tart and a glass dessert, so I went with the latter, even though it obviously wasn't a great back for me. Specifically, I got the Tarte aux Fruits. It's not the first time I've had this kind of tart. The good point is it features various kinds of small fruits, all high quality. The bad point is that's about all there is to it and I'm not sure a connoisseur of fruits. Still it was good. 

Camélia, Reine

I was free from late afternoon on Sunday, so I half ran half walked to Ginza and visited P. Camélia and got Reine, so a princess cake, perhaps. Anyway, lots of pistachio, including a nicely textured biscuit and a suitable balance of red fruits and a touch of chocolate. No surprise that I found it excellent, which makes four in a row from this shop. Still, haven't found a great cake yet, so it's staying in the quite fine group but I might get back to it sooner than otherwise from getting cake for two, as they'll have a counter at Isetan from April (I assume it's a 6th-month gig).

 

Sadaharu Aoki, Cheese Cake Fruits Rouge

Tuesday last week, I optimistically went down to Tokyo Midtown to see whether they would have a Ryoura cake on a Tuesday, which is actually crazy because the shop is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays (they didn't have any cakes a holiday Thursday morning either, so I won't try that day again). If I had researched and thought ahead, I could have saved myself a trip (which I did using 1-min intervals of walking and running, which is all I'm managing these days, but I'm working on it) and gone to Isetan, since the other purpose was to check whether Sadaharu Aoki had a particular cake that I want for a cake-off versus a seasonal JPH cake. They didn't but instead had the rare new cake, as shown. It's Cheese Cake Fruits Rouge, versus their standard citrus one. It's not a flavor I associate with cheesecake or one I seek and is mild as accents go, but actually turned out to work, so I wasn't disappointed at all. And it was the usual SA quality, so I'm fine saying it was excellent. I'm assuming that the red fruits are raspberry and cassis, as that's what was in the Noel Cheese Cake (as an online item last year). 

Now if I can just get Millefeuille Mâcha, which is still on their site as at Marunouchi, but last time I checked it was suspended due to pandemic state of emergency, maybe.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges over Toshi Yoroizuka's Cassis

The first cake-off of September was a newly returned cake to the Sadaharu Aoki's lineup, Marron Fruits Rouges, and the only great cake at Toshi Yoroizuka's right now, Cassis. I think both feature black currant, or at least I assume that's one of the read fruits in SA's cake, but it's not hard to tell them apparent. The Cassis of TY is pairing cassis with fig, which might be a good pairing for fig, but fig isn't the easiest fruit for sweets and wasn't working particularly well for me, whereas Chestnut is often paired with cassis for good reason, and the Marron Fruits Rouges wins easily.

Chez Lui: Cassis Dijon

Went to another shop on the neighborhood running course, this one in Suragaku-chou, down southwest from Shibuya Station. Never had high expectations for this shop based on never having heard any recommendations and the line-up, but I did have an excellent (rather old-fashioned Japanese) pastry. I went with Cassis Dijon. The card claims that it has chocolate crunch, would would be expected to go with cassis/blackcurrant, but I don't remember any crunch, just the bottom layer is thick chocolate sponge, which doesn't really go with anything, but certainly not with a mousse top. It does explain the low price, although the size would also explain that. Anyway, this cake reminded me of other cakes from similar old chains, just those cakes are not my style, so I won't need to get cakes as such from them, though I will try more pastries.

Viron: Bourgogne

Went to the next in the list of priority shops: Viron. I went to the shop down in the Shibuya Stn. area, since I wanted to (and did) run the Jinguumae 5&6 loop counterclockwise, to confirm the recent revision. That leaves one revised loop reconfirm (at least until next time I go exploring). I got Bourgogne, which is mousse  of cassis and strawberry in win, a cassis mousse cover, and cinnamon cream. The outer cassis jelly dominated, though I could taste the cinnamon and win influence. For me, it was just okay. I took this as the most conventional thing sold as cake, but I probably should have known that it wouldn't suit me. Still, I don't know until I try. Still, one new cake that doesn't impress me doesn't stop them from being a high priority shop, for now. As a note on the picture, this is what happens when you take a full running carrying cake. It actually survived pretty well. I only had to rescue the currant from the roof of the box and wipe off the Viron marker and little bit.

Origines Cacao: Cassis Vanille

Worked late, but still got to Ginza in time to get the last Cassis Vanille from Origines Cacao, which I think catches me up with their current line-up. Forget to check on cakes for the next cake-off, so I should stop back and ask about both new cakes and that if I manage to get out there again during the week (I'll have two chances, but I'm busy). In terms of construction, I would say that I don't like this type of cake, with sponge wrapped around a soft filling, and yet it worked for me this time, with a really nice vanilla accented by the cassis. I might be favoring them, but I'm calling this one excellent, so they're still a priority shop. Ran most of the way back, I'll say, though not after I stopped the first time for groceries. Also did the indoor upper body weights workout, so just running tomorrow, somewhere that closes late.

Mariage Frères: blueberry cassis tea tart and figgy pudding

Saturday, went to a fancy café around the corner north of Ginza Mitsukoshi. It's their "new" tea salon, being only 2 years old. It was good, but maybe not high return on cost, though it depends how much you value atmosphere. For an older crowd than my typical choices. It was lunch and cake for two and the cake was from the base choices (versus any of the items requiring an extra expense). I went with a blueberry tart with a base of cassis and some sort of tea (like every dessert there) that I've forgotten. Not sure whether these had official names, so I'm sticking to descriptions.

The other dessert chosen was figgy pudding, which is like fruitcake without the cake, I found. Both were certainly good, though once with figgy pudding was enough, though it cake whipped cream, which at least makes it fresh as a café dessert.

La Vie Douce, Marronnier

Tuesday, I got a 6th cake from La Vie Douce, which is challenging the bottom of the next shop category, the exceptional shops. I got the Marronnier (horse-chestnut) early, did my non-weights indoor workout (Monday I did the weights workout after running), and went for about a 90 minute run. My target was the highest priority neighborhood loop, which was the revised Ebisu-Nishi west loop, which I failed, as I didn't recognize an old turn (I think they changed the billboard, but I should just remember that it's the first left after incoming link route). On the way, I finished verifying the Higashi north loop and did two new loops clockwise, the Ebisu-Minami loop and the Ebisu 1 loop. Maybe I'll get back there again on Thursday. It depends how I decide to travel to the Tooyou-chou Station area.

The cake, which has hazelnut, chestnut, and cassis/currant, was definitely good. It's a fall cake, so more nutty than sweet. It's really a quite fine shop, I just wish they would make their yuzu Chiboust again.

Fortnum and Mason: Cassis, Mont-Blanc, Sachertorte, and Victoria Sandwich Cake

Searched for a tea salon or the equivalent that would seat two in a reasonable time around 14:30 on a Sunday, and failed at my first two spots in Ginza. I went and did some shopped and continued on to Mitsukoshi (Nihonbashi Muromachi) and went to my first choice there and still had to wait a while, but not as long and we could sit inside, so better than our other options. A little earlier and being willing to settle for basement seating and we might have gotten seated in Ginza, but there was also the problem of a few items being sold out already, so I'm not sure that we would have been happy there even if we had been seated. At Fortnum and Mason, where we ended up, the cakes are small and though I saw going out that you could get Sachtorte and Cheesecake take-out for under 400 yen each, the inside menu was only sets that included two cakes each. We went with one full afternoon tea set, which also included two scones with clotted cream and jam and little sandwiches for one, along with tea of one's choice, and one cake set with just the two cakes and the tea. They seemed to over-seep the tea, but maybe that's the English way (or the Japanese way: people at work put tea bags in cups and just leave them for a long time, even if the instructions are 30 seconds, though they also may be using cooler water than I, as I always boil mine). Really too much food for two.

Let me start by saying that the Cassis was my bad choice: it was cassis mousse with even more gelatinous (though a little textured, reminding me of canned cranberry sauce). Still okay, but I should have known better. The told me that my other choice was chocolate cake when I asked them to repeat the names (they bring out a tray, but they left out the apple pie that was added later), but I'm assuming that they actually call it Sachertorte, based on the front counter, even though I didn't sense any apricot when I ate it. Still, I thought it was excellent, mostly in comparison. I probably liked the Victoria Sandwich Cake next of the four, which was good, and is sort of like a shortcake with coarser sponge than Japanese shortcake usually has (which was still much more like Japanese shortcake than cake made with actual shortcake, but my partner did not appreciate) and uses white chocolate as the filling around the strawberries. Finally, there was a Mont-Blanc which my partner liked the best, even if she though it wasn't up to the highest standards of the type, and I agreed that it was good.

I went running in the evening and finished off a couple loops only about 1 km long each that had been giving me trouble west if Shibuya (in the sleaziest area, though not in any dangerous way on a Sunday evening, regardless of age or sex: it's Tokyo). That leaves a tiny loop (just around one big building) that needs to be done counterclockwise. I'll probably just stop there when I'm cycling through sometime, lock the bike where it looks least offensive and take a couple minutes to circle the block). Or I'll need to work on the Kamiyama-chou--Tomigaya--Udagawa-chou loop, but that's 2.75 km long and not that close or high in priority, so I'd rather save it for later. I still having loops back past Roppongi to take care of before attacking the biggest loop of them all.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise over Toshi Yoroizuka's Cassis

Friday, I had a long run, starting by running down to east Nishi-Azabu again to do loops of my neighborhood course and swinging up through Moto-Akasaka, which is at least somewhat on the way back. I could do three small loops, finishing them, but failed on the two largest due to not recognizing a narrow road or path that I needed to turn on. Skipping ahead in the story, I went back by bicycle and ran those Saturday afternoon (it was hotter than I had hoped but apparently manageable). I also finally managed clockwise on the Dougenzaka north loop, after cycling over to Shibuya Hikari but failed on completing the adjacent loop and two other simple loops I tried for the first time. I'll see what I can do Sunday night.

Friday, as my first snack, I tried a Pain au Chocolat from Fiorentina Pastry Boutique, which is my first pastry. It suffered a little from the late time/humidity/my sweaty condition, but it was made the way I like it and I liked the chocolate (which I often don't in these), so I'm going to call it excellent and maybe get another one.


Saturday, I did a third-round cake-off with Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise, even though it was its last day and it will probably never appear again. I started by running to the Kyobashi Toshi Yoroizuka to the Cassis, which was the nearest cake that was a suitable match. The Cassis, besides as the name indicates, is maybe the best fig cake I know, but that was not enough (though it complimented) against the stronger flavor of Inspiration Passion Framboise. The next "Inspiration" cake with be pecans, which sounds good, though I have other places to visit, so I'm probably not going to get to it right away.

Vincennes, Délice au Cassis

Working through a list of cakes I want a third cake from, I finally got to Vincennes out in Meguro-ku, when I went to by bicycle, taking a break from running and doing my short indoor workout. I got Délice au Cassis, which is almond biscuit with some cassis butter cream (?), and some "raw" chocolate on top. It's a nice little cake from a nice little shop, for a nice price, and was good. Don't imagine that I'll need a fourth cake, but I respect them, even if I search for fancier things.

Les Cacaos, Pistache

Went out by bicycle and confirmed a couple sites I had just added to the revised loop south of Shibuya Station, then went as far out as Oyamadai to check the line-ups of a couple shops, and returned east to get cake from Les Cacaos. It's been a while, and the one great cake I've had there has been absent for several years (probably because Cuban chocolate is not so common). This time I got Pistache, which is pistachio and a high amount of cacao, supposedly. Neither made much of an impression separately or in harmonization. This is a soft (sponge) cake, but may with some sort of fruit with seeds, because there was some of that unpleasant raspberry seed feeling, though I didn't track it down. It didn't taste bad, but especially under the new rating system, I want to say that this was just ok. Les Cacaos hold on its shop group status (which I'm going to change from excellent to exceptional, in revising to avoid overlap between cake ratings and shop ratings) was weak to begin with, but I'll have to see what the competition can manage. Specifically, it and La Vie Douce were identical before this cake, so it wouldn't take much for me to swap these two shops.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Verrine Chocolat Hirondelle

https://www.jeanpaulhevin-japon.shop/SHOP/998176.html

Today, Jean-Paul Hévin's verrine season started. The most appealing to me is the  Verrine Chocolat Hirondelle (where hirondelle means swallows, the birds), which is cream flavored with "verneine" (the liquor Verveine du Velay, I assume) over four-berry jelly (strawberry, cassis/blackcurrant, raspberry, and pomegranate) with thick Brazilian chocolate on top. I've never tried mixing it all together before eating, though that would probably be allowed. I'm more generous with these than previously, and am appreciating the advantage, as small bites are very flavorful. I'll say it was excellent, as it's likely to be my favorite of the current three. This year I might try the Verrine Chocolat Café, since it's Jean-Paul Hévin. But not this week. This didn't require an accompanying tea, which might be why I forgot to take a picture, so I'll include the official one and the link.

Cake-off: Toshi Yoroizuka's Cassis over Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit

Friday, I did a local run to add the Minami-Aoyama 3&4 loop, which requires using subway access stairs to cross the road. Since the area is completely surrounded by other neighborhood loops, I'm allowing it, though I think I'll keep expanding elsewhere without using the subway accesses for now. I'll need some more practice or that loop, but it's pretty simple, so it shouldn't take much. I stopped at Breadworks again, this time for a pastry. There aren't a lot of choices in that category, but they had a Whole Wheat Croissant. It was good, but definitely whole wheat while being a real pastry (not just ordinary bread shaped like a croissant), with flaky layers. Other options on this course are a chocolate place that isn't cheap, a couple cake shops, and a bakery café next to one of the subway entrances. I'm counting this run as a one-way neighborhood run, though I couldn't use the normal course, as they have the pedestrian bridges over Omotesandou blocked off at night to keep people from going up there to take photographs of the street. People are always doing that any time of the day and year, but now there is an illumination display along Omotesandou, so they could get dangerously crowded.

Saturday, was cake-off day. My morning appointment was canceled, but I didn't leave so early and collected half a dozen photos on the way for neighborhood sites leading to Pâtisserie l'abricotier (which could ultimately be on the course, if it ever extends that far). Unfortunately, even arriving 1 hour after opening was too soon by an hour to get what I wanted, so I need to go back at noon, maybe Sunday next weekend, though I've got some appointments that might make a cake-off difficult. So I used my back-up, Bien-être, which would be another 6 km, but I practiced some neighborhood loops (where I didn't need photographs), and it was farther. No trouble getting Chocolat Cuit. From there, I ran a little but mostly walked to Tokyo Midtown to get the main goal, Cassis from Toshi Yoroizuka. The walking was partially to project my cake but partially because my right foot wasn't so great (fine now). I haven't been having trouble when not running, and have gotten lax about stretching. I'll try to do better tonight and tomorrow. I came back by train with too cakes, though that still involved more than 1 km walking (since I wasn't willing to do transfers, especially not to different lines).

I'm happy to report that I definitely still think both these cakes are great. I couldn't say that one was better than the other eating them, so I'm giving the win to Toshi Yoroizuka, because its has the most fig of cakes in cake-offs and there are lots of versions of chocolate cake (though none like this one, so I could justify either). Another excuse is that Toshi Yoroizuka ranks lower, so it needs the support more.

L'Essentielle, Cassisier

Thinking back to Wednesday, I went first Isetan from their visiting shop. I had one cake from L'Essentielle, so I figured I'd try another. I got the Cassisier. For running, I visited various parts of my neighborhood running course that I wanted to change and verified that they would work. I wanted to shorted some parts that I have to use to go most places and decided that I didn't want to cut through Keio Univ. Hospital, though people always have at that point. The original plan had been for a short run, but it ended up about an hour, once I connected up the parts.

The Cassisier, which is obviously cassis (black currant), is white chocolate based and has star anise as the spice accent (accents). This is just too soft a cake for me. I need a biscuit, cookie, or crunchy layer, I guess. There was enough going on with the top that I have some respect for it, so I'm calling it good, but I'm not in a hurry to sample from them again.

I planned no running for Friday, so Thursday I went for a long run to try to do a successful one-way neighborhood run to what I thought were the nearest new parts, as well as a little part that want to reacquaint myself with that was convenient to add.  These included absolutely confirming the Nishiebisu east and west loops, followed by the new Ebisu--Hiroo east and west loops. I'll have to change the last one, maybe, because I've since found a new religion church that I missed, but that's no big deal. I also did the Higashi north loop on the way home, just so I can skip it when I redo the central and south loops. I ran into one pedestrian bridge blocked off, so I cheated and used the intersection to cross, but I'm not going to scrap the run for that. If I had known, I would have crossed at a different bridge, though it's longer, but I wan't willing to double-back to get to it. It was a +2 h run, so I made use of a new snack source only the route, the Baking Shu in the Shibuya Stream complex and got Raisin Coupé, which is a bun. After an hour of running, I needed it. Actually, I sent my lunch hour trying to get a question answered by the cell phone company person, so I was pretty underfed that day (though more chocolate than usual). It might have been too much bread for another day, but it was 200 (approximately) well spent, and good.

Friday, I refrained from running, but there was shopping and exercising indoors, so I got a Chausson aux Pommes from Hediard. It's very precisely made, but ultimately boring, though still good.

Anniversaire Café: Anniversaire Chocolat and Rocolte

Went to Anniversaire Café for the first time. On one hand, this is definitely Tokyo cake, but no take-out, so technically its Tokyo café items. I got Anniversaire Chocolat, their chocolate cake. It's more traditional than I go for, so I'm saying its excellent partially on technical grounds, but it was certainly very good. One interesting aspect is that it is a layer cake, but the middle layers don't go all the way through, so the ganache (I would call it, mostly ignorantly) on the outside is uninterrupted by sponge cake.

The other cake is Rocolte, which looks like a mont-blanc, but there's no actual "Blanc" (whipped cream). The chestnut paste/cream is fairly thick. Inside, beside most chestnut, is a light (in terms of the amount of fruit/color) cassis cream, I think. This is definitely excellent. I'd like to get back here, but there are four other places in the area that I haven't visited/posted on.

Frédéric Cassel, Choux Cassis

Was windy today, due to a typhoon passing to the west, enough to stop some train lines. No rain in the evening though, so it was mostly fine for running. I imagine most running groups cancelled early, so there were not many people out on the moat course. Saw one tree had broken off and was floating in the moat to the east and someone official looking was inspecting the trunk when I reached it near Hibiya intersection.

Went back to Ginza Mitsukoshi by the scenic route (not so much as a plan, but I just missed the first traffic light, which is followed by a second traffic light that you can't make at any reasonable speed, so I turned and went down to Aoyama-doori Avenue, which adds more than 1 km, I think (especially if you start by trying to go the opposite direction). I walked from the big Ginza scramble (Sukiyabashi), but it was still about 75 min or running total round-trip, plus walking underground from there, as Marunouchi Line Ginza Station ti Ginza Mitsukoshi and then to Viron by the zigzag underground route.

For cake, I got Choux Cassis from Frédéric Cassel, which is the first time I've gotten this inspiration cake, one of three lately, along with a cheese charlotte and a tart. I would have been happy with this month's tart, which is blueberry, but wanted to finally try the cream puff, even though I've never liked cream puffs with whipped cream or fruit or any flavor of custard but vanille. However, the custard in this was a really rich dark red from the cassis/currant. It has a very strong fruit taste without being very sweet at all. And there was no feeling of a mismatch having the cassis whipped cream. I ate it in the 9th floor open area, since I figured it would be hard to carry home on foot due to wind. I still found that I really prefer cutting the pastry with a sharp knife versus my teeth, but it was still excellent and I look forward to trying other version in the future.

Bien-être, Caprice

As planned, I did a shorter run today, under 10 km round trip and a little over 1 hour, carrying cake on the way back and with a kilo of nuts from Nikunohanamasa, to Bien-être, where my only choice of a new cake was Caprice (by my guess of the phonetic Japansese) . As usually these days there, the tables were full with people eating parfaits, though there were few cakes left for anyone who wanted cake anyway, maybe just 4 pieces that I can remember.

I didn't read the card in detail (I'm tired when I go), but there is definitely fig and I believe cassis (currant). The blueberry is just decoration (though eatable). I might be giving the shop the benefit of the doubt, but I think this was excellent. I've complained about some fig cakes recently, but this gets both the balance of fruit flavors and the texture/moisture right, so excellent isn't out of line. I was lucky to get cake. I know they've had other cakes I haven't tried yet recently, so I hope that I can get something next week as well. Bien-être is on verge of taking over as my #3 favorite shop. They don't has as many great cakes as my current #3, but they also have fewer duds.

P. Ikeda: Cassiser

Tuesday, I went to Shinjuku Takashimaya looking for something different and got a cake from Patisserie Ikeda via the Patisseieria, which may be their only Tokyo distributor. They count as a neighborhood cake shop, so I felt obligated to try them, though nothing looked very appealing. Maybe I should have gone with cheesecake again, but I choose Cassiser, or at least that is my guess at the spelling, if there is a French spelling. It's cassis mousse and cherry custard cream. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, it was not any better than it looked. Not that it tasted bad, it was ok, but what seemed like a not very good idea was not improved by the execution, though I'm not an audience for the this cake, so this shop and its cake might be fine for someone else.

Exercise was about an hour of riding over the more extreme parts of yesterday's shadowing of the east Yotsuka neighborhood course, though in the reverse direction (so the worst slope I could do going up), plus one lap around Akasaka Palace Grounds. Then it was push-ups at home.

Wednesday, I cycled again, toward Ginza, stopping by P. Shima to verify that they still had the same pastries that I've tried previously, which they do. At Ginza Mitsukoshi, I tried again and failed to get the basic cream puff from F. Cassel (sold out), and instead got a couple Mini Pain aux Raisins from Dalloyau. Even perhaps a little not fresh at the end of the day, they were excellent.