Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Tan Gram over Dalloyau's L'Echiquier

It was time for another cake-off, and I just had time on Saturday evening to gather than competitors, though I probably could have done this any evening: the shops are close to each other and open until 8 pm and 9 pm, and the cakes are year-round offerings. Also, both of these shops are top level shops, though different markets. Frédéric Cassel is a counter in a high-end department store, also has chocolates and a few kinds of macarons, There are only a few regular cakes and then a few inspirations centered on a theme and although confirming to a few set forms that only get varied over the medium term, compared to the short-term inspiration, which is once per month. Dalloyau has counters around town, but they are also a bakery, have wider selection of macarons and in Ginza have a café restaurant. Their selection is more than a dozen, with just a few changes each month.

The run was not direct: I tried to minimize stopping rather than distance or time, although I didn't want to completely run in circles and did have a deadline, so that only added a few kilometers. Today, I did 13 km total averaging 10 km/h each way.

I let the both cake warm up a bit (less than 10 minutes), which was good for L'Echiquier from Dalloyau, which is cream, but the mousse in the Tan Gram was on the edge of collapsing, so not so good for it. Never the less, the rich chocolately Tan Gram, with it's crunch, easily beat the lighter L'Echiquier. Both are great, but the Tan Gram is really great, which is one reason why I need these cake-offs, so I can have great cakes I haven't had in long enough that I've forgotten what was great about them.