Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat over Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Praliné

Still behind blogging, but Sunday I ran morning and afternoon, with a cake-off in between. The first run was to Yu Sasage, where I found that they aren't currently making either of the cakes that I want from them, one of which is undefeated after three rounds of cake-offs. I'll have to do a better job of watching the website to see if it reappears, but otherwise I'll probably never get there again. I took the train back to Isetan so I could get my backup pair of cakes, Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolat, their standard chocolate cake, and Jean-Paul Hévin's Longchamp Praliné, which finishes its current run on the 15th, so it was priority. Both were two wins and one loss in three rounds, but Pierre Hermé's Carrément Chocolate easily took its third win. It's got a brownie base, crunch middle, and mousse top, which doesn't sound like anything special, but it adds up to a great texture.

The late run was the Ebisu 4 loop, which is short but far away. I had originally thought I was going to do the third clump of loops, but laziness took over. Since I seem to have overdone things, it was a wise choice.

I was greedy Sunday, as I hadn't had a pastry for a week and Sadaharu Aoki, which doesn't have enough new cakes to satisfy me but has among the best pastries, had something new, the Gallette des Rois Nature, where Nature indicates that it is almond filling. This was definitely excellent, so I hope to get the chestnut version before it finishes its run.