Cake-off: Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette over Viron's Baba

Tuesday, I ran to Viron straight after work to get their Baba to do a cake-off versus Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette that I had gotten the night before and put in the chill room of the refrigerator. I also confirmed that Viron definitely a had another new cake that I could try. By rights, Dalloyau could have been the second cake Monday, but since I was already carrying the tart the previous night, I didn't try to run down to the Dalloyau at Meguro Station, which would have still been open (these days, the Dalloyau across from Virion closes at 18:30, so useless on a workday). Also, I trust the Dalloyau cake to be around any time except maybe right at a major holiday, when it might get pushed out by specials.

Back to the cake-off, these are both super strong tasting cakes (unlike the Dalloyau cake, though I don't usually think that far ahead when setting these up), as well as being focused on a single flavor. In this case, I'll give the win to the hazelnut praliné taste, though I'm still happy for the rum kick of the Baba (in taste only, not intoxication) as part of my greats. I shouldn't forget to say that this was only a second-round cake off between two losers, and I've got other cakes waiting for both to do third rounds (though some day I hope to get to another fourth-round cake-off for the winner's bracket).