Cake-off: Bubó Barcelona's Choco Deluxe over Paris S'éveille's Chocolat Fondant

Not too much to say about today's cakes. Cycled down to Paris S'éveille to get their Chocolat Fondant, which for purposes of this blog I am treating as fresh cake (versus gateau de voyage, like a weekend or pound cake, which are not my focus), though it does not require refrigeration and actually they recommend microwaving it for 20 s (my microwave is large, so I should probably have done longer), and then swung back to Bubó Barcelona to get their Choco Deluxe, a battle of the last two pure chocolate cakes in this round/year's cake-offs.

Neither cake stood out, but both were worthy chocolate cakes, which I enjoyed revisiting, the main purpose of cake-offs. I decided ultimately to give the contest to the underdog, Bubó Barcelona. I'd like to compare theirs to something more similar to it, but the main similar thing to the Fondant is not available (due to Ryoco being too busy to bother with the little stuff, apparently).

Sunday/Monday: Bubó Barcelona: Choco Deluxe

Had a long bicycle ride to visit some outlying shops to see what was available for upcoming cake-offs (for example, I would have had one Tuesday, but the necessary shops are closed, so I'll give it a try Saturday, though I may run into other trouble, as being sold-out is also a problem, and that's a bigger danger on the weekend). It was a relaxing ride, at least until I got to Ring Road 8, which I forgot how inconvenient/dangerous it is for pedestrians and bicyclists, so I should look for a different route when I perhaps do the same thing next month. No cake, also in preparation for the next cake-off, but at Paris S'éveille, I got a Croissant Orange (or something closely named), which was excellent. It's a fairly how croissant, and very crispy, with some orange paste inside. Not sure what they cut the orange with besides sugar, but almond paste seems like a good choice.

Monday, I got a second cake from Bubó Barcelona at Isetan, since their time there was almost up. It is Choco Deluxe, which is an all chocolate mousse cake. The center seems to be a little chocolate cream, surrounded by a lighter mousse, with a chocolate coating, of course, along with the outside decorations. There is a crunchy bottom and some more chocolate biscuit inside. Being strictly chocolate is limiting, but it is excellent chocolate, so I would like to compare this to other top chocolate, which is to say that I think it is great. Guess I'll be visited the Omotesando shop sooner rather than later, though it's going to have to get in line at least behind Éclat des Jours, which I hope to get to Thursday, and Il Pleut sur la Seine, which will have to wait for next week, as I owe Sadaharu Aoki a cake and want to do a couple cake-offs this week-end, to catch up a little.

There was also a little running. I did about 10 min running hard up and down a moderate nearly slope and then went to the Gaien course and practiced 500 m at a time 8, 8, 10, and 11 km/h speeds using a stop watch, before heading back. It was my first time for this kind of training and I expected hard running the next day, so I didn't work that long. Also, I had a late start.