Cake-off: Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit over Paris S'éveille's Saint Honoré Caramel

I started out the weekend with a two-cake deficit from the previous week, which was immediately filled by successfully scoring two cakes for a 5th-round cake-off for cakes from the three-wins one-loss group. Paris S'éveille opened first, so I went there by bicycle (which is why the top of the cake on the left has sagged backward. Actually, they have three cakes that could have fit the bill, but I got the highest priority one. I wasn't too worried about being able to get Chocolat Cuit from Bien-être even though I couldn't get it earlier in the year since I can confirmed more recently and it seemed unlikely that they would cut it coming up on the Valentine's Day, which is peak chocolate season. Being both great to begin with and having similar records, it's not surprising that I can't say definitely that one is better than another. About halfway through, I decided that the Saint Honoré Caramel had more going for it, but too much bitter caramel and not enough tea meant that at the last bite I preferred the Chocolat Cuit, which I'm giving the win. Also, I need to get a bigger tea pot. (I have a French press that would make three cups, but I don't like to use it.)

Full disclosure, I finally tried a Mont-Blanc from Pronto, the chain café and bar, during the week. It was cake-shop priced but grocery store shape and quality, which is good enough for a chain coffee shop, I imagine, but not for me. I won't waste time reviewing it in detail and, should I ever get running again more than a dozen intervals of 1 minute, it won't be on a cake running map.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit over Très Calme's Mont-blanc

Saturday, I tried again and was successful at getting Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit. I wasn't quite as early as I intended, but it didn't look like they had sold much based on other items, even though they only had two of these out. It's was too light for the trip back, even though I was half running half walking. I did come back a longer way than I needed to because, in my confusion, I stopped at the newly opened Isetan, though the counter I wanted for the other cake-off cake was not available. Still, I bought the nonfood item I wanted. Once home, I took off by bicycling to get up to Très Calme and get their Mont-blanc, as a second two-wins-one-loss cake for a fourth-round cake-off. 

It was getting late at this point, so I also got a croissant there, as my first pastry and ate that first. It had a coating of syrup, I assume, or at least a coating that ended up sweet in the overall flavor, which is what I ask for in a pastry croissant versus a bakery croissant, so I can easily call this excellent. I'm back to the new interface on Blogger, which doesn't give me an option to rotate photos before uploading (whereas, somewhere something automatically decides to rotate long pictures so they are vertically oriented).

The Chocolat Cuit, despite the name, is pretty raw, being a very rich chocolate mass, which I'm giving the win. The Mont-Blanc is distinctive in being my favorite coffee cake, which adds coffee-flavored meringue to chestnut paste with cassis accent on whipped cream  in a way that you can taste all the flavors and yet the bitternesses of the chestnut and coffee cancel out and are together pacified by the sugar in a way that makes this acceptable to someone who doesn't like coffee (me) or chestnut (the chef). It stays among the greats, no problem.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit over L'Abricotier's L'Abricotier

Monday, I got a late start and ran to Ginza Mitsukoshi. There was a visiting shop there that I thought I'd sample while they were somewhat convenient, but when I asked, the two cakes remaining were special for Mitsukoshi (weren't found at the main shop), so my interest dropped below the necessary threshold. I've put them on the list of places to visit, but I don't often visit new places these days and I've got a lot of nearby targets, though not with this distinction of having been a visiting Mitsukoshi shop. I should have checked whether the sign said who's next, as Mitsukoshi doesn't list the Ginza Chocolat visiting shops under events on the homepage. In general, there is a White Day event starting, so maybe no visiting shop.

Tuesday, I took the afternoon off. It's not the best day of the week for that, but it had the advantage that the dry cleaners is open, so I took something big over. For cake, I ran to L'Abricotier (whose closed day is Monday) and got their namesake cake, the last one at about 3 pm. My navigation was not great (I know the shortest route, but am not patient at the lights and then don't recognize when i cross it later). For the second cake, I wanted Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit, but tried to cheat a look for it at Floto (which has the pictured bread place near it), their sister store, which they share a tart with and I thought that cake, but maybe not today. That store is closer and on the JR line. I walked and ran down to the main shop, which is open seven days a week, and they were well stocked (they're open later hours, so I would expect them to sell out later).

Both of these cakes have advantages. Fruity partially gelatinous cakes like the L'Abricotier are a major category that I generally don't appreciate, so this one holds a special place. In the case of Chocolat Cuit, though I like a lot of chocolate cakes, this might be the best simple, non-layered, baked chocolate cake that I know. I enjoyed both and plan to keep them on the great list, but it's hard to say that one stands above the other. I'm going to let simplicity be a tie-breaker and give the win to Chocolat Cuit, but actually they harmonized with each other very well.

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.

Cake-off: Bien-être's Chocolat Cuit over Jean-Paul Hévin's Victoria

First, let me mention that I ran to Christa Friday evening and got a Pain au Chocolat. I stopped and ate it nearby rather than make it travel a long time, so the photo is not very flattering due to the lighting, but it was great: lots of crispy layers with good chocolate, completely different from the previous pastry that I had claiming that name. Although this was my first pastry from them, I was expecting something pretty good, just because I had an excellent bread sample and they seen pretty serious about their breads while also making fancy cakes. There had a few other pastries there, so I should go back there so. The rest of the run was going to Roppongi Link and Loop. I had to move the connection to agree with the open crosswalk, but otherwise the route seems good. Other steps are to visit in the daytime for photographs and confirmation that things are where they are supposed to be and actually running over the course in a full continuous neighborhood run. It's not the most attractive place, so I might slip in on larger runs (or need to anyway, to get the far without cheating), but I shouldn't judge to quickly. On the way back I stopped at Tokyo Mid-town and remembered all the things I wanted from there. Probably I'll go at least once next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Today, I walked first to Jean-Paul Hévin around 11:30 and got get to the cake counter within a few minutes to purchase the Victoria, which is available through Valentine's Day. Except for the top biscuit, it seems to be the same cake as their two-person special seasonal cake. The website has been updated to reflect this and says that it will be replaced by Violet, which, reviewing old posts, I've never reviewed, so I have that to look forward to.

Next I went to Bien-être's by the long way to stop and take a few pictures of Tougou Shrine. Didn't realize that I hadn't done the Seichou no Ie complex to the northwest, or I would have picked that up to. Takeshita Street to Harajuku Stn. was packed, so no running around here. I've reverted my course over there to a single loop, but it's not practical on weekends except really early in the morning. I went to Bien-être for their baked (flour-less?) chocolate cake, Chocolat Cuit. It's simple but works, which is pretty much the shop's overall strength. On the way back, I confirmed that I could connect them up to my neighborhood map, via big detour north to get the crosswalk over the continuation north of Inokashira-dori avenue (which takes a east/left at the Yoyogi Public Park Police Box intersection). I also confirmed that you can cross through the north end of Meiji Shrine, when it's open (daylight), though you're not supposed to run, of course, as it's not a public park.

Did the cake-off, another chocolate match-up that finishes off the first round for Jan. 2018 great cakes. Actually, though it was excellent, wasn't remembering what I thought was great about Victoria this time around, which isn't too surprising given the number of similar cakes that I've liked from JPH. Still, the Chocolat Cuit was great, so I don't have any problem giving them the win. Maybe I'll test it against Viron's similar cake in the second round.

Bien-être: Chocolat Cuit

Had a run to Bien-être, though I did it past Harajuku Station so that I could confirm a neighborhood route by Sendagaya 3 Play Park, which is a long way for very little but I'm slow building up other neighborhoods (found a church I missed near the American Embassy and another spot where the same neighborhood map needed correcting). The run was about 70 minutes and covered 10+ km.

In Bien-être I went with simple: the Chocolat Cuit, baked flourless chocolate cake (with whipped cream). I thought this was great, melt in your mouth cake that I don't have often enough. Now I want to know whether Viron's chocolate cake is better.