Cake-off: Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne Rouge over Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait

Sunday, as another cake-off, which was not my original plan (my original plan was that I would hit a couple exceptional shops, to finishing raising that category to 8 cakes each). However, the day before I saw that Pierre Hermé had their Tarte Infiniment Chocolat au Lait in for the Christmas season, like other years (the connection is that it's robust enough that they can make them far ahead). It's complicated, but both it and Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne Rouge had a mistaken 3rd round, where I accidently pitted them against something that had already had a third round. Officially, they are both one and one but each secretly has a win against a 1-win-of-3 shop, so the winner of this cake-off will get credit for 2 wins out of 3, and the loser has their previous match count, so they become 2 winds out of 4, so win-win, essentially, except only one can get a new 4th round whereas the other will probably sit next year out, since they have two losses.

The tart remains in good favor. Though the name indicates milk chocolate, the caramel and crunchy pits define it. However, I have to give the win to Feuille d'Automne Rouge. At first glance, it's a simple variation on their star cake (in Japan), but I'm coming to think it's a real upgrade, though one might not always want raspberry. Haven't seem they try any other variations, but I'll keep hoping. In any case, both shops win a chance for another sample, but that's going to probably wait until next year, as I'm busy, unless I get something the 31st. 

Cake-off: Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne Rouge over Dalloyau's Trois Chocolat

Did a cake-off on Saturday with the newly returned Feuille d'Automne Rouge by Lenôtre and Dalloyau's Trois Chocolat, which is also a recent try (this having replaced the old similar chocolate cake). This was a second-round cake-off, with both having lost their first round. In this case, the Feuille d'Automne Rouge is definitely an unsubtle appeal to my sweet tooth, the same as the regular Feuille d'Automne, with chocolate cake and (straight baked) meringue inside a lot of decoration chocolate, only with raspberry sauce inside (I'm not sure whether the outside color reflects flavoring). That said, raspberry is a strong flavor, so this could go wrong, but it doesn't. Trois Chocolat is great in being an ideal light chocolate cake for me, but that isn't my first choice, so Lenôtre gets the win, though their cake is pretty messy to eat, as these types always are. 

Just running to Ginza to score both of those wasn't much, so after bring them back, I went out another two hours. I had used up my Odakyu coupons, but still had points that expire this year, so I used them to get a Pain au Chocolat from Pompadour, but it was just competently good.  I won't both to include the photo. I also got a first sample from a shop (really a food truck) in the Omotesando/Harajuku area. This is the Omote-Sando area exclusive Tokyo Honey and Pepper, I think, and is a cream cheese sandwich, basically mini cheesecake. It is excellent for what it is, but the pepper wasn't really in a noticeable amount. 

I also hit various café and have added quite a few places that I should try to cake from that are already territories included in at least the main sites part of my new neighborhood running courses (which I haven't been using much lately), so I want to visit them before deciding on the final neighborhood cake route and was out in an evening run that includes ones I forgot and visited Picard, which has a lot of expensive desserts on special for Christmas, which I don't really trust. Besides, I still have something from there I haven't tried in the freezer, so I should get around to baking that his Friday, maybe.

Cake-off: Origines Cacao's Mont-Blanc Japonais over Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne Rouge

I'm late for the usual reason: I've got absorbed in updating my map, and now I've decided to change the way I update it to make future updates more automatic, supposedly, or at least the calculations involved.

First, Friday was no cake, but I did some neighborhood running course work, confirming two revised loops: the revised Jinnan and new Uwada-chou loops, both on the far side of Yamanote Line between Shibuya and Harajuku stations. Along the way I also noticed a new shop advertising macarons along the north side of Cat Street, Remicone, but fortunately it's already on that neighborhood's course, so no updated required.

The next day was a cake-off day, despite my not being able to get an early start (though I did a weights indoor workout), since I trusted Ginza sources not to run out even if I didn't arrive by noon. I confirmed a couple sites in Akasaka don't need to be on my map (they advertise fresh-baked bread, but it's already in plastic bags in the morning, so not worth my interest).

The cakes were great cakes from earlier in the week, since I'm otherwise up to date on any pair of great cakes available without a loss in the same round. It was Origines Cacao's Mont-Blanc Japonais and Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne Rouge. I noticed this time that the mont-blanc bears some similarity to JPH's, which is my top mont-blanc in that the meringue in the middle is perhaps almond (since it's got that kind of color). It's still great I don't get tired of it. Lenôtre's Feuille d'Automne Rouge wasn't disappointing, but there's a lot of chocolate that breaks into pieces, making it difficult to cut and eat efficiently. I might try a different strategy next time.

Evening running (since the Ginza running didn't amount to much) was in the area between Yotsuya, Kojimachi, Akasaka, and Tameike-Sannou stations and managed all four clockwise (changing one loop after the fact).

Lenôtre, Feuille d'Automne Rouge

Tuesday, I failed again to get cake at Sadaharu Aoki, but reserved a piece to guarantee on Wednesday (as long as work didn't run too long). So once again I ran to Ginza, this time for Mitsukoshi and a cake for winning a cake-off. Since the winner was Feuille d'Automne, it seemed reasonable to get the Feuille d'Automne Rouge from Lenôtre, which is a raspberry version for Christmas. Ran both ways, this time, just to get home earlier, as I still had the indoor workout with weights to do.

As it happens, adding raspberry was in no way a bad idea, and this was a second new great cake in two days, as I had hoped. Both are seasonal, so I know what the next cake-off should be, since I don't have any other pairs of undefeated cakes ready to go. Guess I know where I'll go next Tuesday: Isetan (where Lenôtre is visiting for the week, or at least I assume that it's the regular week, though I better check, as Christmas disrupts the usual schedule).