Bocksun: Sachertorte, Strawberry Shortcake, and Matcha Mont-Blanc

I wasn't expected to have a chance to get cake from here, but they had a counter in shopping area and we got three cakes. The main Kobe shop is in Chuuou-ku, though so I'm sticking with that. I started with the Sachertorte, which was in three layers with apricot jam on top of each (my vague memory of differences in disputed recipes is about where to put the jam and/or layers). It was definitely good.

The second was a regular Strawberry Shortcake, and was also good. It did not stand out, but I wouldn't expect it to.

The final one was the oddball, the Matcha Bont-Blanc. This was actually the best, being excellent. The matcha is too strong by itself, but the whipped cream balances it. But those two makes too light and sweet a cake, but the almond (?) tart base balances them, so it works out. Especially given their convenient location (depending on the occasion), might make this an early one to revisit.

Le Pan, Yasutomi Yuzu and Praliné Paris-Bres, Gateau Le Pan, & Chocolat Orange

My first choice was Yasutomi Yuzu and Praliné Paris-Brest. The choux pastry was typical. The Yuzu cream was fine. The pâte pralinée was quite dense, like the chestnut paste of a mont-blanc, which I don't have any problem with in general. The cake was good and did balance some different good tastes, though maybe the whole wasn't exceptional compared to the parts. Still, a good cake that increases my confidence in this shop.

The second cake, which I only had one forkful of, is called just Gateau Le Pan and is a standard Japanese strawberry shortcake. It seemed good to me and was confirmed by the other partaker.

The third cake we could agree was the best, the Chocolat Orange. While a traditional combination, the balance is not automatic. This was a very rich chocolate which went with what was like a mikan orange, though I don't know the details. I say rich, but it was not dark chocolate, but rather Valrhona milk chocolate mousse, apparently (I found their whole cake ad). Anyway, it works for me. I'm going to label this was great, as I'd like to have it again, which makes my first great Kobe cake, though that's from a small sample that isn't likely to get that much bigger, as I don't get down here so much as I might have first expected. What I can I say: Tokyo is more comfortable for all evolved. Anyway, next time I come back this shop should be my top priority, as I think I've visited all the main ones that aren't available in Tokyo. I'm curious about the main shops of a couple of those, which might have something to explain their longevity despite the low level of good they exhibit in Tokyo. 

Konditerei Kobe, White Cheese Roll

For completeness, I'll mention that Friday of last week (and Saturday), I had slices of Koditerei Kobe's White Cheese Roll, which I suspect was bought at Kobe Airport. It was good, but very white(bread).

P. Mont Plus: 4 cakes

Sunday, I went to one of the few shops with eat-in open, Mont Plus, a shop with some history, I think. For eat in, we got two cakes: Optomiste and Chiboust Paysanne. Naturally, I choose the chiboust. It was a standard (sauteed) apple chiboust with chiboust cream and sour cream, and was excellent. 

The other was also very nice, with caramelized butter cream and walnuts in a rum raisin cake. I'm calling the Optomiste semi-excellent, at least for my companion. 

These were good enough to get two more for take out, which is more important than my vague memory. Neither was chosen by me. One was Valencia. This is a (soft?) meringue cake with almond, orange mousse, and orange pieces. I recall it being

quite nice, so I'm also putting it down as semi-excellent. 

And the last one was an Ali-Baba, which I'll also say was semi-excellent, because it was at least that, but I should probably have both these again and update the entry. I guess I need to visit Kobe more and speed up my updates.

Blogger has updated, and now trying to edit labels destroys the file, so no labels. I'm try to update them later when I figure out how to get the old interface.

 

L'Avenue: Vivienne, Mode, and L'orangerie

Vivienne, by L'Avenue

Saturday, I went to the correct shop, and I didn't go alone, so it was three cakes for two people. We got the Vivienne, Mode, L'orangerie. These were all a huge improvement on Friday's cake, so I was satisfied.

L'orangerie, by L'Avenue

I think the better ones were Mode and L'orangerie, so I'm recording those as semi-excellent, but the Vivienne was definitely good. For Kobe, this makes this shop of special note, though my resurvey has not extended far yet.

Mode, by L'Avenue

Akito, Marjolaine and Saint-Marc

Friday, I got two cakes to go for two from Akito. Actually, I had misunderstood where I was supposed to go for cakes, but I had been here once before the cake was at least good. This time I got to classics, Saint-Marc and Marjolaine. Or at least, I expected these to be classics (or maybe they are and I've been eating the modern improvements), but the Saint-Marc had really thick sponge layers (more sponge than cream), which I could never imagine as an improvement. it wasn't bad, just the diluted the taste of the cake from somewhat subtle to completely bland, so I can't say this was more than okay.

I'm not sure what was going on with the Marjolaine, which broke into dry pieces when cut and didn't have much texture, like there was no egg white in the biscuit, maybe; something seemed weird, anyway. Now I'm going to have to get abvt's version to remember what can be great about a marjolaine. Also only okay.

I assume that these were exactly as designed and I just don't like the style of cakes so much, but either way I need to stay away from this place, I guess.

Succession Kanditoratelier (Nishimura Coffee): Apfelstrudel& Pistazien Torte

Milk pudding

On day 7 of GW, and the last day in Kobe, I went to a Nishimura Coffee shop for lunch and got Succession Kanditoratelier deserts (I'm not sure whether these are in anyway independent or whether they are both just brands of the same company). I went for cake, but their actual cakes seem pretty perfunctory, if that's the correct word, so we went with more pastry-like torte, the Apfelstrudel (with whipped cream, which makes this pastry at least a café desert) and Pistazien Torte, basically, coffee cakes.

Apfelstrudel

The strudel was very nice, much nicer than pie. It has raisins, which seems like a traditional sweetener, and apple strudel predates sugar becoming a non-luxury, apparently. I definitely appreciate the cream, though that's pretty true for any torte. I would call this excellent.



I had the pistachio cake afterward, so it might have been too much. Certainly it was more sweet than I needed without something to cut it with, so I should have order tea. The milk pudding cake with my lunch and I didn't really want it, but it was actually good, so better than I expected.

Luciole: J'aime, Paris-Brest, & Gateau Meringue

Gateau Meringue

On day 6 of GW, I got cake from Luciole, which is a shop at the Hotel Piena in Kobe, as takeout. I don't recognize the name of the shop, though I've gotten cake from this location before, just the hotel name. Anyway, it's pretty big as a café space, since it might also be the hotel's breakfast space. However, they have a problem with takeout, in that they give you a huge box in a huge bag, which provides some stability, but the protection of the cakes within the box is completely inadequate.

Paris-Brest

There were one centimeter high paper walls to separate cakes, which did nothing to keep the tall, delicate meringue cake (above from their website) from falling over, even with fairly careful handling. I thought I told them something strange last time I ordered at that location that made them just leave the cakes loose inside (and maybe I did), but this time all the blame is on them. That said, the cake was good, better than average from places I've sampled in Kobe when I was sampling for essentially everywhere (which I don't do in Tokyo very widely these days). The Gateau Meringue was still good, but it's just meringue, white chocolate, and some berries in a decorative package. The Paris-Brest had an unusual pastry, not the usual choux pastry, but maybe the soft version used for Japanese-style choux cream. It was good, but I like a much more decadent style.

The final one, J'aime, is pistachio over chocolate. It is much airier/spongier that other dome cakes I have had, which one should guess from the air bubbles, again (like the previous day's) seemingly in keeping with a local style. It also was good and well balanced, but the texture was boringly soft.

Chocolat Republic: Rare Cheese Mont-Blanc & Raw Chocolate Mont-Blanc

On the 5th day of GW, in Kobe, I had a couple cakes from Chocolat Republic, the Raw Chocolat Mont-Blanc (according to the receipt), which I assume is the same as the Kobe Raw Chocolate Mont-Blanc that I've posted on before. It was still good, but basic, and heavy on the bottom layer of sponge cake for any kind of mont-blanc, which seems consistent with the local style, which features more sponge cake than I usually get in Tokyo. The other was Rare Cheese Mont-Blanc (notice the change in translation for nama from raw to rare). The cheese cake was definitely good, better than the chocolate, maybe because it was sweeter. This was specifically from Sogo Dept. Store, I think, though they have standalone shops.

Le Pan: Saint-marc Praliné and Tanba Chestnut Mont-blanc

I ran first and got a pastry from Pane Ho Baretta, a d'Amonde Chocolat (?). Definitely good but heavy, as expected, and pretty messy, as there is chocolate on the outside. They had a lot kinds of d'Amonde, though just a few of each on display.







Just from Googling, I had found Le Pan as a cake source in Kobe. I've probably seen the sign pointing upslope on the lateral road between L'Avenue and Gregory Collet Patisserie, but assumed they just have cake. I got cake for later before putting the borrowed bicycle in working order and going around photoing shops for Kobe Patisseries map, being maybe less discriminating than I should be, since there are places that I seem unlikely to visit, though a note to that effect might be useful later.

The cakes were Saint-marc Praliné and Tanba Chestnut Mont-blanc. The saint-marc was good but did not stand out. The supposed mont-blanc was the third cake in that many days that was not much like the conventional form, or like any other. This one actually had very little paste, though there was a little more chestnut inside. The main body is rum cream. It had very nice flavor and texture, so I'll say it was excellent.

I seem to having a lot more luck in this second pass through Kobe cake shops, though that may because I've sticking closer to the central cluster rather than visiting every neighborhood shop that managed to get in a guidebook. I'm also willing to visit the old brands, like Juchheim, sometime, even though I consider them fairly low-level brands in Tokyo. Like Tooth Tooth, I'd like to at least give them a chance in their own shops (though, actually I don't think I've seen any Tooth Tooth cakes in Tokyo, just they have a French restaurant).

Tooth Tooth (Salon): Fig and Caramel Nuts Mille-feuille, and Chocolat Mont-blanc

Went to the salon at the main P. Tooth Tooth, in Kobe for tea and cake for two. The Tooth Tooth Blend tea was good (we only ordered tea for one, but it comes in a pot for three cups worth, so it was plenty).

Chocolat Mont-blanc: P. Tooth Tooth

The main desserts were Fig and Caramel Nuts Mille-feuille and Chocolat Mont-blanc, which were both good.

Fig and Caramel Nuts Mille-feuille: P. Touth Touth

I liked the mille-feuille better, though the actual pastry was somehow a little different in construction than what I usually see, but it's hard to say how. It was still "leaves", but they seemed more interweaved, maybe.

Chiboust Pomme: P. Tooth Tooth

The next day, we went again for lunch with cake, and you can choose cake from the regular boutique/takeout cake line-up (though maybe some things were omitted; I didn't compare). The lunch was nice, so I would go back again for that. This time we went for the Mont-blanc and Chiboust Pomme.

Mont-blanc P. Tooth Tooth

The chiboust was the heaviest chiboust that I've ever had, but it was still definitely good. The Mont-Blanc was also more solid than usual, with very little whipped cream. Inside, besides a chestnut, was a layer for semi-solid custard, I don't know whether I've seen custard before in a Mont-blanc, but its seems very Kobe-style. The base was a walnut biscuit (coarse cake) and there were walnut pieces throughout. Actually, the paste of the "mont" did not have much of a chestnut flavor, as far as I could tell, so this was really more of a walnut mont-blanc, which makes it interesting enough that I'll hazard an evaluation of excellent.

Caffarel: Gianduia

Had reason to be inside JR Station, so I finally got a cake from Caffarel to blog on, their signature Gianduia, which is gianduia brulée cream on top of chocolate cream with a some raspberry filling. It was definitely good, but not especially compelling among the crowded field of chocolate cakes. Strictly speaking, this was not my first cake from them, or even maybe even my first cake from them since starting to blog (and probably not my first time to even have this particular cake), but my other encounters were in Kobe.

For running, I finally got back to my neighborhood course and finished doing a one-way neighborhood run completing the Jinguumae east loop, Kita-Aoyama central loop, Minami-Aoyama north loop, and newly added Kasumigaokamachi--Kita-Aoyama loop.

Grégory Collet: Avant-Garde, Mimosa d'Été, and Roi de Maron

Another day in Kobe last Sunday and had cake for two at Grégory Collet, which has moved north and exchanged being a café for being a modest salon de thé. We'll miss the lunch menu, but at least there are a lot of interesting restaurants around there (which we wished we had taken advantage of rather than trying to eat at the hotel at Shin Kobe Stn.). 











Along with tea and coffee, we got three cakes: Roi de Maron, Avant-Garde, and Mimosa d'Été. It's been almost a week, so details have been lost in time, but t
he first is pretty much a basic mont-blanc, but not in a bad way: excellent.

The mimosa was a verrine, so not my thing. It was still good, and definitely orangy.









The last was sort of a surprise, as I didn't look at the specs closely. Outside is vanilla but inside is dark chocolate (Guadaja; 70% cacao) cream, as well as some biscuit, crunch, and nuts, I think. Definitely  excellent.

Only based on three cakes from ehre and the others that I've posted on, right now this seems like my top shop in Kobe. There are a couple other places I want to hit, but otherwise my priority is to get back here and also try again with L'Avenue, which previously had been excellent.

Chocolat Republic: Kobe Raw Chocolate Mont-Blanc and Cassis Mont-Blanc

I'm a week behind and still learning about the new computer. Also, I couldn't find any notes on Kobe cakes except online, so I worked with Excel to set up a spreadsheeet for them, which too some time. I also added two cake sources to my Kobe cake map and corrected one location.

In the evening of last Friday, I got cake for two from Sogo Kobe from the Chocolat Republic counter, which is a local brand (with a few of their own shops, but Sogo was more convenient). Besides chocolate, mont-blanc seemed to be their thing, so I got the Kobe Raw Chocolat Mont-Blanc and the Cassis Mont-Blanc. These were both good, though of the soft cake variety, whereas I like more variation in texture. Still, the shop I know looks more like it belongs on Disney history street, or something, so I've avoided them, suspecting they'd be pretty low level, so I was actually relieved that these were fine, and appreciated.

L'Avenue (Kobe): Cache Cache, Lady, and Segur

Only my third post of Kobe cake here. I really don't visit enough, I know. This time I got to what I think of as the best shop, although I was not as strongly impressed this time, so we'll see. Still, what a great webpage: they show all the individual cakes with both the Japanese and Western (mostly French) names with really nice pictures.

The best cake, I thought, was the Cache Cache, which is actually a series of cakes around the Kobe area, Kobe Originals, where they all try to create something original on the theme, in this case hiding various ingredients. This has a pistachio tart base (a pretty strong one) with fig in it, but on top it is more like a mont-blanc, so chestnut, vanilla cream and accented with white chocolate. It seemed excellent (all evaluations based on half a piece).

Lady was actually the first one I had, which is mascarpone (cheese) mousse over strawberry flavored center and a little pistachio biscuit. It was good but not very interesting to me, since I'm not that interested in strawberry flavor and in general it is quite mild.



The last one, called Segur, was Bretagne salt caramel in a milk chocolate tart. It was definitely good and met my sweet tooth. If I judged more on appearance, then perhaps I would rate it better but I really don't cake what cakes look like beyond what it reflects about the construction. Fortunately, my foot had finally stopped hurting (I hadn't been running through Sunday, but still did more walking than I would just commuting to work).

Factory Shin: Mont-Blanc and Strawberry Shortcake

Went to Factory Shin in Kobe as a café (just drink and cake sets). It's modern and frequented more by young people. The selection is still fairly traditional in the sense of being the simplest standard cakes of Japanese cake shops, but they are good. We had the Mont-blanc and the Strawberry Shortcake. The Mont-blanc was definitely good, but nothing unexpected or exciting except maybe the meringue base, which is fairly thick and very sugary (I would guess just sugar and egg white, versus an almond powder based meringue), which is a good thing. Also, I should note that while this was the most common type, a reverse mont-blanc (i.e., the "blanc" is on the inside under the brown chestnut paste crown), there is candied chestnut in the center.

Strawberry Shortcake is not something that much appeals to me, but this seemed very good, maybe excellent. Unlike the picture on the website, the whipped cream layers are just 2 or 3 mm thick, which I think is actually an advantage in this case. I see from their website that actually they do sell cake in Tokyo, through Seibu in Ikebukuro, so I'll label this as Tokyo cake as well, though I've never seen their cake counter, just seen people carry their bags, so I'm not sure what they actually have.

Pierre Hermé [Aoyama] (Heaven)

No running Thursday or Friday. Thursday, I enjoyed some cake, though not the fresh kind, though similar. This was Chiboust Vanille Fromage from Konditorei Kobe, brought from Kobe. I like chiboust and good vanille, as well as cheese cake, so this was definitely good.

Friday, we went to the Omotesando (the station)/ Aoyama (the road and official location)/Jingumae (actual address) Pierre Hermé. The Dessert Jasmine [Updated, from latest Facebook post] is financier on the bottom, cut into one centimeter intervals and layered, to create a solid but still easily eatable base, on top of which is a mango gelatin flavored with grapefruit. Then jasmine-flavored mascarpone cheese, topped with meringue leafs. On the plate are mango sauce and grapefruit gelatin. This was definitely excellent and definitely greater than the sum of its parts/ingredients. I'm not that into grapefruit, but it cuts through the mango, which can be overly thick, and adds a complementary citrus taste, and it would not have occurred to me to use financier as the base for a fresh-cake-like dessert or how to do that well, so now I know.

The other dessert is easy to get the name of because it's popular and featured on the official Facebook page. It ends up looking like my photo, but starts as a chocolate ball (well, two chocolate domes put together) and they pour hot chocolate sauce on it so that it melts and collapses. Ideally, one would take video to display this, but I can barely manage to frame a photo (though at least the phone camera does better with the focus). It's called Sensation Plaisir Sucré, and is filled with ice cream and hazelnut praliné. Some solid chocolate survives, but not a lot. It's very rich and definitely good for a chocolate and nut lover, though ice cream is never high on the list of things I want in my dessert, regardless of the season, so I was still happier with my fruity cake.

[Kobe] Akito: Gateau Chocolat & Yuzu et Chocolat Lait

I've been to enough cake shops in Kobe that I thought I should start posting on them. Also, I don't go to Kobe enough that I need to include areas outside Kobe to start. (I've looked, but can't say that I've had better luck in the richer neighbor towns.)

One place worth visiting is (Patisserie) Akito, which has a café space and is known for its milk jam. Went there and got Gateau Chocolat, which was good, as a heavier cake, where it has what I would call icing rather than glaze (or ganache). The other cake was Yuzu et Chocolat Lait, which is what it sounds like, and was excellent. Yuzu is often combined with milk chocolate with good results. 

Unlike for Tokyo, I'm not going to try to add every shop I've visited already to the map, as most places I've visited are better forgotten (which would perhaps also be true of Tokyo if I visited every single shop I could find rather than just the ones that I have some reason to think might at least be good).