Cake-off: L'Abricotier's L'Abricotier over Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré

Saturday I squeezed in a cake-off before being busy in the afternoon. It involved half-running half-walking out to L'Abricotier to get the cake of the same name (though I would have settled for another great cake that was also available). This is a fourth-round for it, having gotten paused a year for two losses to only one win. I paired it with the main target, Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré, which appears as a February cake on my list and which I failed to get once this year already, so this was a second effort. I picked it up at the Shinjuku Sta. shop, having taken the train back that far.

L'Abricotier is like a pie with fruit and nuts without the excess wetness and crust of a pie, so quite nice. Plaisir Sucré is all great stuff, but I've had the same stuff in another cake that's won 5 rounds in a row and is definitely better, so I don't really need this one, even greatness being relative. It will still get a fifth round, in a couple years, if I'm still in Tokyo eating cakes, but it's on notice as maybe being only semi-great.

Ladurée, Religieuse Pistache

Two days behind blogging, Tuesday I was particular lazy about running, doing only about 15 min. There was a lot of walking before that, as it took extra distance going home to get cake, and of course I did indoor workout components. I'm also working various stretches at night, as I was getting some hip pain.

The cake was, working through the exceptional shops, a new cake from Ladurée. There most exceptional aspect is their prices, which are high. I went with cheapest, though it also was perhaps the most promising. I got the last Religieuse Pistache. Although the Saint-Honoré Pistache hadn't impressed me, I had rated the Religieuse Fraise as excellent. This is large and small choux pastry balls filled with pistachio custard and covered in thick pistachio icing. It's not subtle, but I like pistachio, and sugar, so for me this was excellent.

 

Ladurée, Saint-Honoré Rose Framboise

My last cake, bought and eaten, of the weekend was a new cake from a reopened shop on the exceptional list, Ladurée. Usually I would buy from Ginza Mitsukoshi, which was still closed, so this is from the Aoyama shop, which also has indoor and outdoor eat-in space, which was in use, though I got take-out. This was the only new cake, as they were keeping their line-up lean for the first weekend reopening in a neighborhood that's still mostly closed. It is the Saint-Honoré Rose Framboise. I like saint-honoré, but I've had one from them before, and the pastry is different from what I'm used to. For example, the large bottom is flaky, which seems impossible, though I haven't experimented with choux pastry that much. Anyway, the rose and raspberry flavors were sufficient rich, that I forgave them this time and allowed that maybe this pastry could be allowed, at least enough to call this an excellent cake.

I had after an evening running where I got maybe 60% through my 13 km neighborhood running course around Daikanyama. I was coming up to a turn and noticing a red brick tower in the distance ahead and had trouble thinking what building by the station it might beyond to. Then I noticed a cross on top and realized that I had missed a church on a side street. It's a nice building, too, though there a couple bigger ones in this neighbor (which has more churches than any other I know in Japan), so I was happy to find it, and quite my run, went back to my bicycle, and got some photos I was missing for Shibuya sites.

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Guayaquil over Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré

Sunday morning I definitely ran, and not to a cake shop, or at least not to get cake. The neighborhood course run part was the revised Central Jinguumae clump, which steals the Jinguumae north loop from a different clump and combines it with the new Jinguumae--Kita-Aoyama north loop, which combines three loops. I was successful at the clump and doing the new loop clockwise. In the middle of the run, I check Viron and B-E to confirm that they did not have cakes that I wanted even near opening time, which they didn't. Had other plans for Sunday and ended up being lazy in the evening and not running in the cold.

I did get one food item from a neighborhood course site (I'm working my way through that new Jinguumae-Kita-Aoyama loop, though they are adding new places faster than I'm getting to them, as well as closing them): Aomori Ringo Apple Pie from Ueshima Coffee Shop, which was fairly robust to call a pastry, but it was good enough. They also have fresh scones.

Monday was a total wash, with late work and still very cold, so I opted for an early bed and early run Tuesday morning, which is a holiday. This was a 1.5 hour run that first tried to do the Suga Shrine clump, which is the base clump. I failed at the clump but did revised the main loop clockwise successfully. However, I spotted, where I was lazy in the past and let myself pass a temple on the opposite side of a two-lane divided road and have since revised the whole clump. I was able to merge loops down 2 loops from 4 loops by leaving a tiny loop for the named shrine and a short link from the main loop, which circles it. After finishing the soon to be revised old main loop, I went to Mitsukoshi at Ginza for cake for a cake-off. I didn't get through all the third-round cake-offs last year, so I'm trying to pick up some now between the highest priority (great cakes with at least 2 wins) fourth-round cake-offs. I did a recent addition, Plaisir Sucré from Ladurée, because it's a February cake (based on when I first bought it), though it doesn't really have a season, and Guayaquil from Jean-Paul Hévin, because it's the earliest among the one-and-one great cakes.

Plaisir Sucré has great texture, with both crunch and thick nutty biscuit base, and a sweet smooth taste. However, I have to give the win to JPH, because Guayaquil is the perfect chocolate layer cake, at least today.

Ladurée: Galette Capucine

As planned, ran to Ginza Mitsukoshi to visit Ladurée. I tried to do some harder running in some parts, to actually build some muscle, though not in any systematic way. Maybe I'll actually use the timer of my watch running tomorrow, as the planned destination is rather close. Ran back, not trying to be so fast.

I chose Galette Capucine as the new cake to catch up this shop to the baseline for exceptional shops. Capucine is a type a flower, though I think the filling was mandarin. The cake is made of a rather dense pastry, so this was more like a pastry than cake, but I'll let them label it. Whatever it was, it was definitely excellent, so I'm happy that I promoted them and started visiting them again. Hope the other two below-water exceptional shops do as well.

Ladurée, Religieuse Fraise

Saturday, I planned to run, but ending up with a headache, so no running that or the next day (or cake the next day). I wanted a new cake from Ladurée, which got promoted to the exceptional shops when I redid the rating metric a while back, but was dominated by some cake shops ranked below, so I needed to deal with those first. I choose Religieuse Fraise, which was chancy on both fronts (not that I'm against religieuse in general, but I haven't ranked this shops choux pastry based cakes that highly, which was most of their new cakes). It was very strawberry, as cream as well as pieces of fruit. Compared to other strawberry cakes, I though this very good, so I'm going to rate it as excellent, giving it somewhat the benefit of the doubt. I'm still one down on this shop, but I have at least a couple other places in similar positions that I want to hit first before coming back to this.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise over Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré

After a morning appointment, I ran to Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi to pick something up and then walked down to Ginza Mitsukoshi to get Frédéric Cassel's Inspiration Passion Framboise and Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré. This was a second-round cake-off, where the former is just for this month (barring leftovers, maybe) and the later is the earliest of the round-one winners waiting for a second round. I brought them back by train.

As expected, paired against the sweet Plaisir Sucré, Inspiration Passion Framboise did not seem sour. It is tough to decided between these two, but I'll go with the more diverse (among my greats list) Inspiration Passion Framboise, so I remain two cakes behind on Frédéric Cassel. In any case, I'm two cakes behind on Ladurée, as I have been for a while, but that's because there are challengers from the category below (Ladurée is grouped with exceptional shops) that I need to sort out first, though Ladurée isn't lowest among the exceptional shops, so it won't be next to be demoted to make room for a new shop.

The main running was in the evening, and the main target was Nishi-Azabu--Minami-Azabu loop, but there are some tricky old and new turns that I don't know well enough, so I was quickly running just for practice. Similarly, I tried to run the Moto-Azabu--Roppongi loop, which has a double back and couple crossovers using footpaths, so ultimately, I see that even my practice was not correct (I ran way to far, around Roppongi High School). Also, there was a street festival (which showed up on Google maps), so I'll want to check for that if I try the same location tomorrow. On the other hands, I noticed St Moritz as a bread shop at the from turn from the main east leg of the loop. I also did the Moto-Azabu loop correctly clockwise, which is a 1.1 km loop with just three sites (two temples and park), but it's on some back streets where where I needed to turn to keep from getting sucked into a dead end. I also missed a jog to the right one block before getting back to the main street. Though trivial, I could do the Roppongi 6 north loop (794 m) and Roppongi 4 loop (243 m) clockwise, so I'll be able to get those out of the way, though the former is just one loop in a chain of little loops clumped with the Nishi-Azabu--Minami Azabu loop, so I might end up jogging along it one way more times.

Ladurée: Fleur Noire

Tuesday, still no running, but my feet were much better, maybe 75%. Not perfect, though, and I'm worried about a partial sprain, so not something I want to rush. I did feel free to walk even further for cake (besides the normal daily commuting, which is a few kilometers total). This time, in response to their cake-off win (and because they rank high as a quite good shop even under the new system, so I need to see whether they should be promoted to excellent), I went to Lumine at Shinjuku Station and got Fleur Noire from Ladurée. This thing is pretty decadent, with both chocolate and almond icing, dark chocolate mousse, and bourbon vanilla (that is, vanilla from Madagascar) cream in the middle. They're working pretty hard at this one, but it is excellent, so they may be able to make the transition. Got a lot of other shops to sort out after the reorganization, so I'm not sure yet.

Cake-off: Ladurée's Plaisir Sucré over Yu Sasage's Ardèche

Friday night, I tried again to get the Matcha Croissant from Sadaharu Aoki at Roppongi, but they were sold out. In good news, they had the new seasonal cakes, right on schedule (the main seasonal change is every 3 months, whereas I'm not sure when JPH well change, so I have to keep watching, though the café menu has). I also decided that the Nino Caffe next to Nogizaka Station deserves to be on the neighborhood course, so that loop needs a slight adjustment. I didn't get cake from Sadaharu Aoki, since it wasn't a cake day, but got a Cinnamon Raison Roll from Cinnabon near Roppongi Hills. It was okay. I should have microwaved it; I knew better. Notice that it isn't doused in frosting. The guy at the register seemed to have never heard of it and had to take the sign I pointed at and ask someone else. It's not a regular menu item, apparently.

Met someone in the morning, so I set off a little before noon for running. I limited myself to just a few pictures to add to the neighborhood map. I like to break up the run a little, but figured I didn't have much time, since I wanted specifically Ardèche from Yu Sasage. I would have gone to Ces Jours if that had failed and done a cake-off tomorrow. I took the train back as far as Shinjuku Station and got Plaisir Sucré from the Ladurée there (which still has take out, even though they eliminated the seating). Ardèche was relatively subtle next to the brute force of Plaisir Sucré, which I gave the win. I think Ardèche maybe doesn't need to be on the great list. As much as I like this type, I have enough already on the list that I like better, tough this was definitely excellent.

After lunch and tea and cakes (and a rest to update my map), I went out again around 4 pm and tried to capture photos of some missing sites and found a few new sites as well, so needed more time to adjust the map. The Moto-Azabu--Roppongi loop has gotten rather convoluted. This chocolate shop is probably the most important addition. Still shows up as a luxury fashion shop on Google Maps.

Ladurée: Afternoon Tea Set

Got the full afternoon tea set from Ladurée at Ginza Mitsukoshi. I might have done that somewhere, some time before, but I don't remember where, not Ladurée, or when, not in the last few years. The sandwiches were fine. The meringue was fine. The bonbon chocolate (that I had) was fine. Tea seemed fine, though I didn't have much and I don't remember which one, except that it was one of the classics (the first choice was gone). What I had a lot of was the Chocolat Chaud, which was excellent, but not pictured. There were four macarons: the standards were Vanille and Pistache, which were both excellent, though I liked the pistachio more, the seasonal was Fleur D'Oranger, and the special was Ichigo (strawberry), the latter both being good; note that all were judged based on limited experience of macarons in general compared to cake and only half a macaron each to go by.

There were two cakes. One was a standard for the line-up, the Plaisir Sucré, which is a milk chocolate and praliné over hazelnut dacquoise, specifically praliné "crispy", milk chocolate, milk chocolate ganache, and milk chocolate chantilly. I didn't dig into it too quickly, so it reached a high enough temperature that the sweetness was high, which was what it was designed for. I'm a little suspicious of such a blatant appeal to my sweet tooth, but it seemed successful, so I'll tentatively say it was great. I expect that will get quickly tested in a cake-off. The other cake was Saint-Honoré Pistache. That was definitely good, but the pastry was a flaky pie pastry (versus other pie pastry), not choux, which surprised me. That and the butter cream pistachio frosting gave this a sort of American to me. It's not really a direction that I want my saint-honoré to go.

Ladurée: Isupahan

Between the rain and my back (I could barely stand up this morning), I decided that it was better not to run today (or yesterday), although I seem to be mostly recovered.

I wanted to catch up on great shops, so I went to Ladurée and got the usual shock at the prices. Still, I was determined so I got the Isupahan for 907 yen. It is a large raspberry filled macaron. It's definitely good, but not great or by any means 907 yen good, so I think I'll demote them from the great stack (of cards), because I can do better for less, even among these types of cakes. Still, curiosity will probably take me back again some year.

14.0 km after Ladurée: tarte citron

This was a long run after first getting my cake at Ladurée (via Lumine II at Shinjuku station). Actually I got the tarte citron (タルトシトロン: lemon tart), for 616 yen. I got the tart because it was relatively cheap, I've had several other things there but I'm pretty sure I haven't had this, and I'm interested in making tarts at home. This was very good and quite big (very shareable). It's got a somewhat crumbly thin shell (you can pick in up in your hand if you are careful) full of a sort of opaque whiter custard and then a couple millimeters of sort of glassy but not gelatinous brighter yellow layer on top that definitely has a lemon taste. No complaints. Stopped by Neues and Libertable, but neither one had the cake I wanted to take notes on.

This was maybe the first time to do a whole loop with the crowd around the imperial palace moat, definitely the first time at night. Very interesting. I didn't try to time myself, because my phone was inside my backpack. Unfortunately, the close along the route is on the Ginza corner, so opposite where I would want to start. I'm thinking about sports watches, such as something that uses GPS to track your path.