Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Chocolat Pralin over Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron

Catching up on the previous week as far as Tokyo cakes (from being busy over the Christmas to New Year's Day period, though I had other nice cakes), I did the first of two cake-offs. Since they are my top cake shop and the line-up could change as early as mid-month, I started with a fourth-round cake-off for recent new Jean-Paul Hévin cake Matcha Marron. I pitted it against another cake with only 1 win in 3, Sadaharu Aoki's Chocolat Pralin. It wasn't my first choice, but it's available even during the year transition period (unlike Ladurée's regular items). Though I wasn't thinking about it, I know I considered Chocolat Pralin as a heavy hitting that started with two tough cake-offs, though I shouldn't be surprised that it takes the win. Matcha Marron is an interesting combination of flavors, but there is a reason traditional combinations are traditional.

Cake-off: Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre over Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron

I got all my weekend cakes in on Saturday, despite the typhoon-induced rain, or maybe because of it. I started off by walking to Éclat des Jours out in Koutou-ku to get Tartelette Mûre for a third-round cake-off and came back by train, stopping at Ginza Mitsukoshi to get Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron, both one-and-one great cakes.

These are both niche cakes, so hard to compare. In the end, I went with the more distinct, Tartelette Mûre. Matcha Marron is nice and has a distinct combinations of flavors (chestnut, powered green tea, chocolate, and rum) and the great construction of a JPH cake mousse cake, though there are several cakes like that, which I'm thankful full.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Addiction over Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron

I'll be busy next weekend and so these are both seasonal, so I wanted to get in another round before either disappears. This is a second-round cake-off (occurring today!) requiring only a short run to Ginza Mitsukoshi. One cake is yesterday's winner, Matcha Marron from Jean-Paul Hévin. The last time, I ate it with green tea, whereas this time was Indian tea (grown in China). That might be a little too strong for it, as it's pretty subtle (unusual for chocolate cake, but the amount of chocolate is pretty minimal), whereas fruity cake definitely suits a tropical fruit cake, so Addiction is two for two, taking advantage of its more extreme taste. 

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron over Viron's Baba

Only yesterday, I did a first-round cake-off with two cakes new this month. As I mentioned previously, this took a half marathon amount of running. This is because I first went to Éclat des Jours to give them some verrine glasses and get Croissant, which is fluffier than my ideal but still excellent. I ended up going to Shibuya, since that's the only place to get Viron's Baba. On the way there, at about the three hour mark (I'm slow and this was a long slow run), I stopped at the Caffe Pascucci and got a Bombolone Pistatcchio, which was a poor choice, as bombolone are apparently bread rather than pastry, relatively hardy bread. They only had two Baba's at Viron, which was a little ominous, but okay. As a match, I went to Jean-Paul Hévin and got the Matcha Marron. The Baba is great as a classic and the Matcha Marron is great as a JPH-type cake with a new combination of tastes. The previous sample, the matcha stood out, but this time my attention was drawn more to the chestnut and chocolate. In the end, I decided that the more complex taste of the JPH cake suited me better, but I'm not done with the Baba.  

As an addendum, I'll note that the cake for the take-off win was pre-bought (though not intentionally) as a second try on an excellent JPH cake that appeared again in the line-up, Longchamp Feuilleté, which I've decided might be great, so I'm belatedly adding it to the greats list, though I won't be surprised if they change the line-up before it get's a chance to be tested again.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Matcha Marron

New month, so the verrines are gone (almost: their were still some coffee ones at the side on the 2nd), which I'm not sorry about. Lots a great cakes in the line-up, and an exceptional one that I wouldn't mind having again. Importantly, there is a completely new cake, Matcha Marron, so the second day I got that. Recalling that I've fallen off with the regular Matcha, I wasn't sure how this one was going to be for me. Don't think I've had a matcha-maron pairing before from anywhere, but it totally works. Probably the bitter chocolate mousse and biscuit at the bottom helps. As even my photography shows, the matcha part is extremely light, like chiboust. Nothing else to say about it except that it was a great cake, which I hope stays around for awhile. If I'm lucky, I'll find another great cake to have a cake-off with it (or another cake that's eluded me for years will reappear, but I've been touring their shops, and no such luck this month yet).