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Saturday, I had a late morning appointment, so I set off at 8am for Au Bon Vieux Temps to get their Pourriture for a third-round cake-off of one-and-one cakes, matching it with the new Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette from Pierre Hermé. Maybe because this was my fourth time, but I appreciated the lighter and fruitier flavor of the Pourriture over the heavy tart this time. One little cup of tea really wasn't enough to cut the praliné.
Tuesday, I ran to Viron straight after work to get their Baba to do a cake-off versus Pierre Hermé's Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette that I had gotten the night before and put in the chill room of the refrigerator. I also confirmed that Viron definitely a had another new cake that I could try. By rights, Dalloyau could have been the second cake Monday, but since I was already carrying the tart the previous night, I didn't try to run down to the Dalloyau at Meguro Station, which would have still been open (these days, the Dalloyau across from Virion closes at 18:30, so useless on a workday). Also, I trust the Dalloyau cake to be around any time except maybe right at a major holiday, when it might get pushed out by specials.
Back to the cake-off, these are both super strong tasting cakes (unlike the Dalloyau cake, though I don't usually think that far ahead when setting these up), as well as being focused on a single flavor. In this case, I'll give the win to the hazelnut praliné taste, though I'm still happy for the rum kick of the Baba (in taste only, not intoxication) as part of my greats. I shouldn't forget to say that this was only a second-round cake off between two losers, and I've got other cakes waiting for both to do third rounds (though some day I hope to get to another fourth-round cake-off for the winner's bracket).
Thursday, I took the afternoon off. It was raining, so I got a haircut rather than immediately run, but I did got to Isetan afterward and of course had no trouble scoring Tuesday's cake, Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette from Pierre Hermé, and one of the recently promoted Jean-Paul Hévin cakes, Longchamp Feuilleté. I cake the cake first, after lunch, but did do a 2 hour run in the evening, when the rain had stopped. In terms of quantity, the tart has the obvious advantage and both are great, but Longchamp Feuilleté has that crunch going, and maybe a higher sugar density, along with chocolate, so in the end I have to give it the win, but I'm still happy with the hazelnut tart and hope to get to the pistachio version (only at the mother store) before it ends its run, which is not until December.
It's been years maybe, but it's finally Pierre Hermé's turn to get a new cake not related to a cake-off win (though it has earned a good number of those so far), as I've already had a new cake from FC and no where at the same or higher level either has a new cake or has had few enough for me to be looking for one. The timing is good, too, because the Tarte Infiniment Praliné Noisette is in the form of their best tarts (the vanilla one is a standard) and also promising in terms of the ingredients, at least for me. It lived up to expectations and was great. Since I've promoted two JPH cakes in the line-up to great, the plan for Thursday became an early cake-off, again sourced from Isetan.
