Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Violette over En Vedette's Rocher

Last Sunday, having caught up the previous week one week late on Saturday (where the week runs Saturday to Friday), I started the next week with a third-round cake-off between two undefeated cakes, the recent Rocher by En Vedette, and Violette by Jean-Paul Hévin, which had been sleeping in my freezer since a week ago, waiting for a competitor. I assume all the Jean-Paul Hévin shops are closed by now, and that at least the Tokyo one's were closed by last weekend, so the latter cake is somewhat a miracle. It also tastes like a miracle: the perfect mousse layer cake, accented with fruit. The Rocher really has more going on, as far as textures, and I'll be giving it a fourth round soon, but this JPH cake remains undefeated. Too made I'll probably have to wait until next year before a fourth round (I'm hoping that I don't have to wait until next year for all other cakes, or I hope they expand their capacity to make cakes for delivery, since their Marco Polo was sold out last I looked).

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Violette over Paris S'éveille's Le Suprême

Did a run over to my new Hatsudai-Yoyogi-Tomogaya loop to find the kilometer marks that I had set for myself and take a few pictures where I hadn't yet, including a temple that I knew about but hadn't followed the path back to. Unfortunately, I just found another temple that should have been on the route, which changes it. On the plus side, the recalculation seemed to indicate that I had messed up the involved measurement, since the distance should have gotten larger but got smaller. Still, only a 50 meter difference and I haven't actually got the route memorized yet, so plenty of time to shift the kilometer markers. Note sure whether I'm going to be ready for 30 km on the course on Wednesday, which seemed a possibility before.

Started at 7:45 and around 9:15 headed for Paris S'éveille to get Le Suprême. Judging from what I saw, today a big day for nursery school graduation ceremonies.

Note a huge line at Paris S'éveille but they were busy enough, so it took maybe 10 minutes. At Jean-Paul Hévin's at Isetan, the wait was longer. Men are still buying chocolate for White Day, apparently (and there are still special sets). Eventually I got Violette (same as last weekend). I'll admit, this was too much chocolate mousse for one sitting, or maybe just lately in general, though not the first time for that in a cake-off. Next week's planned JPH cake is maybe a little less moussy and the intended opponent (unless another great cake turns up in the next week), is a cheesecake, so it won't be comparison of similars. This time's cakes were vary similar, with the main difference being a change in the fruit providing the accent, cassis (currant) for Violette and blackberry for Le Suprême. I still think that these are both great. Maybe Le Suprême should win for being more different from the crowd, but there's perhaps a reason that cassis is a commonly used flavor, because I felt that it complemented the chocolate better, so I have to give the win to Violette again. Eventually, all the cakes in the top bracket are going to be JPH ones and I'll have to start comparing them to each, but I'll deal with that if and when it happens (I'll be limited to what's in season at the same time, though that's always true).

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Violette over Paris S'éveille's Un Dimanche à Paris

Got a late start due a morning appointment, but was able to get both cakes for the cake-off starting by running to Jiyuugaoka for Paris S'éveille's Un Dimanche à Paris, and then coming back by train and waiting about 30 minutes in line (White Day next week) to get Violette from Jean-Paul Hévin at Isetan (I assume Tokyo Midtown would have been faster, but less convenient), which is only around through March 18. I was happy with both of these cakes. Un Dimanche à Paris maybe owes more of my appreciation due to novelty, being my favorite coconut cake, but that's not bad. Violette is a standard JPH chocolate mousse, this particular one cassis, so it's weakness is maybe lack of novelty, but consistently good cake is what keeps JPH at the top of my list.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Violette

Did a lot of walking today, first to Isetan and then back from Ginza Mitsukoshi (rather than run with cake, and to focus on my right foot, which has been giving me some problems, though that's not new), though I also did a few kilometers of running in the middle.

At Isetan, my first two choices failed: Blondir (a maybe good shop I've had only one cake from who were visiting but sold out on their last day) and Jean-Paul Hévin, who were sold out of what I wanted. My alternate was Sadaharu Aoki, but I decided to go to Ginza instead, where I could have a second chance at JPH's cake and 4 alternative counters that I was interested in. As it happens, I was successful at JPH, getting the Violette (or maybe Violet, though the Japanese pronunciation, which is all I have online, looks like the Italian, which seems unlikely). This is a chocolate mousse flavored with cassis (redcurrant) and scented with sumire (violets) on top of a pretty rich and relatively solid chocolate base. It is great, so I'll have to keep track of how long it's going to stick around and get in a first-round cake-off.