Frédéric Cassel, Mille Crêpes Potiron

The last of the cakes on Sunday was from Frédéric Cassel and catches me up with new cakes from them with still two weeks to go until the next month. This is Mille Crêpes Potiron, which has several things going against it. One, is I don't appreciate crêpes, at all, though my biggest exposure is milk crêpe, which makes rollcake look sophisticated, by my estimation, though actually stacking crêpes is does seem more technically difficult. The other is pumpkin (or at leas squash) as a cake flavor. Lastly, decoration cakes, even from good shops often sacrifice the eating experience for appearance. On the other hand, Frédéric Cassel has a good track record for taking types of cakes I've dismissed and impressing me. Also, this is not milk, it's rum and raisin, along with the pumpkin and the ever present FC staple mascarpone cheese (a neutral texture and taste medium for whatever you want to do). As it happens, this was the best of the cakes I had, and definitely good, which certainly puts it at the top of crêpe-based cakes and would make be consider future cakes, though I'll try to stay clear of milk-flavored, really in any kind of cake.

 

QBG: Chocolat Kute

I had previous struck QBG off my list of places considered because, although they are in Tokyo, cake is generally only available at a cafe closed after work and on weekends and holidays and at a counter inside the cakes of Shinagawa JR Station. However, I've mellowed and decided that if they were really good, I'd visit them on my day off. Since they are visiting Isetan through tomorrow, I bought a cake not shown on their website (which shows only three cakes, unless you click for details, in which case it just shows two). The phonetic name is shokorakute, which I can understand as far as Chocolat Kute.

For running, I went around major shops in the Marunouchi and Ginza areas to see whether any of the cakes I was looking for had become available this month but did not find anything, though Dalloyau does have things I haven't had besides Opera, though I'm not going to get to them this week. Total run was a little over 12 km averaging below 10 km/h when running.

The cake was definitely good. It's chocolate mousse cake flavored with maple, which along with honey, is a signature ingredient of theirs. Maybe if I loved maple I would be more impressed, but I was just happy not to be disappointed.

Thursday: Andersen Walnut Scone

Didn't run, nor will I be running for another couple weeks, but went to Andersen Isetan and this time I got actual bread: a Walnut Scone for 248 yen. Besides walnut, it seemed to have maple in it, but in any case, it was excellent.

I also tried cooking. I've got some new ingredients around the house, specifically, at lot of almond powder and also powdered egg whites, so I looked in the Super Patissier Book and found something that I could sort of do: I have the ingredients for the cake part (but not the filling, which is way too complicated, as they often are), which is macaron-like, and thus starts out like meringue, which I've failed with over and over again. This time, it looked reasonable, although still, merginue is a mystery to me, since there are hints not to over-whipping it or you'll break the proteins and they do it in just a couple minutes on yuutube, and elsewhere I've read and been told that it takes a long time (one recipe recommends 9 minutes for the degree of stiffness required), so I'd like to see whether I can get it a little stiffer. Just case, I also prepared ingredients for financier, in case I found myself with just a bowl of egg whites and sugar, but those went back in the refrigerator. I don't have the baking supplies for the recipe though, though, so the bottom was still a mess, but that didn't stop me from eating it. One project for the weekend is to buy a Silpat and that thing you squeeze pastry out of with 1 cm diameter nozzle.

(Saturday) Takagi (Aoyama): Bruxelles

Went to the Takagi in the Aoyama area and actually entered the large cafe section for the first time. I usually go there after work on a weekday, when it is completely empty (I don't know what the capacity is, but a few dozen, probably), so it was interesting to see it packed with people. It's still not clear why they keep it open until 9 pm on weekdays, since often there is no one there or just a couple people, but at least I can see how they avoid going out of business.

In the non-cake category, we had the brioche in maple syrup. Very good, although I prefer bostoc, although it probably depends on the bostoc. It was 1,458 yen and it would be a whole meal, and not a light one, but we split it between two people.

The cake was a new one, supposedly (new at cake shops doesn't mean that they've never had it before, I've noticed, just they are not promising that it will appear on a regular "seasonal" schedule). It was the Bruxelles (I think that is spelling they used) for 605 yen. It's layers, with the dominant flavor being citrus. Obviously there is chocolate, too. The soft "biscuit" layers are to keep it together, but in my mouth there is only a creamy feeling. It is excellent and the opposite of the Marquise cake from Friday, as it is not subtle. Not that it has an overly strong taste, so much, but strong enough and sweet.