Musée du Chocolat Théobroma, Caramel Orange

The other cake the Sunday before last was the cake-off reward for Musée du Chocolat Théobrom's win. I went intending to get their version for Forest Noir, which I would generally avoid, as I can't expect cherry and chocolate to come out well, but their best cakes have been chocolate. However, I ended up getting a cake I hadn't seen previously, Caramel Orange. It ended up being more eastern European, though that just means east of France, as far as being heavy on almond biscuit. It was good, so I'm not disappointed, and I'm caught up with the quite fine shops that aren't tens of kilometers from central Tokyo, which are going to be a problem now that Isetan isn't rotating visiting cake shops on a weekly basis.

Ginza Senbikiya, Chocolat Orange

While already next door, I made an attempt to get more cakes from a shop that was on the path to be a fine shop, Ginza Senbikiya, Chocolat Orange. The orange (or mikan) was seemly high quality, the combination of chocolate and orange wasn't really harmonizing in any useful way. Still good. Note, on a Thursday, no short cake. Guess it's too high-end for a weekend.

Viron, Praliné Orange

Wednesday (and I found this draft, but not sure what order they were originally), I visited Viron, thinking that they might bring out some new cakes just for Christmas, since they at least had one special Christmas cake last year. As it happens they did. I don't have my notes, but I got lucky and found a picture on Tabelog, so I got the name and confirmed the flavors. The memorable part was pâte pralinée, and I correctly remembered that the fruit flavor was orange. My memory is that it was definitely excellent, enough to consider whether it should be added to the greats, as a representative of fairly traditional cakes of nutty biscuit cake and cream layers, but I have Marjolaine, so I'm fine with not making a special effort to have this specific cake again, though I high approve. Also, it seems like a bakery patisserie kind of cake, so it's reasonable to want more like this. Considering that my backup plans was to try 1st cake from Pronto (which I was reminded recently has a shop in Aoyama, I was quite pleased. 

Café Mikuni's, Savarin Fleur d'Orange

The other Café Mikuni's cake from last weekend that I shared was a Savarin Fleur d'Orange. I assume the bottom was somehow the savarin, as it was rather mellow but not obviously alcoholic or orange. Actually, the whole thing is not a strong orange, or at least a strongly citreous orange, maybe a blood orange? Anyway, it was also definitely good, which is a pretty good rating for a glass dessert presented as cake.  

Les Années Folles: Sans Farine

Two weekends ago now, I was working through the quite fine shop list to get 4th cakes and visited Les Années Folles for a new cake. They had various nutty ones and I chose Sans Farine. I managed to photograph the card, so I can report confidently that it had caramelized hazelnuts, royaltine "diplomat", which is maybe a kind of paillete feuilletine (crape flakes), vanilla whipped cream, and orange. Under the (uncredited) chocolate shell is layers of cake and whipped cream, though I can't remember the distribution of ingredient's beyond that at this point. It's a little packaged snack-cake like in design, but I like it and can call it excellent. This shop will make the cut.

Michalak, Cheese Cake Orange

Monday to Wednesday, I managed at least short runs along with indoor workouts. Monday, was too late to visit I think, and Tuesday they were sold-out, but Wednesday, I managed to get Cheese Cake Orange from Michalak as an exceptional shop. It was probably a fairly high sugar one (American-style?), and suited me fine. Hadn't known orange, which is a bit tricky for cake, worked for cheesecake, but it does.

L'Abricotier, Duja Orange

 I wasn't intentionally being greedy, just sticking to plan and went to L'Abricotier for the new cake they should have gotten before the last Viron cake. It's only another 8 km after 5 km to Ginza, so less of a daily run than the previous day so I was expecting to come up empty and have to go on to Yu Sasage, which I assume would be as far, but actually there were two new cakes to choose from. For today, I skipped the raspberry chocolate cake and took the Duja Orange. This shop is big on pairing nutty with fruit, so even though orange is a difficult fruit, I was interested in how it would pair with Gianduja (chocolate and hazelnut). Once again, I got lost on the trains, so it took twice as long as it should have to get back. I liked this cake, which I can say is definitely excellent. Mainly, I like the Gianduja cut with enough other stuff not to be too strong, though maybe orange isn't the perfect fruit.

Occitanial, Chocolat Orange

As I swung back west after hitting Haru, I stopped at another shop I had seen on TV, Occitanial in Nihonbashi-Kakigara-chou, by the entrance to Suitenguumae Sta. (in the long name district, apparently). I think there were three staff, a closed eating space and no other customers. I went with Chocolat Orange. It's pretty, but supper mild. I'm reminded of Dalloyau, and old shop. As I said about Haru, I'll get around to a second cake at some point, since I'm not in danger of getting enough better shops to push it down a category.

Lenôtre, Tartelette orange

Due to EV's weak performance, Lenôtre got another chance to improve it's standing. Best bet seemed to be the Tartelette orange. Unfortunately, it's exactly what it looks like, a tart with a lot of raw orange on top. The base is hard with some custard. The ingredient if fine, but not a combination that's probably ever going to work for me. For course, I can say it's good, but so far their tarts have been their weakest items.  

Frédéric Cassel, Savarin Orange

Sunday, I was right back to Ginza Mitsukoshi, since Frédéric Cassel won the cake-off, and anyway, are top of the shops with new cakes. I went with the Savarin Orange, so no alcohol. Though orange, it has lime juice to make it more tropical. Inside is vanilla cream, but on top is the staple mascarpone cream on top of the orange. They recommend with tea, which works for me. This was excellent, fortunately, and certainly better than the previous savarin I had from their neighbor counter, though it might have had more volume (though at greater price). This restores them to the the current target level, though the target is about to get raised, and they're at the top, so they will probably get another cake this weekend, though 

I'll say ahead of time that I got one cake ahead on Thursday this week, whereas last week I was one behind, so there will be at least one cake less this weekend. 

I should mention that I also got a second pastry from Johan, a Pain au Chocolat, and it was good, but nothing memorable. They used to have a super decadent version that also had pistachio when they had a Shinjuku shop, but I haven't seen it in Ginza.

Paris S'éveille, Tarte Rhubarbe Orange

Sunday, I went out to get a new cake from a superb shop, specifically, Tart Rhubarb Orange, or maybe they used French spelling. You aren't allowed to take pictures. The tart seemed to be pistachio.

On the way, I hit a local shop in the Jinguumae/Kita-Aoyama area north of Omote-Sandou Sta., which was actually not that far out from home, though that's why it's a high-priority area. They had a selection of 7 kinds of baked goods. I went with the Matcha Donut. It was good. It was a quite moist (but not wet) cake donut. The other things were similarly vegan pseudo-healthy things. Though the staff was Japanese, when spoke English to me, the website shows a young Euro-looking family of three, and the person behind me was a young white woman, which is a tough market segment in this travel environment. Just because of their selection, and the college-aged English speaking Japanese staff, I wonder whether they are related to the folks to took over the bakery Tournage one running neighborhood loop to the north, who were also doing the vegan baked good things. They had a kitchen, though it's the middle of Tokyo, so it wouldn't be hard to move containers of small baked goods from any of hundreds of shops. Anyway, one shop to visit down, and I found another one I hadn't recorded one building further along (I knew they sound some coffee, as well as whatever their main thing was, but I hadn't noticed the baked goods before).

The tart reminded me of rhubarb pie, which my mother frequently made but I did not appreciate, so it was usually made at the sime time apple pie was made. It was good, but too much of what I'm not interested in. I have no memory already of what running if any I did. It was a lot of walking carrying cake and an umbrella, so probably I didn't.

the whatever spelling they are using. . Actually, I intended to get them from two, but it didn't work out. It was raining, so I went walking with an umbrella.

Lenôtre, Verrine Baba Agrume

Monday, wanting to fit in a couple weekday cakes this week (since I was busy this weekend), I did my first run to Ginza Mitsukoshi and was somewhat successful. I wanted to get a cake from Lenôtre, which has two seasonal cakes that I haven't tried yet. I could get my preferred choice, but I figured that I would get to both eventually, so no worries. I got the Verrine Baba Agrume, which is a baba in a glass with lots of fruit, specifically orange, pear, and Japanese apricot. While verrine and baba aren't my preference, I found the abundance of a fruit an improvement over my previous similar cake and can say that this was definitely good. Actually, this puts the shop in danger from challengers below, so I'm not sure that I'll actually get to the other cake, but there are also cake-offs coming up, so I remain optimistic.

Sadaharu Aoki, Hassaku Passion

Sadaharu Aoki: Hassaku Passion

My running Sunday night was actually to get more cake, which was less ambitious than I originally planned, though I wasn't expecting to be successful, since it was late on a Sunday, when everything is usually sold-out. I went to the south Tokyo Sta. area and naturally went first to the Sadaharu Aoki main shop. I was looking for their yearly exclusive, which I still haven't gotten, even though the year starts in April. I did get something that they just promoted again, but I could have gotten to Isetan, if I were more patient, Hassaku Passion, which is hassaku orange (which is a Japanese variety which is apparently somewhat grapefruit like) and passion fruit on a coconut accented sablé. The description makes clear that it is mild, which it is, so not really my thing, but good.

Paris S'éveille, Tarte Fraisette

Last weekend, went down to Jiyuugaoka by bicycle, which is a mistake as far preserving the cake. As the pictures shows, this Tarte Fraisette did not like the vibration, though jogging is slightly better. I should perhaps give up and use the train, since there probably would not be many other passengers. Anyway, this tart is strawberry and orange compote on a pâte sucrée almond base, where the almond is mixed with cinnamon. I missed this last year, apparently, but was glad to catch it this year, as it was excellent. As I just wrote about them, probably thinking about this cake, they seem to be getting a the hang of fruitier cakes relative to previously, or I'm learning to like them more. I hope to make another visit next week, as I don't think I'm caught up on their new cakes. If the weather is good, I might try to eat outside. This time, I was also getting cake for a cake off so that was not practical.

Atsushi Hatae, Gourmandise

Foraging for food, I went out again today. I originally intended to do a neighborhood course clump, but quickly decided that the weather was too miserable, and that I wasn't actually confident about the changes I made in merging three loops into one, and combing that with two other loops, one new, to form the clump.  Fortunately, the miserable weather and general requests to avoid unnecessary excursions, kept people off the streets around the time I was running (i.e., during the March snow). I wasn't the only jogger, or the only one buying food that might not be vital to life, but it was pretty easy to keep a good distance from everyone. I'm remembering, now, that running, like alcohol, might not be best for maintaining good judgement, so I plan to be even more careful next time, if there is a next time (i.e., if the city isn't completely locked down). When I jogged in the evening, it certainly looked (from afar), that some shops were hurting for sales, as I would expect, at least for ones away from residential areas. But enough of the depressing stuff.

Working on the neighborhood sites, I got mini-financiers from Chavaty, which is a milk and tea shop (though I don't like milk in my tea), that has scones, but no clotted cream, so I'm not sure whether to trust them for scones. Thus, I went with the mini-financiers. They aren't like homemade, but maybe not everyone likes their financiers as baked/dry as I do. Also, these seem to be chocolate, from the color, though I can't tell so much from the flavor for this kind of baked good. They were good, but not impressive. I think I got 12 originally, but this was after the late run (after I dried off, had lunch, and then the first cake).

The first shop I got cake from was the Sarugaku-chou (the website, of course, says Daikanyama, since that's the nearest station and more sophisticated than "monkey pleasure") Atsushi Hatae shop that opened last year (at the same time as his other two shops). I went with the Gourmandise as likely to meet my tastes, as well as being strong for the return trip, which probably took me an hour through mush and detours trying to confirm other shops. Tea-flavored chocolate ganache, caramel and orange chocolate cream, and hazelnut praliné as the main components. Quite sophisticated, though not original, which is fine with me. I can call it excellent. This shop goes on the list of fine shops as one that I definitely want to get back to, in the next year or so (under the current strict system).

Les Cacaos, Chocolat Noisette

Thursday, I took off the PM and went out for cake. Wasn't sure whether I would find it, since pandemic was exploding in Tokyo, but cake shops have materials, and expenses, so they go on. Under the circumstances, I changed from running and coming back by train to bicycling both ways. Still looking for a shop to promote to exceptional, I went first to Les Cacaos for a 6th cake. Chocolat Noisette seemed like a good bet, though not one that always pays off. This one had a nice thick biscuit with some toughness, reminding me of a cake from PS. For additional flavoring, this has orange, which worked for me. It's simple, but excellent, so I'm promoting them (Jun Homma will have to wait its chance).

La Vie Douce, Praliné Orange

Thursday, I was able to stop in at La Vie Douce for a 6th new cake on my way home from work, to see whether they could succeed where Jun Honma failed. I went with the Praliné Orange, but they had a good selection for near closing time (bad for them, but good for me).

For running, I worked on clumps of my neighborhood running course, and also reconnaissance. I was successful on the Jinguumae northeast clump but failed to get the links between loops in the right order (and realized it, so I quit) for the Jinguumae Stn. east clump just south of it. I plan to try that Saturday afternoon. That finishes off the first 22.04 km of neighborhood running course clumps. I also confirmed the new Jinguumae southwest link, which uses two pedestrian bridges, as the new way to get to the Jinguumae--Jinnan loop and all loops west--north of there. It adds about 1.5 km, but it works. Hopefully the next construction won't be to take down those pedestrian bridges, or I'll be resorted to going through Aobadai, which would add a few more kilometers, though it's all good.

The cake surprised me a little, because it looked like the kind of cake that would be pretty heavy, about actually about half of the inside is sponge cake and half is cream, so it's pretty light. It was definitely good, and probably more legitimately cake than a lot of things I like, but still I would like something more dramatic, so they slip below Jun Honma for the moment, which won't immediately matter if at least one of the two exceptional shops can come through with something excellent for their next cake, which I hope to determine Sunday.

I'll sneak in Friday as well, when I had coupons for a bakery, and could have gotten cake but already had in my mind to get bread, since I had forgotten about the cake, since I wouldn't go there normally. For exercise, I had finally decided on a proper revised Akasaka--Azabudai--Roppongi--Toranomon loop, which I did clockwise. I hope also to do counterclockwise Saturday and confirm this as the newest of verified loops. I also did revised the Aoyama-Minami 1 loop clockwise to take into account the loss of the Croissant cafe, but that only took an extra couple minutes of running, since the new loop is even smaller than the old one, only 209 m to loop around the building with a Tully's. I'll get the other direction when I do its clump, since that's next after the two I plan to try Saturday afternoon.

Viron: Tropézienne

Still trying to catch up. I went out Thursday for cake, running and it ended up being a long run. I was trying to get a new cake from F. Cassel in Mitsukoshi Ginza, but no cake. JPH had a little, but nothing new. Lenôtre  had just Concerto (lots of them). There was one counter there I would have taken a new cake from, but also no cake there. I forgot about Ladurée, on the 2nd floor, but checked out Ginza 6 and came up with nothing from two shops (though no surprise for the soon closing Origines Cacao). Anyway, Viron is a top priority and hasn't rotated new cakes in so quickly, so even though I had just bought two days before, I went back (though in Marunouchi) and got one of the two I had seen before the brief Christmas cake takeover: Tropézienne. This is a brioche-based cake (easy for them, since they're a bakery) with custard cream using Échiré butter, fresh orange, and some sort of liquor (I would guess orange). Definitely not my usual thing, and not what I as expecting (since I wasn't paying close attention), but it worked for me and was excellent.

Friday, I did not get cake, but worked on neighborhood course loops and completed another one.

Saturday, I tried my biggest loop counterclockwise for the seventh time and got much farther, about 3/4 before I got to a point where I didn't remember what to do and made the wrong turn (there are two similar sharp corners and on the first one I should have gone straight after the sharp turn, but thought I needed to turn off). It was okay though and I'm willing to leave it at that for now. It was a 3.5 h run with relatively few stops. I added three sites afterward and revised the map slightly in ways that will hopefully be easy to remember on the next run: just slight detours. On the way I tried two pastries and had better luck than the previous week. First, Path Cafe was not mobbed at 09:00 on the Saturday before New Years and I could get a (the one) Pain au Chocolat. This fresh-baked pastry was actually very soft inside, which usually I would not respect, but fresh, it was melt in my mouth delicious, which I definitely respect. I suppose it was great, but really this is my first experience this is fresh a pain au chocolat. Maybe next year, I'll bet able to get a fresh Croissant without a 30-minute wait.

The other stop was after failure, I stopped at Levain and got their Butter Croissant. This seems to be a multigrain pastry (I didn't read beyond the name), in keeping with their theme. Actually, for including "butter" in the name, less buttery than average, but what great layering throughout. It's more of a super dinner role than a pastry, but its definitely something special, so I have to rate it at least excellent. I look forward to getting something else from them as well.

 

Coffee Parlor Hilltop: Laque Noir

The night of Christmas Day, I ran to Coffee Parlor Hilltop, where they had their normal cakes and no crowd, though some one came after me to buy, so they are getting some customers since reopening. This time and was more energetic and ran all the way back. As my cake, I choose Laque Noir, because it looked great, even if the composition is not very promising for me. Namely chocolate mousse, with fruit (potentially too much), and with a chocolate glaze. I dealt with it though. I look chocolate, and mousse, though just mousse can be a texture problem. I chilled it down to 1 degC, so it least started out sufficient firm to be control able. I also avoided putting the glazing directly on my tough, since I was correct that I was not appreciating the Laque(r) part of it, but it worked fine how I ate it. And the orange was not too much and harmonized fairly gently with the chocolate. I'm rating it excellent, so this shop is in good shape to get promoted. There are a couple shops already in the exceptional group that I'd like to hit first though, so I can wait for the sixth cake.

Lenôtre: Carré Orange

After a long day of work, caught Lenôtre on their last day at Isetan. Only two fresh cakes left, but one was their specialty, which is great, and the other was the one that I was most interested in, the Carré Orange, which I got. This cake seems to be what you see is what you get, though I wouldn't be surprised if there is something that makes it somewhat granular, like finely chopped coconut, not that I noticed a particular coconut taste. Plenty moist despite not having any hidden cream, jelly, or sauce. I probably wouldn't want this kind of cake a lot, as I like my decadent cakes with chocolate sheets and nuts, but I enjoyed the change and will call this excellent, so the shop remains a challenger to the bottom of the quite exceptional cakes.

Running was neighborhood loops out east, same as last one, and I successfully did the same four counterclockwise, but I revised the largest one to use a path provided by the Mori building to cut the southeast corner.