Pierre Hermé, Baba Classique

Not much to say about this one. I recently have appreciated the baba from Viron, so as a new cake for a cake-off win from Pierre Hermé, I thought I'd try their Baba Classique (which since had been replaced by a different baba from the Vantine's lineup). Not sure how classic it was, but I'll assume not so that much that they didn't use rum, though not in enough quantity to raise this above just good.

Au Bon Vieux Temps, Ali-Baba and Belle Hélène

Ran down to Au Bon Vieux Temps on Sunday, and not by the shortest way, just because I wanted to keep running rather than wait for lights to change. Got there a little bit after 10 am, which is a little late, since they open at 9 am. Their Marjolaine was down to the last piece, and that's their best cake, though I was there for new cake, not that. I'm actually two behind on them because of cake-off wins, so I decided that if they had two new cakes (and that don't seem to vary the line-up much), then I would get them, which I was able to do.

I went with two other semi-traditional cakes. One was Ali-Baba, which was closer to the original version that became the Baba in that it had custard inside rather than whipped cream, though it was still rum, which was a later change. It was good, but traditional isn't always best. Note sure whether whipped cream would have been better than custard, but that would be my choice for this type of cake, now that I've tried a custard version.

Sorry for being negative, but the other traditional cake was Belle Hélène. Of course, making this level of fruit replicas is really a new thing, a result of the ease of making silicon molds and access to refrigeration, but the desert of pear with chocolate sauce is old, or at exists independently. It was good, but the semi-solid outer covering round the pear pieces and chocolate (which is most of the cake), is pretty tasteless and doesn't have a texture I find very appealing, though it's interesting to know that pear and chocolate is nice. If I'm look for dessert and there isn't cake I want, it seems like a good option. 

Wittamer, Thé et Raisin

Had some coupons for the food sections of Odakyu. The cake selection is pretty weak, but I never willowed the "fine" list of shops that seem to be just average, so now I'm after getting second cakes from all, which should take a few years. The first of two counters (and coupons), was Wittamer, which is a Belgian brand, apparently. It's pretty widespread, though this was also probably where I got my first cake from them. This time I steered clear of the obvious choices and when with Thé et Raisin, maybe because I previous takeout cake was a basic chocolate cake. As the name suggests, this is tea (Earl Grey) and grape (though it actually is raisin, the dried form), with some rum. It was a well-made cake with no out of place flavors. Good but bland in a competent way. Certainly, being a safe place to get consistent cakes had it's merits, but I don't expect I'll need to visit again.

The above was the cake from Monday night. Full disclosure, I had some non-patisserie cakes of high quality Saturday afternoon as a part of an afternoon tea set. 

I think the ones with berry halves are actually pear, whereas the little one's above are chestnut madeleines, with the larger ones to the left behind the glass desserts being sweet potato mont-blancs. The middle layers was savories and the bottom was mainly tiny scones. This was also at Odakyu, in that it was their 20th floor lounge in the Southern Tower of the Century Hotel at Shinjuku.

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.

 

Viron, Baba

I was so behind on blogging, that I got behind on updating rankings and it wasn't Viron's turn. Lucky! I've had a baba from Viron at the Marunouchi restaurant that was great (as eat-in dessert), so I was optimistic about this take-out version, which I got from the Shibuya shop. (As it happens, it's not at the Marunouchi shop, as I found out after going there the long way, taking 17 km. Fortunately, another 7.5 km run across Yamanote was just what I wanted then.) I decided that this was also great, taking into consideration its presentation of a class. Super simple, of course, and not really anything special about it other than being perfect.

Frédéric Cassel, Gateau Halloween

Went to Frédéric Cassel for cake, since they are my top choice of shops having new cakes (though this was the only one, and its only early October). I still need to sort out some overlap between quite fine and exceptional and exceptional and quite exceptional shops (and longer term, the overlap between quite exceptional and superb, though I'm already 5 cakes ahead on Origines Cacao along those lines), but not today. Anyway, I was looking for a different cake, but maybe it's already out of the line-up (no end date was given in the posting). I ended up getting Gateau Halloween, without very high expectations (holiday theme cakes tend not to be the best) but trusting Frédéric Cassel not to give me bad cake. I went there running, by the way, and ran back, as the rain is still light (the heavy rain warning because of the approaching typhoon is still 24 hours away). The cake is mostly kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) on top, a layer of rum and raisin, and a brownie base. Definitely good and probably relatively healthy.

Frédéric Cassel: Inspiration Guava

Because my hip was hurting, as one reason, I bicycled to Frédéric Cassel at Ginza Mitsukoshi and got this month's inspiration: Inspiration Guava. This is very tropical, with guava, lime, lemon, baba (okay, nothing to do with the tropics), rum, and vanilla with a coconut sablé as the base. From anywhere else, I'd probably pass this up, but I can count on Frédéric Cassel and this was excellent. I ate it after coming home and doing a full indoor workout (the other reason for not running; I should really be doing these every three days), which takes me about an hour, but for 14 sets, I should be able to do them in 35 minutes, if I made more of them timed intense 1-minute workouts, which right now the weight training isn't. Maybe I'll that try once and see how it goes.

Le Salon Jacques Borie: Savarin au Rhum

Went to Isetan for a croissant and didn't consider carefully what having a backup of cake implied about the rest of the week, but anyway, I got the Savarin au Rhum from Le Salon Jacques Borie, as well as confirming what the next Isetan 1-week cake shop visitor is (one I'm not interested in) and that the current 3-week visiting sweets shop doesn't have fresh cake, at least not this week. Besides other shopping, when I went out by bicycle, I confirmed the Tomigaya--Yoyogi loop clockwise. One turn is still going to be hard going clockwise, because the apartment buildings aren't that distinctive, and I spaced on one turn and started down a hill but remembered what do to before getting to the next intersection and went back, so I think it's time to move on.

I've gotten somewhat used to savarin by this point, and verrine deserts to a lesser degree, but I think I'll judge this excellent. Three excellent cakes in a row doesn't have the same urgency  as under the old system, so I have a lot of places to catch up on before I get back there, but they're definitely at least a quite good shop, which suggests I should have better ranking system for these.

Bien-être: Martinique

Did a run to Bien-être, since I knew they had new cakes as of last Saturday, so I hoped the Christmas cakes would be over and I could get something my size. New things included a tart, a couple roll cakes, and one fancy cake, the Martinique. This is a thick banana, raisin, and rum tart on the bottom and an ample amount of white chocolate ganache flavored with vanilla. My first impression was that it was probably excellent. Certainly, its a lot of cake for its size, since it's dense. I was hoping for great, since JPH's pistachio mont-blanc is back and I haven't done a first-round cake-off with it. I've got a little more than two weeks to find something, and of course I'd like to do second and third rounds after that, before it disappears again. Unfortunately, this was not the great cake. It was excellent when I was eating it, so I'm sticking with that, but I think especially paired with rum, the banana taste lingers, which I'm really not fond of. Maybe I should have gone with the pastachio and apricot tart. I'm almost caught up with this shop, or at least It's now one of many that I'm ready to get one cake from.

Running back, I worked in some neighborhood course loops on the west side, so I've now got both ways for the Sendagaya west loop and clockwise for the Jinguumae northwest and west loops. Yesterday (Christmas) I messed up again on the west side of Yotsuya, but at least I got clockwise for Sendagaya central and southeast right. That was not a very long run, less than 60 minutes, though intense running up and down stairs cutting through the nation stadium station tunnels and then going through Wakaba and Suga in Yotsuya. I repeated the subway route today in a 90+ minute run, but didn't need to get groceries, so I didn't have to go as far as Suga Shrine.

Sadaharu Aoki: Savarin

Savarin (Sadaharu Aoki)

Tuesday, did a run out to Marunouchi to get cake from Sadaharu Aoki, the Savarin, which is there through November. I also visited the two Jean-Paul Hévins around there to see what was up. Next month will be waffles with chocolate at the Chocolate Bar.

It's hard for me to judge Savarin, because it's a little different from my usual thing, but it seemed excellent (and I did enjoy it). Certainly I would like to make it (given the time and knowledge), which is my definition of excellent.

Almond and Anzu Tart (Atelier de Mar)

Wednesday, I went out to practice the Hatagaya--Honmachi--Nishi-Shinjuku loop. You'll notice that Nishi-Shinjuku has been added back into the name, as I discovered that there was no reason for that to be in a separate loop. Unfortunately, my sense of the other parts of the course remain incomplete, so I'm going to have to practice more. On the plus side, I was surprised to notice that there is an Atelier de Mar on the north end of the Hatagaya shopping street, so I bought an Almond and Anzu Tart (anzu is the standard plum variety in Japan). It was a nice little pastry-type tart, which I will give the benefit of the doubt and call excellent, as a first pastry. I didn't see such tarts at the Hatsudai branch. There is also apparently a shop in Sasazuka, but I'm going to want to verify that on the ground before I adjust the running course around there. On their Twitter feed, they show lots of tarts, but I'm not sure which branch that is.

Le Pan: Saint-marc Praliné and Tanba Chestnut Mont-blanc

I ran first and got a pastry from Pane Ho Baretta, a d'Amonde Chocolat (?). Definitely good but heavy, as expected, and pretty messy, as there is chocolate on the outside. They had a lot kinds of d'Amonde, though just a few of each on display.







Just from Googling, I had found Le Pan as a cake source in Kobe. I've probably seen the sign pointing upslope on the lateral road between L'Avenue and Gregory Collet Patisserie, but assumed they just have cake. I got cake for later before putting the borrowed bicycle in working order and going around photoing shops for Kobe Patisseries map, being maybe less discriminating than I should be, since there are places that I seem unlikely to visit, though a note to that effect might be useful later.

The cakes were Saint-marc Praliné and Tanba Chestnut Mont-blanc. The saint-marc was good but did not stand out. The supposed mont-blanc was the third cake in that many days that was not much like the conventional form, or like any other. This one actually had very little paste, though there was a little more chestnut inside. The main body is rum cream. It had very nice flavor and texture, so I'll say it was excellent.

I seem to having a lot more luck in this second pass through Kobe cake shops, though that may because I've sticking closer to the central cluster rather than visiting every neighborhood shop that managed to get in a guidebook. I'm also willing to visit the old brands, like Juchheim, sometime, even though I consider them fairly low-level brands in Tokyo. Like Tooth Tooth, I'd like to at least give them a chance in their own shops (though, actually I don't think I've seen any Tooth Tooth cakes in Tokyo, just they have a French restaurant).

Très Calme: Allure

Wednesday, I ran to Bien-être and found them closed for renovation, through to Friday of next week; so, after a stop for a few groceries from Nikunohanamasa, I went down to Shibuya Hikarie and got Chocolat Citron from Le Pain de Joel Robuchon. I walked some but eventually ran most of the way back, despite the uncomfortable load in my too small backpack. The pastry was excellent, crisp leaves around chocolate and lemon (I assume, though it could have been some other citrus fruit) cream. That's too excellent ones, so they remain in pretty good standing for further visits.

With Bien-être out of the picture, I killed two birds with one stone by going to Très Calme, first to confirm a cake for the next cake-off (though the cake is not actually necessarily seasonal, so I'm not sure why I'm in a hurry for the second round other than Très Calme being one of the priorities among quite good shops since it seems to be better than some already on the excellent list) and then to get Allure as the reward for the shop for winning a recent cake-off (which catches me up), which is a rum and raisin tart under caramel cream/mousse, with chocolate accents where shown. I ate in again, since that is convenient there in the evening, sort of the opposite of Bien-être, so I'm a little worried about getting too attached. The cake was excellent, though I needed to make sure I got a balance of the two parts, since the separate parts are not excellent by themselves, or at least I can confirm that the caramel isn't (I don't like the necessarily level of gelatin to stabilize this). If you balance the parts, then the final flavor is very balanced across all four flavors, which is not something I get to say often.

Frédéric Cassel: Charlotte Framboise Verveine and Sudaki Sugar Savarin

Tried to get new cake from my favorite shop currently having new cake, trying to treat someone who likes savarin. Specifically, Frédéric Cassel had/has Sudaki Sugar Savarin, which I'm not sure what to say beyond the name: is sponge with fruit rum and a special sugar that I'm not deeply familiar with, but I think I've used it in my own cooking as a "red" sugar (that is, it's like brown sugar but different). The other cake chosen was Charlotte Framboise Verveine, which isn't a usual charlotte, but rather made of cheese, in this case Verveine, which I'm also not familiar with.

These were both good but not really more than that, unfortunately. Of course, someone more into savarin could like it more. The charlotte was more bland than I remember the previous wild strawberry version being, versus this raspberry version. The problem with having too many choices, I'm told is always thinking that you haven't made the best. However, the search is fun, too.

In the evening I ran. I decided to do a neighborhood run to at least finish revisiting the Jinguumae--Kitak-Aoyama loop, which I did all of before going home (off the course). Total run was just over an hour.

Bigarreaux: Tarte Ordinaire

For today, Sunday (yeah, finally catching up), I chose pastry over cake (so later in the week I'll get cake instead of a pastry). First I verified that Fraoula only only has their prevoius four pastries, which was true. Then I went on to P. Bigarreaux, where I noticed that they did not have their almond croissant (it was fairly early, so I assume that it was not sold out), which was disappointing for the future. Today, I wanted something new. I had to consider my definition of pastry carefully, but I decided that the Tarte Ordinaire qualified (probably the only thing, though there was a flan tart or something that I might allow). This is a basic almond tart with a good deal of rum, not really soaked in it but at least moist with it. It was definitely good, but ordinary, as promised. The rain was little enough that eating outside was fine, though it rained all day and tomorrow will be worse, especially in the morning, as the taiphoon kills up rain clouds.

Of my top shops for pastries (ones with more great ones than sub-excellent ones), only Dalloyau has anything new for me, though I need to check in with P. Shima. I'll probably do that Wednesday on the way to Ginza, where I'll try again to get a cream puff from F. Cassel.

En Vedette: En Vedette

For cake, En Vedette was at Isetan, so I got their signature cake as my second cake from them.

For cycling, I went down to Tokyo Midtown to see what cake Dean & Deluca had for Mondays, and got a new name: La Garue M, which is pretty far south, where I've never had much luck, but some day when I'm done with Shinjuku Takashimaya for new local cakes, I'll given them a try, though I've also got a few around Yoyogi. I only cycled about 45 minutes, but took a lot of slopes and tried to work hard before going to get groceries and coming home.

My last trip to Éclat des Jours was disappointing not just for the cake I got but because it seemed to replace their rum raisin cake, which I thought was great (but did not seem popular, so I'm not really surprised that it got bumped for the summer tropical cakes). So the even without the name, which suggested it as a point of pride, I was in the mood for chocolate rum raisin. It'e pretty, but pretty hard to head without destroying it substantially, and the sides are a little gummy (sealing in moisture) but the flavor did not disappoint and apparently I'm in an accepting mood, because I'm going to say this cake is also great, which is three new great cakes in one week. Note that this is chocolate ganache, milk chocolate (not sure of the difference), and white chocolate.

Guess I'm going to be late this week with pastries, since I want to take advantage of En Vedette's last day at Isetan tomorrow, now that I'm considering this shop at least Quite Good.

Paris S'éveille: Savarin Vin Rouge

Home early to let the gas company do some sort of safety inspection (first time, at least under what system this was; I'm suspicious that it's just a marketing effort to promote their electricity business, since they didn't do a lot). I didn't have any place that was a priority that I couldn't get to on a weekday (I did have, but saw last night that they were coming to Isetan next week, and Heritage, which closes at 7 pm, isn't open Wednesdays), so I decided to just go down to Paris S'éveille on a weekday while the sun was up. I should stick to a regular route when cycling so I don't keep ending up having to wade through Harajuku and Shibuya Stn.

Closest thing to new cake that I could get was Savarin Vin Rouge, and it didn't especially look like anything had sold out, though I supposed something might have. I'm not sure what the fruit is, since I didn't bother to try to read the card, maybe mikan. Savarin at least has a good excuse for coming in a cup and still being called cake. It was good and I don't have any suggestions for improvement other than to stick with rum, though I suppose the red wine might go better with the fruit, which I would care about if I liked fruit-based desserts.

Jean-Paul Hévin: Passion

I don't remember whether I got this at Ginza Mitsukoshi (which would imply running) or Isetan, but this was the first day for this new cake, which is different from their previous passion fruit cake, which has been out of the line-up for a while and I'm assuming from this is going to remain out. It's their standard mousse layer chocolate, this time with ganache flavored with rum and a crunchy top (though I'm not sure of what, besides probably sugar). This was excellent, but my impression was that it did not stand out among their cakes. However, I had half of a piece more recently and thought it was great, so my current evaluation is semi-great, which at least means that I'll get back to it before reviewing just excellent cakes, though reviewing great cakes is keeping me busy enough.

Cacahouète: Tarte Cacahouète and Baba au Rhum

Friday, by request, I went down to P. Cacahouète Paris. Someone wanted choux cubes, and I did not object. Actually, no pictures of those, which we ate in (it's a pretty cramped space and they had to move pastries to allow two people to sit, though there is also outside seating, which we were not interested in during February weather). Specifically we had the Chou Cube Vanille and Chou Cube Pistache, both of which was definitely good, if more like pudding than cake, but I liked the pistachio one more.

For cake, which we took home, we got the Tarte Cacahouète, which is a caramel cream (sorry, I've already forgotten what other flavor might have been in there, peanuts, I guess, but I'm wondering whether I'm forgetting a touch of fruit) which I liked most and was excellent, and a Baba au Rhum, which is not really my thing, but this was seemed excellent, so my impression is reinforced that this is a quite good patisserie.

Éclat des Jours: Baba au Rhum

Typhoon coming this way and the rain started as I was leaving work and peaked at about midway of my run out to Éclat des Jours (not that the typhoon had passed; the center will arrive around 9 am, last I heard). It was not great for visibility, though not a big deal running along the inner moat. It had mostly stopped by the top I crossed the main bridge and parts of the sidewalk were dry by the time I was coming back (it's night, but lots of stored heat, even on a cloudy day).

Not my fastest time, but the run to Toyo is mostly about energy conservation with respect to stoplights. Still, I needed to get there before they closed, so I still managed  about 10 km/h out and had energy for 9 km/h back. As I said last time, I'm running out of options. Basically, my choice at the end of the day is the least favorite of the standards and some tarts (as well as desserts in glasses, i.e., parfaits and verrines). This time, I went with the Baba au Rhum (486 yen). Though I previously could not see the merit of these as cakes, I've come around, so it's not so shocking that this was excellent, given the source (or than I ran a half marathon to get it, which maybe makes a difference).

Éclat des Jours: Rhum Raisin

Ran to Toyo (just north of Toyo station) in Koto-ku again, 10+ km each way, 10 km/h there, and 9 km/h back with cake in the rain (well, for several kilometers, anyway). Half the run follows a familiar path, and so passes quickly, but it's a nice path to the Inner Moat and then around to the Tokyo Station terminus of Toyo Line through Marunouchi and Kyobashi. On the main street (Route 1/Hibiya Ave.) running along the east side of the Inner Moat, you can see the newer behind the old on the northeast corner, in this old banking district, and the soon to be grand new big project on the southeast corner.

Then east of Tokyo station, which means canals and rivers. In this case, there are four canals but only Sumida River to cross of the bridges, but night and car headlights inferred too much for my old phone camera.

The cake was Rhum Raisin, which I did not have great expectations of, but it was the right shape (I don't trust wedges) and otherwise was not something I had developed negative expectations of. Still, just good was what I expected, but actually this was clearly definitely excellent and, maybe I'm just in a positive mood after 20+ km of running, but I left it was the best cake of this type that I've had and I'd like to have it again and compare it to other cakes, which is a way of saying it was great, so that's too great cakes in a row from them. Guess I'll be making more long eastward night runs. Also, this cake traveled almost double the distance as the last cake and did not even lose a raisin (until I bumped it trying to get it out, but I put it back).