Frédéric Cassel: P'tite Merveille Apricot Lavender

Ran to Ginza Mitsukoshi by way of La Vie Douce (where they still did not have the cake I was looking for). Usual problem: sore tail and heat, but it was okay. Didn't actually drink any of my water, so it was not that hot, being night. Total, about 12 km at 9 km/h, which might be as fast as I go until September.

I got the P'tite Merveille Apricot Lavender (648 yen), which is cake, for lack of a better term. I really liked the version with caramel, but this time the (lavender-flavored) meringue hemispheres with a little apricot and vanilla cream and white chocolate covering (I think) was less impressive, but still good.

Éclat des Jours: Caramel Poire

It's hot, though my bigger problem running is still my sore backside (cycling Sunday apparently was not helpful, though not a problem at the time). Still, after the run, it feels much better, so it still seems to be a muscle issue and not something more serious. Not sure of my exact time going out, but the speed was very close to 9.5 km/h, but probably under. Overall the 21 km averaged on the low side of 9 km/h, which could have been worse. This was a run out to Éclat des Jours for a fifth cake, and I got Caramel Poire (486 yen), just based on it being next in line besides the one with coffee, even though it's not something I would expect to like.

It was about what I expected, though definitely good from the start: it's soft cream layers, gelatinous enough to say together, with a good deal of pear. In the end, though, I found myself thinking it was excellent. Still not a kind of cake that I'm very interested in, but I wouldn't mind having (though not planning to have) it again and it wouldn't be a waste of time to learn to make. Don't know why I'm so apparently biased for this place. Perhaps, it's the effort that goes into getting the cake or just that I eat the cake in the comfort of my home with tea after a lot of hard work.

Stopped by Viron on my way and learned that Mille-feuille is available in general (though sold out again), but I missed my chance for Fraise in May and now will have to wait until December. It's looking like the next cake-off will be a mille-feuille battle, which should keep the run relative short.

La Splendeur: Praliné Chocolat

Not a very active weekend, in terms of running and cake. Friday night, I had an event to attend so no running, just hotel-catered (I assume) mixed fruit shortcake, which is bland/inoffensive by design (if anyone objects to a particular fruit, they could pick it off).

Saturday, I ran during a window of opportunity in my schedule when a shop that would not be available on a weekday should have been open but not yet sold out (I could also have tried to run somewhere late in the afternoon). Unfortunately, La Famille choose that day to open late (14:00, as announced by the paper sign on the door), and I couldn't wait. I could have grabbed something at Seibu nearby, but I could do that on a weekday and it was not great weather for running with cake, anyway, so I decided to just cache 1 unbought cake for the next cake-off (probably Thursday).

For Sunday, which was also hot, I decided to do cycling instead. First, I went down to new shop for me, La Splendeur, in Kugahara, Ota-ku, for a first cake. There were a few parfait-like desserts, which is probably not unreasonable for the season, but only three fresh cakes. On the other hand, none were the basic Japanese staples (shortcake, mont-blanc, and some sort of milk chocolate layer wedge cake). Anyway, selection was limited but showed some effort, the shop was pleasant, and the service was good.

The cake was also good. Besides decorations, the chocolate was the sponge base and the outer mousse and the praliné was cream inside. Not disappointing, but not interesting or good enough to get me back there until in the short or medium term.

From there, I did a tour of 6 non-workday shops and Paris S'éveille to check whether any great seasonal cakes had appeared or other great cakes had disappeared. Basically, I confirmed all the same cakes as last month, including this time Monsieur Arnaud, which was missing when I visited on Tuesday late afternoon.

Bubó Barcelona: Bubó Malfi

Bubó Barcelona: Bubó Malfi

Sore again today, and maybe tired, so only managed 8 km/h for a round trip of 5.8 km. Guess I should rest tomorrow, since I won't have a lot of time Saturday and will need to run faster. Went back to Bubó Barcelona in Jingumae and got the Bubó Malfi (692 yen), which is white chocolate with a lemon center. It was definitely good, but not exciting, so it seems to be an excellent shop, but not among the top 15. I wouldn't need to go back soon, except I'd like to try their café.

Bubó Barcelona

Pierre Hermé, Mille-Feuille Satine and research run

From Pierre Hermé, got the Mille-Feuille Satine (864 yen) in response to their winning the last cake-off (otherwise, I've over-sampled them a little at this point, so I would have to wait to get something new from them). For research purposes, due to having entered a new month, I did a swing through the Tokyo Station to Ginza area shops, not everyone is everyone changes on a monthly schedule.

Nothing significantly different at Sadaharu Aoki, in Marunounich or Isetan, and the same goes for Jean-Paul Hévin, though they pointed out in the former location that it was the last day for an ice cream drink (they know I'm looking to see what's new), which I'm doubly little interested in (which maybe doesn't make sense, mathematically). Viron changed their season cake, but not one of the greats that I was looking for. Toshi Yoroizuka has four special Parfaits for the next two weeks, again definitely not cake. Frédéric Cassel did not have any greats I was looking for, but I'll be able to get something new from them when I need to. Only a slightly different line-up than the Jiyugaoka shop for Origines Cacao, but none of the former greats (which might all have come from the closed Nihonbashi shop). Dalloyau had zero new things, which is suspicious, but they were busy and I didn't stay to ask; I figure I'll get back there within a week or so, anyway when I visit Frédéric Cassel. Finally, Del'Imo in Akasaka still has the one great cake I'm interested in.

Still have a sore butt, but ran through it as best I could and again, now it feels fine, pretty much like yesterday. One of these days, I'll really be recovered. At least my head feels better now. Still, only 9 km/h for the 14 km. That makes a marathon distance for two days total, so I won't feel guilty with a short run tomorrow. Not sure whether I'll be able to run, and Saturday is a little busy, so it's going to be a relatively short run, though I could do two relatively short runs.

The Mille-Feuille Satine was excellent, as expected. This seems to be their favorite "fetish", judging by them having a whole book about it. Specifically, it's orange and passion fruit. The mille-feuille uses creamed cream cheese (if that makes sense; at least that's my translation of Japanese for "cream cheese cream"), which works well with the slight citrus taste (although their citron fetish is different; I'm waiting for that one to come around again for a couple greats).

Sweet Satsuki: Satsuki

Sweet Satsuki: Satsuki

Had the afternoon free, so I took a long run. First, I went down to Sweet Satsuki in Himonya, Meguro-ku, which is not so far off my usual route to Jiyugaoka and got their Satsuki (~500 yen). It's a tiny shop with only a few fresh cakes. The cake was nice enough, completely competent, if nothing particular exciting: good, but not something to set them apart. It's a little neighborhood shop in the middle of a residential neighborhood, so it's probably hard for them to be much more. That part of the run was 9 km/h for 9 km, which is not bad given that my hips hurt from the beginning due to falling over backwards Sunday. Both my hips and my neck (from trying unsuccessfully to keep me from wacking the back of my head on the asphalt) are much better for the run.

La Base Secrète du GAMIN: Croissant

I went way further south than I needed to (by more or less exactly the route that I'll need to do for maybe the next new shop, which is further south) before turning to Jiyugaoka to check for new or sought after great cakes, though they were down two from last time: I only found 1 total. I went up to Sakarushinmachi for the same reason and still did not find the one cake I'm looking for there. From there, I linked up to the green path that runs near La Base Secrète du GAMIN, where I got a Croissant for 280 yen that was excellent, even though it was the mostly bread-like kind with just a couple millimeters of pastry outside.

Due to just the way the lights were, I ending up coming back north along Yamanote for much of the run, after avoiding major roads. At least Yamanote allows a pretty good separation from the road to run, even if it is still pretty noisy. The typhoon  rain did not start until almost exactly 3 km out (there's a long light there, so it's not an unlikely place for anything weather event). Finally, my hat was useful, to keep me dry. From Satsuki to home was about 20 km at 8 km/h, which I blame on heat, distance, and navigation, but it's a fine speed for any run over 20 km total after 3 days off.

Factory Shin: Mont-Blanc and Strawberry Shortcake

Went to Factory Shin in Kobe as a café (just drink and cake sets). It's modern and frequented more by young people. The selection is still fairly traditional in the sense of being the simplest standard cakes of Japanese cake shops, but they are good. We had the Mont-blanc and the Strawberry Shortcake. The Mont-blanc was definitely good, but nothing unexpected or exciting except maybe the meringue base, which is fairly thick and very sugary (I would guess just sugar and egg white, versus an almond powder based meringue), which is a good thing. Also, I should note that while this was the most common type, a reverse mont-blanc (i.e., the "blanc" is on the inside under the brown chestnut paste crown), there is candied chestnut in the center.

Strawberry Shortcake is not something that much appeals to me, but this seemed very good, maybe excellent. Unlike the picture on the website, the whipped cream layers are just 2 or 3 mm thick, which I think is actually an advantage in this case. I see from their website that actually they do sell cake in Tokyo, through Seibu in Ikebukuro, so I'll label this as Tokyo cake as well, though I've never seen their cake counter, just seen people carry their bags, so I'm not sure what they actually have.