The Packing House

Bakery: The Packing House 
Address: 3705 Riverview Ave, Spences Bridge BC
Website: n/a 
Style: Canadian 
Price: $-$$

If you're taking the now alternate route on Hwy 1, you'll go through the small town of Spences Bridge. At first glance, it doesn't seem like the place for a cafe, especially since the only other business that's open is the motel; I'm only saying this from extensive Cake Tour experience. There's almost no chance at getting something in such a small place. Still, with its exposed wood exterior and interior and smack dab in the middle of the vastness of river, dirt parking, and desolate hills, it feels a bit like you're taking a break during the Gold Rush. Major cool factor. :)

... At least in terms of Cake Tours, because, yes, The Packing House, not only serves light lunches, soup, and hot drinks, but they have a small selection of homemade baked goods including cookies, loaf cakes and slices of daily pie. Reasonably priced, a few flavours of the cake and cookies. It's always so exciting to find spots like this along the way!

I'm always a fan of ginger cookies, so I decided to give the ginger snap ($1.50) a try. I love my ginger cookies chewy and extra gingery and it's so hard for me to find one that's just right. It was looking really good for this one; I felt it upon purchase and found it slightly soft. A good sign. However, having already taken care of some bakery sampling that day, I saved the cookie for the next morning and it went brittle. That had to have been my fault, though. -___- Taste-wise, it reminded me more of some sort of spice cake, with that hint of brown sugar, than a ginger snap. I would have liked more ginger.

Rating: **1/2

European Breads

Bakery: European Breads
Address: 4320 Fraser St, Vancouver BC
Website: http://www.europeanbreads.com/
Style: Eastern European, Russian 
Price: $$ 

Several years ago, I got super excited at finding "Georgian Bakery," at first thinking that it referred to the country. Given how I love encountering less common ethnic baking, I was pretty disappointed when the 'Georgian' referred to the landmark, Georgian Bay. Of course. -_- Fast forward to now and there's European Breads, a bakery on Fraser I accidentally stumbled upon while looking for a street and one that I recall researching in the past, simply because I was very convinced that it was one of these places where they just sell bread. I'm not quite sure where that idea came from, but I'm very happy I stepped in nonetheless.

Putting all that to the side, European Breads is a small bakery and deli (in that they serve hot and some prepared food). Upon entering you're greeted by the smell of cooked cabbage, so it's definitely an Eastern European business. ;) However, they have a pretty small display case of sweet and savoury baked goods, including two with poppy seed! Judging by the hot food menu, the sweets available, and the two groups of Russian speakers eating there, I naturally assumed it to be Russian; some online research revealed that the owner is, more specifically, from Georgia, though there is almost nothing uniquely Georgian being sold. It would be a bit of a shame if it weren't for those poppy seed treats, the most surprising of which was the poppy seed roll cake. I've never seen one like this before; and it looks good... I'll have to get the next time I'm there!

Wanting more of a baked good than a cake this time around, I went with the poppy seed bun ($2.95). Outwardly, it was a fairly simple, unadorned bun with rolled with a black, grainier poppy seed mass. Peeling it apart layer by layer, I was pleasantly surprised at how much poppy seed filling there really was and both the dough and filling were delicious. What a find!

Rating: ***1/2  

Boulange Okuda [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Boulange Okuda 
Address: Yakunin-cho 253-2, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto
Website: http://boulange-okuda.jp/
Style: Japanese, European
Price: $$

Boulange Okuda is attempting to evoke Old World, European bakeries and it certainly succeeds with its decor alone; with its warm brown panelling, black marble accents and gold lettering, it does look like it would be more at home along the streets of Paris than on the ground floor of this fairly drab building in Kyoto. Inside, the baked goods also justify its name and look, a not so common occurrence for European-style bakeries in Japan, with a lovely selection of artisan breads, buttery French dough classics (croissants, croissants aux amandes, kouign amann), and airier brioche-based baked goods. Of course, they still did have those Japanese staples like melon and cream pan, but I have to say that the selection of things that not only looked really good, but authentic was impressive.

Saying that in as objective way as possible, I'll admit that I really did forget almost everything that was in-store, simply because the moment I set my sights on my eventual purchase, nothing else mattered. :D At first, I couldn't believe my eyes: was that...? No, it couldn't be! It had to be black sesame or chocolate; I was just being hopeful, but further inspection and trying to decipher the name was starting to work completely in my favour. Yes! It was a POPPY SEED CAKE.  (227 yen each) I saw it and I knew I'd regret it otherwise: I just grabbed the last two slices. If there were more, I probably would have taken them all.

This poppy seed cake belongs to a very few perfect ratings on my Japanese Cake Tour: fluffy dough braided with a generous amount of poppy seeds and a hint of orange peel. On top, there was a thin glaze. This was amazing! This was the best baked good I had on my trip. Even now, I can't believe I found a perfect poppy seed cake in Japan. WOW! *-*

Rating: ****

Oyama Sunblush

Bakery: Oyama Sunblush 
Address: 14439 Oyama Rd, Lake Country BC 
Website: http://www.oyamasunblush.com/
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$ 

Located in the heart of Lake Country is Oyama Sunblush, a bakery and homemade jam shop operating from a farmhouse; coming fairly late on a Sunday afternoon, I did expect it to be closed, but decided to test my luck anyways and found it open -- way to go, guys!

Nevertheless, after driving up the hill and getting out of the car, I was greeted by a very unenthusiastic dog and the smell of fresh, hot jam. Or maybe homemade pie filling? It smelled good.  Inside, it's a bit like stepping into someone's personal kitchen; past the jars of jam, it turned into one of those typical "farm" bakeries with either packaged sets of six or more on styrofoam trays or a list featuring the different types of pie available. It's a system that I'm not entirely fond of, since it makes trying different things impossible and it also makes me feel a bit obligated to buy the whole tray even if I'm just buying something for myself. I mean, I'm always happy to buy a lot of something... as long as I know it's good in the first place. ;) Fortunately, I asked the lady in charge and she gladly made the package a bit smaller for me, which I appreciated.

So, in the end, I grabbed one of the more divisible-friendly items: some butter tarts ($1 each). I really do like my butter tarts, after all. The shells on these were airier and not as firm and flaky as I would have wanted them. The bottoms, in particular, no longer had that fresh crispiness, but the main attraction is always the buttery filling and this one had been baked too long, perhaps? The filling was dried out and there just wasn't enough of it, making the shell overpower everything else. Given how eclectic and inviting the bakery was, I was a little disappointed with the end result.

Rating: **

Bâtard

Bakery: Bâtard 
Address: 3958 Fraser St, Vancouver BC
Website: http://batardbakery.com/
Style: European, French
Price: $$$ 

What went from trying to figure out on which road to go on turned into finding a bakery when I wasn't expecting one; at least, I wasn't actively looking for one, so stumbling across Bâtard was a pleasant surprise. This pretty bakery with its muted colours and golden accents reminds me a little of Ladurée; at least in terms of the decor. Stepping up to the counter, this vision of French patisserie grandeur lessened somewhat with most of the space being devoted to a sort of deli with both locally made and imported products along with a focus on sandwiches and other lunch/sit-down food. Over in one corner, there's a counter with their selection of (fairly pricey) baked goods and tarts; in my opinion, there should be more of a difference between baked goods and fancier tarts, even lunch items.

While there, I don't recall seeing that many traditional French baked goods, and yet online photos reveal a counter full of almond croissants, pains au chocolat, and is that kouign amann!? In fact, I had a hard time selecting something, simply because there was so little left and nothing, including muffins, biscotti and cookies, looked very French to me. *pouts* That's not fair! I was there right after lunch, too!

In the end, I felt a little obliged to go with the cinnamon orange morning bun ($4). Now, I'm not quite sure what exactly is a morning bun. Why is it not simply a cinnamon bun? From the outside, it looked like a flaky, buttery baked good that you just want to rip apart, but when I did rip a piece, it was drier and denser, certainly a lot less flaky than I had imagined it to be. Truth be told, it looked so tasty; I was expecting a little more. 

Rating: **1/2

Mister Donut [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Mister Donut 
Address: 河原町通今出川下る梶井町447−14 Kajiichō, Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto
Website: http://www.misterdonut.jp/
Style: Doughnuts 
Price: $ 

After having accidentally stumbled upon Mister Donut commercials online many, many months ago, Mister Donut became my most hotly anticipated Cake Tour in Japan. I couldn't help but love their mascot, Pon de Lion with his doughnut ring mane. The Mister Donut song is my ringtone, literally!! And taking a look at the pictures, the doughnuts looked so good: the fresh glaze on the Pon de Ringu, the strawberry doughnuts, the green tea ones, the cruellers... With so much excitement and self-made hype, in some ways I was gearing up for disappointment and disappointed I indeed was.

Stepping into Mister Donut, I found it terribly un-cute with dated orange and brown decor that transported me back to Country Style locations over here in Canada. They could have at least stuck a giant Pon de Lion somewhere! :( The selection was pretty good, with a nice variety of doughnuts ranging in style, glaze and price, with old-fashioned being the cheapest and fancier versions of their signature doughnut being around 150 yen.

 The best way to judge a doughnut shop is by trying a classic glazed one -- and how could I not the famed Pon de Ringu (108 yen)? Composed of little doughnut balls that are just waiting to be broken apart, I was greeted with a harder outside and a soft inside resembling cotton candy. The taste was off, as was the fluffy texture. My guess is that they mixed flours to create a more chewy doughnut similar to that of a sweet rice flour doughnut; suffice to say, I was not a fan. Actually... I didn't like it. The smell was unappealing -- was it the dough or the glaze? -- and I couldn't get past that very chewy cottony dough with its funny taste. Pon de Ringu was the worst treat I had in Japan!!!! ;__;

To give Mister Donut another chance, I decided to give the French crueller and a classic honey dip a try (both 108 yen each). Of the three, the honey dip (purchased at the Mister Donut in Kobe station) was the best, but like the Pon de Ringu, there was that distinct taste and slight chewiness (less pronounced in the honey dip) I didn't like. The crueller was different, but it was so generic and tasted so commercially mass-produced.

Well, I suppose it's my fault for expecting more from a large nationwide coffee and doughnut chain; I was heartbroken. They're never any good and in some ways it's almost a disgrace for Mimi's Cake Tour to be covering it, but... I still do like Pon de Lion. :#]

Rating: **

The Modern Bakeshop & Cafe

Bakery: The Modern Bakeshop & Cafe 
Address: 212 MacKenzie Ave, Revelstoke BC 
Website: http://themodernbakeshopandcafe.com/
Style: Canadian 
Price: $$ 

The Modern Bakeshop is one of the two bakeries in Revelstoke, though with the other also serving as a restaurant/bar, these guys are probably the more dedicated bakery of the town; despite this, The Modern is for me more cafe than bakeshop with a fridge full of wraps and sandwiches in addition to quite a lengthy list of breakfast/lunch and drink items on the wall. Of course, that's not to say they don't also have a selection of cakes, squares and baked goods. Maybe it's not exactly "huge" like the website claims, but there's still a nice amount to choose from, including quite a bit of chocolate and/or peanut butter treats, old-school tarts and cookies. Personally, I would have liked to see more baked goods (like those on top of the counter)...

Reading that the caramel implosion ($3.50) was a date cake, it had to be tried. I love date cake (and generally any sort of spice cake), after all. However, the date seemed to be in the description alone, since it was difficult to actually taste it, especially since the caramel as well as the white chocolate was way too sweet and overpowered the more subtle flavours of the cake. This one, I'm afraid, wasn't for me. It did look nice though.

Less on the sugary side and more my style, the carrot cake ($4.50) had a nice thick swirl of cream cheese icing on top and a slightly chunky spiced dough, though it could have used a little more carrot. The decorations on the top, unlike the caramel cake, really complimented the cake: I would have never thought of sprinkling a carrot cake with cranberries, but it was a very good combination. Recommended, quite good, but not amazing -- which can also apply to the bakery itself. A nice stop along Hwy 1 or when you happen to be in Revelstoke.

Rating: ***

Matsubaya [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Matsubaya (まつばや)
Address: 40 Ginkakujichō, Sakyō-ku, Kyōto
Website: n/a 
Style: Japanese 
Price: $$-$$$ 

Matsubaya, your final destination before reaching Ginkaku-ji temple, is more of a stall than a bakery or sweets shop. Their signature item is without a doubt their "rabbit" custard puffs (complete with plastic replicas with rather unappetizing pudding pouring downwards) and soft ice cream; there is, if I remember correctly, also the possibility of having a cream puff stuffed with soft ice cream. Besides this, they have a few shelves of some sort of cookies and crackers. I came here just as Ginkaku-ji was closing and feeling cold and tired from walking all the way there for essentially nothing, I decided to take advantage of the free tea Matsubaya offered with purchases and make a Cake Tour of those puffs... :P 

 The custard puffs come in two flavours: vanilla and matcha, with an occasional seasonal flavour available. It was sakura while I was there. All cost 300 yen.

The size of your fist, these are stiff and airy and biting into them, you get that nice bit of crunch on the outside and a little softness on the inside before getting to a pretty big mass of thick custard. A bit too much custard, in my opinion, as just using your mouth is nearly impossible and quite messy. They should really serve these with a spoon, so you can scoop out the excess custard instead of getting your fingers and face covered in it.... I liked the taste of the puff and the custard was pretty good; a little thick and gloopy, perhaps, but nice matcha flavour. Personally, I think I simply prefer cream puffs over custard puffs -- with matcha cream, of course! Yummy....   

Rating: ***  

Hideaway Bakery

Bakery: Hideaway Bakery 
Address: 93 Winnipeg St, Penticton BC
Website: facebook 
Style: North American, European
Price: $$ 

Hideaway Bakery, located on the ground floor of a newer condo development near the waterfront, wouldn't perhaps be called this if they actually had a sign. Going on foot, it would have to you as an unexpected, but wholly welcome surprise: hey, it's a bakery! Of course, I'd done my bakery research beforehand, knew the approximate location and was frustrated that there was no indication of this being the spot when coming by car (unless, naturally, you're in the know). A couple of U-turns later, I was here!

At first glance, Hideaway, with its white walls and open-concept counter area, seems like a fresh new addition to the modest bakery scene in Penticton. The choices are pretty impressive with a rack of baked goods off to the right and a case of cake slices, squares and tarts. This selection includes Canadian classics like cinnamon buns along with fancier "European-style" pastries like croissants. Taking a better look at the goodies, however, I suddenly had a sense of... deja vu. Perhaps it helped that I'd done all my Penticton bakeries on one single afternoon, but I immediately identified all baked goods on the shelves as coming from nearby Wouda's. The prices were the same and so... is this simply a second Wouda's location? Is that the "secret" of this bakery? Or do they simply carry goods from Wouda's to fill up the space, since many of those fancier items weren't spotted at the other bakery? At least, I don't think so.

It's a bit disappointing to find it's not an entirely unique bakery, but as I said, I was almost certain  some cake slices (basically anything located in the more sparsely filled refrigerated case) didn't belong to Wouda and I went with one of these.

Nothing gets me excited like a foreign name at a bakery and I instantly ran for the kaesesahne ($3.95). For those who may not know, that's pretty much German for cheesecake. I'm always a little wary of cheesecakes from a bakery that's not overtly Eastern European, because they usually tend to be very thick, sticky and cheesy, New York style. It's one of the few desserts I really don't like. The name here was promising; I was expecting a German-style cheesecake and I got it! Deliciously soft and fluffy cheese layer with a sponge cake top and bottom, this was so airy it collapsed a little in transport. Just the right texture, nice cake and simple powdered sugar sprinkled on top -- yummy despite the confusion!

Rating: ***

Thierry

Bakery: Thierry
Address: 1059 Alberni St, Vancouver BC
Website: https://www.thierrychocolates.com/
Style: French 
Price: $$$ 

It has always amazed me how many authentic French patisseries Vancouver has and that number seems to only go up. Take Thierry, for example. This chic, fairly new downtown patisserie, chocolate shop as well as cafe made me rethink the assumption that I had covered all bakeries downtown (well, with one or two ridiculously priced exceptions over in Yaletown...). Nevertheless, Thierry is an upscale pastry shop whose decor and pretty bags make you feel a bit like you've stepped into one of the high-end fashion boutiques lining Alberni and nearby streets, except that what you've brought out is more or less affordable and it happens to be tasty. It's bustling with people and has surprisingly long hours for a pastry shop, which is particularly nice for later arrivals. Like me. ^^

Strangely enough, if the website is any indication, Thierry seems to specialize first and foremost in chocolate and yet I don't actually recall seeing where the chocolate was in store. Perhaps it was just due to the chaotic lack of organization surrounding people standing around, ordering, waiting and picking things up, so much so that what looked like a long line upon entering ended up turning into no line at all. Along one wall, there are the elaborate pastries and cakes, available in single or larger servings, in addition to rows of macarons; right by the cash there is the slightly limited selection of baked goods; perhaps owing to the time of day (around 6pm, so not late-late and it *was* open for 6 more hours...), there were only two or three items left, one being a croissant, what I ended up taking, and a lone remaining pain au chocolat.

 Wanting something special for my last night before my Japan trip, but not wanting to carry around a fancier pastry, I was intrigued by the hazelnut pithivier ($4.95), especially when I spotted that it contained alcohol. Ooh, yes! Of course, it's always difficult to detect that hint of alcohol or what it happened to be, and there was no exception to that rule here, but it was still an interesting pastry stuffed with a sort of rich hazelnut mass and wrapped with layers of golden brown puff pastry. As nice and appetizing as it looked in-store, it was actually quite difficult to eat: the hazelnut mass crumbled and there was no cohesion with the dough that just would not break apart. Personally, for such a decadent pastry with a rather uncomplicated, nutty flavour, it would have been enough for it to be smaller and accordingly priced.

Pretty good, but next time, I'd see what else Thierry is capable of.

Rating: **1/2

Sizuya [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Sizuya 
Address: 京都市東山区祇園町北側291 双葉祇園ビル 1F
Website: http://sizuya.co.jp/
Style: Japanese
Price: $-$$ 

This is another bakery suggestion I got from my host K. -- thank you so much for your help! Sizuya is, according to my informant, usually the first place that comes to mind when you ask someone from Kyoto for a bakery. It's a local chain with five locations in and around the city centre. Sizuya has a more casual vibe with plenty of well-priced sweet and savoury baked goods lining the walls along the ever present seating area tucked away in the back. The vast majority are simpler, less fancy bread-based baked goods with a variety of fillings. The one thing that I didn't really like was that they had a particular thing for mixing up plain bread, sweets and savoury items on the shelves; why didn't they just put all the savoury in one corner and sweet in the other? It made figuring out what on earth was in the buns just that much harder (and my kana comprehension was still very rusty).

Having had a melon bun the day before, I wanted something different, but not necessarily creamy or chocolate-covered. Nothing really immediately catching my eye, I finally settled for the labelled number 2 and 3 pick (though other items, I noted, were also ranked #2... it's a very weird system): the uh, pan de pancake (190 yen)? It was definitely something different, though, having only read the name after the fact and somehow not seeing it in store, it hit me a little later on that it was just a giant pancake. I have no clue how I didn't notice it beforehand.... *shakes head*

Anyways, not entirely what I would call a pancake, this was a thick spiral of sweet dough with a swirl of syrup and a square of butter on top. Figuring it was a pancake, I warmed it up a little bit and let the syrup and butter melt a bit and soak into the dough. In some ways, this wasn't such a good idea; it worked well with the syrup, but the butter was too salty and it ruined the taste a bit. The dough turned out to be stiffer and airier than I expected, more reminiscent of an angel food cake (or a cupcake) than a real pancake, which seemed a bit mismatched with the toppings. Not exactly what I was expecting; I think it could have been much better.

Rating: **1/2

The Prague Cafe

Bakery: The Prague Cafe
Address: 102-250 Marina Way, Penticton BC
Website: http://www.thepraguecafe.com
Style: Czech, European
Price: $$

I always love stumbling upon these unique destinations for sweets and baked goods, and while it's not a dedicated bakery, I certainly didn't expect to find a Czech cafe along the Penticton waterfront. I actually wasn't even initially here to check out the sweet selection; with my top picks all weirdly closed, I was looking for a place to have lunch and was hoping The Prague Cafe would have fried cheese. They didn't. But they did have a small selection of traditional desserts, along with tacky souvenirs from Prague Old Town. Three items, to be exact: slabs of fruit cake (available in peach, plum and blueberry; $3.25 per slice), marble baba, and apple strudel. The fruit cakes, sitting beside the counter on giant cookie sheets, looked the most enticing and a slice of plum cake had my name on it from the very beginning, but no one else must have gotten that memo. It looked so simple, very homemade; it must have been good...

Standing at the counter, I waited to be served. And waited. Maybe five minutes in, I was finally acknowledged with a hurried explanation that I would be served next, once everything else was taken care of. Another five minutes later, what I assumed to be the owner (or perhaps a worker) rushed behind the counter from his waiting car, grabbed the whole darn slab of plum cake with a quick glance, and just as quickly drove away. Uh, what!? O_O But that was mine!!!! This was... a first for the Cake Tour. I really did just want to walk out in protest, but I didn't want those ten minutes of waiting to be for nothing; besides that, I really did want this Cake Tour, as it just oozed cool factor.

I went with peach. I really like peach too, after all. I almost hate to say it, but this was very good. Nothing fancy and reminiscent of my mom's baking (this is probably one of the best compliments a Cake Tour can get), this had delicious cake dough that was spongy and moist and was topped with just the right amount of sliced peaches, neither too mushy nor too dried out. Add to that some crumble strewn here and there. Mmm... why did it have to taste so good when all I really wanted was the plum!?

Rating: ***

Boulangerie Seraphin [RIP]

Bakery: Boulangerie Seraphin 
Address: 5008 Blvd St-Laurent, Montreal QC 
Website: n/a 
Style: Portuguese, European 
Price: $$ 

My final bakery visit for this particular Montreal trip, I kind of ended up here purely by accident; rather, I wanted to try another bakery that was more on the way and found that they really couldn't be called a bakery and there was nothing that could be reviewed. Recalling that there was some sort of  bakery near the intersection of St-Laurent and Mont Royal, I decided to give it a try.

I'm not quite sure why I was so convinced this was a Portuguese bakery when there wasn't that much here indicating this to be the case. Yes, one of their "feature" items were those omnipresent custard tarts, but you can find them in many bakeries and everything else fell more in with a pan-European selection of tarts, cheesecakes, croissants and cookies. In terms of baked goods, I definitely would have preferred more varied choices; with this ranging from croissants to apple turnovers, I would have liked something... different, unique.

So I went with this twist ($2.75) with powdered sugar and almonds on top, thinking that it would be a coconut bun. Hey, it looked like one and those custard tarts made it a natural assumption! Of course it was my fault for not inquiring further (nothing is labelled or priced besides a few select items), but when I bit in and found it to be a custard bun, I realized my mistake but wasn't overly upset at it. I can like a good custard bun as well. However, I found this particular bun flavourless; the custard was too thick and had the taste and texture of boxed pudding mix. The dough was too dense and again, didn't have that much flavour; maybe some more almonds and powdered sugar would have helped it along?

Seraphin had potential, but given the fact that Portuguese bakeries are usually reliable for tasty, affordable baked goods, I felt this one couldn't come close to others on St-Laurent.

Rating: **

Second House [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Second House Cake Works
Address: In: Kyoto Marui, Shincho 68, Shimogyo-ku, Kyoto
Website: http://www.secondhouse.co.jp
Style: Japanese, Cakes
Price: $$-$$$ 

It was a miserable rainy day when I popped into the Marui department store just to dry off and maybe see what was there. In the Kyoto branch, most of the first floor is dedicated to little food stalls that don't really provide you with much in terms of sweets and baked goods, but offer a hodgepodge of drinks, chocolate and dried goods. I, of course, was hoping to find a bakery or something along those lines... walking past the bagel bakery and castella booth (a little pricey and too big for an everyday treat), I spotted my unknowing goal: Second House Cake Works.

Second House Cake Works is a smaller-scale, dessert-only offshoot of their Cake and Spaghetti House chain, both of which are only in Kyoto. And while I don't quite see the connection in the latter, the Cake Works is cute and cozy with an array of pretty Western-style cakes and pastries. In store, these are sold mostly as individual treats, though they have a few cakes for sharing along with a nice selection of cookies, among which are madeleines and macarons, and tarts. As with most cakes, and certainly of the individually crafted kind, they're not cheap, but there are more and less expensive options. A nice thing is that they do seem to have regular promotions and you can get selected cake types for 100-150 yen less than the listed price. That's pretty nice.

This is exactly what I did: I picked out this lovely little pink sakura mousse cake (100 yen off from 530 = 430). Similar in style to a candied chestnut cake, this had "strings" of thick, slightly grainy  icing atop a lighter whipped cream centre and sponge cake soaked in a little something extra. Incredibly rich and almost difficult to eat in one sitting, this was flavourful, maybe a cross between floral and strawberry. Personally, I would have liked something in addition to all that cream and icing, but a special treat from a place that knows cake.

Rating: ***