Patisserie Yamazaki Paris 16th

Framboise Fantasie, watercolor, 9" x 11"

The posh 16th arrondissement is loaded with posh patisseries.

And I've barely set foot in them.
This is pretty tragique - I must make up for this lapse next trip

I just happened to waltze by Patisserie Yamazaki enroute to the Musee Marmottan last October

6 Chaussée Muette 75016
Metro: La Muette

As usual I ran in, stole some shots and ran out without tasting a thing - quelle dommage :(

Unlike trecherous Financier Pastries lining the shelves of my refrigerator and hips...ahem

I have more resistance in Paris - there's such a wealth of choices.

You know in the next block or so you'll find something irresistable. Pastry procrastination is easy in Paris.

New York is not so full of temptation.

C'est la vie

I promise to go inside and EAT something next time!

BONJOUR Yamazaki Paris!

More Paris Buildings and Monuments

Opera Garnier Paris 75008, 5" x 7"

We're out walking again - this time Place de Opera...

The Paris Opera is just as yummy as a piece of cake...

And in fact it is a piece of cake.
Dalloyau celebrated this cakes birthday last year...

Multi-layered, coffee buttercream-filled, Kahlua-soaked...

OPERA CAKE!!!

The Monuments of Paris: an illustrated guide by Michel Poisson is a great cource if you like to pour over the details and history of the all the Paris monuments and architecture - 464 pages of details and maps. If only it were lighter so you could bring it along...C'est la vie
BONJOUR OPERA!

Dalloyau Opera cake

Dalloyau Opera cake, original watercolor

It's "Chocolate Friday". Shall we discuss classic Opera Cake or gateau.
 

 Dalloyau has happily taken on the mantle of ownership of the multi-layered CHOCOLATE Opera Gateau.
I just happened to by passing the Bastille Dalloyau. And in the name of research bla bla bla, all for your benefit bien sur, I felt I must taste Dalloyau's, considered by pastry chefs in the know to be the best. Dalloyau is pronounced doll-why-oh by the way.

They do have lovely tea salons at each of their shops, so why not? Firstly you must see the Opera Garnier, namesake of the famous Opera Cake. And it just so happens that Dalloyau was celebrating the 100th anniversary of this cake and making a great to-do over it... Et Voila!
The new special version of the cake with their sketch imposed on the top layer! They've also got a pink or raspberry version called,
"OPERA ROCK"For those of us with smaller appetites, an entrement or side dish in 3 versions.A look inside.A closeup of THE OPERA CAKE!
4 layers of kahlua-soaked joconde
3 layers of coffee buttercream
with chocolate ganache in between
and glaze on top
which makes up all of 8 layers!
As described by Bozzacafe on Flickr, who was brave enough to make this.
I aim to please but I have to please myself too and this beehive of caramel was calling me - the Torbillon Caramel.

So I indulged and ordered the two of them. Pas de choise.

Not a big fan of creamy things I demolished the outer layer of caramel and dissected the rest. If only you'd come along and help me out here.
And an entrement of my own -

I was pleasently surprised by your responses yesterday at mentioning my last minute fears of leaving home. I feel much better now. BIG MERCI!

In this morning's NYTimes I found this salient quote that should inspire us all to get out there and see the world. This said by Barack Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng on their mother:

“She felt that somehow, wandering through uncharted territory, we might stumble upon something that will, in an instant, seem to represent who we are at the core...That was very much her philosophy of life — to not be limited by fear or narrow definitions, to not build walls around ourselves and to do our best to find kinship and beauty in unexpected places.”

L'Opera Cake Geometry

The famous l'opera gateau is not exactly unrelated to my Paris trip. I keep staring at my rectangular suitcase

and thinking about pastry geometrie instead of packing.
 

I tried opera cake at Sadaharu Aoki's patisserie

on 35, rue de Vaugirard, 75006
Sadly, I cannot report how it tasted.

I was too busy admiring it's perfect architecture and lovely dimensions.

The cake was first created by Louis Clichy in 1903.
But Dalloyau renamed it after the grand Paris Opera
and is reknown for their version. I stole a shot at Galerie Lafayette Gourmet.

Every French patisserie makes a version of this popular multi-layered chocolate decadence.
L'Epicerie has their monster versions...I would love to figure out why a squared cake in the US connotes an
office party birthday or a banana cake?
Where is the panache?
Where's the ganache? Humm.

Pierre Herme makes what looks like an opera cake but he changes the equation.
Called the Carrement Chocolat, it is not layered.
Inside is:
(biscuit "molleux chocolat", creme onctueuse au chocolat, mousse au chocolat, fine feuilles de chocolat craquant)
Well I see the word feuille / leaves, so maybe it is layered?
Help me out here.

I brought the petit four version home to paint.

There's nothing like the challenge of painting a square
on a rectangular piece of paper.But I think I forgot to taste it...
Uh ohThese (20!) step-by-step demo pictures are from

the Meilleur du Chef.dom..
Here's what's inside the cake:
Giaconda biscuit
Coffee syrup
Coffee buttercream
Chocolate ganache
Chocolate glaze
Not exactly "a piece of cake" to make!
I think I better focus on the 20+ layers going inside my little suitcase...ahem

Gâteaux Glossaire

I'd much rather drink my chocolate out of a cup or bite into a tablette (solid bar) than munch on a piece of gâteau (cake). Maybe it's a texture issue. I never cared for drawing with crumbly charcoal or pastels either... But they are very nice to paint and fall into my theory of pastry géométrie by being round, square, triangular, rectangular and so on. That odd shaped little cake in front of the macarons is called a Brownie by arnaud Del Mon Tel. The French do have a penchant (inclination) for les mots Anglais like "crumble" or "brownie" or "cake"?! Even Hermé lists "cakes" in his spring catalogue...

Now this is what you would call a gateau, a slice of a much bigger gateaux (cake) usually for 6/8 people, a party cake. This slice was hellish to paint. Chocolate can so easily become muck if you're not careful. This slice doesn't make the grade as bonified chocolate :(

I loved this architectural wonder of Gérard Mulot's. Kind of like the Guggenheim Museum. I only ate the chocolate disk on top...

Here's a chock-o-block of chocolate cake from P Hermé. He lists it in his petits-fours (that's an individual-sized cake) selection and titles it Carrément Chocolat.

I'd make a great partner on a pâtisserie jaunt, since I can easily pass up an opera cake. Hear that Robyn? I picked off the outer shards of chocolate on this Pierre Hermé Plénitude and tossed the rest. Mechante!(naughty) Anonymous left a comment...I have decided that my diet plan involves eating only the desserts that you feature. So keep that in mind... I'm easily influenced. Leave more suggestions for me :)