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How sweet

36 Comments

A girl watches a pastry chef make cakes in Tokyo on Monday.

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36 Comments
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Mmmmm baumkuchen - Tokyo offers the best in the world...

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Ebisen, you are right. Tokyo has the best of baumkuchen. Baumkechen is my O-chugen & O-seibo favourite lists.

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Yum cake, delicious! What is that long round golden brown thing?

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I want some!! Baumkuchen tastes best in Germany! Lecker! :)

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Too much cake, not enough nutrition in Japan. No wonder a lot of people are skin and bones here.

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I hardly doubt cake is to blame for people being too thin... You would think it would have the opposite effect.

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Speaking of German cakes...

Does nyone know of a place in Tokyo or elsewhere in Japan that makes or sells well-made applestrudel? German-style, Austrian-style, Hungarian-style -- any type at all!

Apart from the problem of making proper dough, I imagine the apples would have to be imported?

Thanks!

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There are a few places. Some shutdown now like the Konditorei that had an Austrian Goverment Certificate(was also licenced for Sacher Torte by Demel).

"Linde" in Kichijoji(Sunroad opposite Dorama) makes some nice Apfelstrudel, Kirsch-Tassen, Vanilla-Taschen, etc. Closed Sundays though. I buy most of my bread, etc there and also often stop by in the Kaffee upstairs for Lunch(Beef-Stew set, etc). They make some nice and proper coffee, none of that Starbuck, Tully, etc crapola. Doubt the apples are imported though.

As for Apfelstrudel, fairly easy to make if you got a Microwave/Oven/Grill. Even back home we normally by the Dough sheets frozen(can be hard to source here though). We can make the dough by hand but skip it often.

Said that while Linde, etc are good they are different from home-made ones.

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That photo was taken at the ground floor of the Matsuzakaya dept. store in Ginza. It's common to see people lined up for the goodies. When I walked past it last December, Salvation Army members were tooting Christmas carols on their instruments on the sidewalk. The music reminded me of the happy spirit of Christmases past, and I decided to forego buying a cake and donated an equivalent amount to the less fortunate.

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man if my wife found that window she wud never leave it, can anyone gimme the address hahaha

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Biggest kamaboko I've seen all day.

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Actually there is a Baumkuchen Maker in Berlin, who is quite famous, and who can and does export to Japan.

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@GW: HA! @ninjastar: by your reasoning the near 50% of the populations in both the USA and Australia which are grossely obese have actually had too much nutrition?

Moderator: Back on topic please.

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electric - really? I often travel and try baumkuchen in Germany, but I still believe Tokyo has the best one in the world(and the most expensive btw:) )...

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BTW the recipe for it:

"The ratio of flour, butter and eggs is typically 1:1:2 respectively (i.e., 100 grams of flour, 100 grams of butter and 200 grams of eggs)" - holly - in this picture we are looking at a few tens of millions of calories :)...

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I saw someone from Germany on a TV show here say that Baumkuchen isn't very common in Germany. Does anybody here know whether that is true or not?

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Kawachi.

That is true, besides the name it is not common in germany nor of german Origin. Similar Cakes are eaten across europe and the origin is said to be in Greece in ancient times.

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Thanks, Zenny11!! Because of the name and all, I just assumed it was German or Austrian. But I have to admit, good baumkuchen is one of my favorite desserts!!

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I saw someone from Germany on a TV show here say that Baumkuchen isn't very common in Germany. Does anybody here know whether that is true or not?

Because it was stollen.

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I like the cakes in Japan. They are not too sweet and very good.

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Good one, Nessie!!

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Nessie:

Unfortunately, I can not comment on it, because I did not see the program. In the western part, where I came from, Baumkuchen was not regarded as a specialty, but as just another kind of sweet, that one can buy and eat around Christmastime. Let's say 500g approximately 3 Euro. And - Stollen is quite different.

ebisen:

The name of the Baumkuchen shop in Berlin (Steglitz) is Konditorei Rabien. Their history dates back 125 Years as their webpage says. Webpage is in English, German and Japanese - convenient.

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electric, thanks, I'll make sure to try it the next time I'm in Berlin (next month).

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I'm sure the little cutie can't wait to have it. She might be be running home asking her parents to buy.. ^^

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We had an aunt in former east Germany, who would send us nice Baumkuchen every year around Christmastime and we kids would brake off the noses to eat them and get scolded by our Parents! Anyway the cakes in Japan are just too small and with sugar glace,baaeh! - The one I like most now is of course the one I bake in our restaurant's pizza oven, delicious!

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I'm searching for a cake in Japan that is both healthy (nutritious) and tasty.

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tasty

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tiger - Hotel restaurants in Shinjuku and Yebisu offers cake buffet for about 3,000JY. It's a bit embarrassing to go alone but I sometimes use them anyways.

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Pastry chef = junk food maker?

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there is one in the mitsukoshi in nipponbashi, oishii wa!

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Looks at picture and drools Mmmmmmmm, I want some cake now. Just had some tiramisu a few days ago, but I'm up for another round of sweet fluffy pastries!

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Pastry chef = junk food maker?

That's a tough one...I mean they're close, but still, most pastry is made with 'real' food and not laden with all the high-tech chemicals that junk food is just crawling with. Either way, they both create a lot of empty calories.

But, if you eat a fruit tart, that's good for you, right??? Right??? :)

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I like cakes from most Asian countries. Never like those in US or Canada. They are just way too sweet with those icing even for a person like me who has a sweet tooth.

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Wish the chef would not wear a face mask. I like to see people's faces and am not overly worried about the fact that humans breathe. Lovely photo and comments.

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I am german and the first time i heard about THAT famous german Baumkuchen was in... Japan and no i am not that barbaric as it seems at first sight ;)

Btw, it's always a please for me to buy 'Auslese' after shave ;)

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From the Wiki;

Baumkuchen in Japan

Baumkuchen is one of the most popular pastries in Japan, where it is called バウムクーヘン (baumukūhen), or often erroneously, バームクーヘン (bāmukūhen). It is a popular return present in Japan for wedding guests because of its ring shape.[7] It was first introduced to Japan by the German Karl Joseph Wilhelm Juchheim. Juchheim was in the Chinese city of Tsingtao during World War I and when the war ended the Japanese Army removed him and his wife to Japan.[8] Juchheim started making and selling the traditional confection at a German exhibition in Hiroshima in 1919. Continued success allowed him to move to Yokohama and open a bakery-store, but it was destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, thus forcing him to move his operations to Kobe, where he stayed until the end of World War II. Some years later, his wife returned to help a Japanese company open a chain of bakeries under the Juchheim name that further helped spread Baumkuchen's popularity in Japan and is still in operation.

The above should explain the "Famous german Cake".

Wiki gives other european names for it too.

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