WAKO Pâtissier Takahiro Matsume, who has 15 years of experience in his profession, prepared the baked confections. He provided three different types of pound cakes made using kinako roasted soybean flour and amanatto sugared beans.

For the creamy cake tasting session, WAKO pastry chef Ryohei Oguma was in charge of cake preparations. A participant on the Japanese national team at Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie 2019, the most prestigious of pâtissier competitions, Oguma helped his nation take home the silver medal (second place). For the Tokyo Tokyo project, he came up some ideas for a "shortcake of the future." The appearance of his proposed sweets featured vivid pink coloring that readily caught the eye, prompting exclamations of amazement from all present.

The ingredient responsible was ruby chocolate, which is considered the "fourth" variety of chocolate after milk, dark and white chocolate and has rapidly gained popularity in recent years. The bright pink color is naturally occurring in the cacao used for ruby chocolate, and Oguma used this same ingredient in the cream as well.

Both Ishii and Yoshimaru commented that the cream is very sweet, so perhaps a better balance between the sponge cake and cream was needed, or else the addition of more tartness. Responded Oguma, "The ruby chocolate itself has a bit of inherent tartness, but when used in cakes the sweet taste tends to stand out more. I'll try using other ingredients to find a better balance between tartness and sweetness."

Ultimately, Oguma provided three different types of cake, including a square variety and even St. Honoré cake—a traditional French confection made with choux pastry batter. All three of these creations tasted and looked great in their own ways, making it hard to choose a favorite among them. Selecting just one of the proposed confections for use as the final product was looking to be a difficult task indeed.

Following the tasting sessions, both chefs undertook repeated revisions based on the critiques received until they completed their final product proposals. Afterward, we sat down to talk to them about the completed confections.

——Why did you choose a shortcake style for this original confection project?

When I learned that Tokyo Tokyo's "Old meets New" concept was the central theme for this project, I decided to focus on the local shortcakes of Tokyo created about a century ago as the "old," while using the currently popular ruby chocolate as the "new" to create a sort of "shortcake of the future." My goal was to use a novel ingredient to create an entirely new type of shortcake, both in terms of appearance and taste.

——Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing that your experience as a chocolatier is what inspired you to focus on ruby chocolate. What do you find so appealing about ruby chocolate?

The first thing that comes to mind is the color— the vivid pink is visually quite attractive. Unfortunately, it starts to take on a grayish tinge as time passes, and because ruby chocolate has very high viscosity it doesn't mold or flow well, making it hard to work with. Its flavor is similar to white chocolate, but with a bit of tartness added in. At WAKO, we used to sell a Christmas cake product consisting of vanilla and raspberry mousse coated with ruby chocolate, but this is the first time I have used ruby chocolate with a creamy-type cake.

——What improvements did you make between the initial prototype product and the final product?

By molding the ruby chocolate around the outside in a tubular fashion, I was able to add a variety of toppings, including raspberries and blueberries as well as ingredients like puffed rice and chocolate-covered raspberries for more interesting texture variation. On the inside, I added raspberries to the ruby chocolate cream between the cake sections in order to impart more tart flavor. I also sandwiched raspberries between the sponge cake and cream layers.

——Tell me honestly, how did you feel when you received the offer to design an original confection product for Tokyo Tokyo?

Well, I had a difficult time choosing the right ingredients, but my main focus was on using Japanese-style ingredients. I entered this profession because I really enjoy making sweets, and I excited to make some prototype products for this project.

——What improvements did you make following the initial tasting session?

To start with, I added dried figs, jewelry raisins, and also the red balls which are chocolate-covered cereal. I had never thought to use dried figs together with kinako roasted soybean flour, but the singular texture and sweetness of this ingredient brings out the savory taste of the cake even more. For the amanatto sugared beans, I chose white kidney beans, which are often used to make shiro-an white sweet bean paste in Japanese confections. The aromatic properties of kinako match the cake well, and the ingredients seem to blend together as one when eaten.

——During the tasting session, they were told there was not enough kinako flavor, and the challenge of avoiding a dried-out, crumbly cake texture was also discussed. What improvements did you end up making in this regard?

After trying out a wide range of different kinako varieties, I used a type of domestically produced kinako not often seen in stores— this was the one with the strongest fragrant properties when used in the cake. I also used about three to four times the amount of kinako used in the prototype cake while carefully calculating water volume in order to achieve a moist cake texture.

——What are some of Cake Kinako's selling points?

With the upcoming 2020 Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo, we expect to have a lot of visitors to Ginza from other prefectures as well as other countries. I hope as many people as possible will try this new-style pound cake made using a traditional Japanese kinako whose roots go way back into the past. Cake Kinako does not contain any spirits, so it can be enjoyed by a wide range of customers ranging from children to senior citizens.