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Beautiful cans of cake become a viral hit in Japan

Oona McGee Jun 26, 2021
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We lift the lid on a rare beauty that everyone wants to try right now.

We’re always on the lookout for new and unusual sweets in Japan, so when we heard about a new dessert that was making everyone gasp at its beauty, we knew we had to drop everything and seek it out.

Produced by Gaku, the operators of a chain of specialty parfait and risotto stores in Hokkaido and Tokyo, this new cake immediately stands out with its eye-catching appearance. Instead of being served as a slice on a plate, it’s packaged up in a can, and unlike other canned cakes we’ve seen on the market, which are usually long-life varieties designed for emergency rations, this one looks absolutely stunning, inside and out.

「ショートケーキ缶」
意匠登録出願中

北海道産の新鮮な生クリームたっぷりに。
シンプルにバランス良く計算したレシピを缶に閉じ込めました。

東京
Risotteria®︎GAKU渋谷で先行発売中

札幌
7/16 new open
pâtisserie OKASHI GAKU の前に設置の自動販売機で販売します。 pic.twitter.com/pWYT7SoocH

— 橋本学 /Gaku inc. (@risotteria) June 20, 2021

This “Shortcake Can” is quite a rare find, as it’s currently only available at one place in all of Japan – Parfaiteria Bel in Shibuya, Tokyo. Like Gaku’s other specialty parfait branches, Parfaiteria Bel is aimed at late-night sweet tooths, with their parfaits promoted as post-drink alternatives for people on a night out.

▼ Parfaiteria Bel is open until midnight every night, except Fridays and Saturdays, when they’re open until 2 a.m.

We stopped by to pick up a can, and when we visited, word had spread so fast on social media they’d already completely sold out. Tail between our legs, we returned the next day, when they received more stock, and we saw they also had four other Cake Can options on the menu: Blueberry and Fresh Cream Chiffon Cake, Strawberry and Fresh Cream Chiffon Cake, and Citrus and Fresh Cream Chiffon Cake, all priced at 700 yen (US$6.31) each, along with an Adult Tiramisu, priced at 900 yen.

▼ The “Shortcake Can” (second from the right in the image below) is also priced at 900 yen.

We were overjoyed to finally be able to get our hands on the Shortcake Can, and the first thing we noticed was the can itself, which is designed to appear as if it’s see-through, showing the layers of sweet ingredients inside.

▼ The optical-illusion look is so stunning the company has made an application to register the design.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by P.K.サンジュン (@p.k.sanjun)

While the outside of the can is the first thing to catch the eye, we were curious to delve into the inside of the can, so we popped the lid and were met with a delightfully thick layer of fluffy cream. Dipping a spoon into the mix revealed a hint of red blush from the strawberries, and an airy sponge combined with fresh cream — the three main components of strawberry shortcake in Japan.

It may not look like a conventional slice of strawberry shortcake, but all the necessary ingredients were in there, and after one mouthful of this sweet dessert we were immediately converted to cakes in cans. The taste was as good as any cake you’d buy from a store, which is a testament to Gaku’s expertise with handmade sweets, and we couldn’t detect any metallic taste from the can whatsoever.

The fresh cream was subtly sweet and didn’t leave any fatty residue on the tongue, and the strawberries and sponge cake tasted equally fresh. The mix also included nuts for a fun textural accent, which made us feel as if we were eating a parfait from a can.

It was so good we went back and purchased three of the store’s “Fuwa Cans” (“Fluffy Cans”), which are similar to the shortcake, only they contain jam instead of fresh fruit. The designs on these cans aren’t as stunning as the shortcake can, but their contents were just as delicious, with the fresh cream giving the jam a wonderfully “fluffy” texture that made our eyes roll back in delight as it hit the taste buds.

We were surprised to find that these canned sweets delivered such high quality flavours, and we reckon they’re well worth the price we paid for them. We’d love to see these cans become more widely available in future, and people in Sapporo will be happy to know the cans will be appearing inside the vending machine outside Pâtisserie okashi gaku in Sapporo from July.

Here’s hoping the canned desserts come to more vending machines around Japan soon, because Dydo’s drinkable shortcake in a can is so 2017.

Store Information

Parfaiteria Bel Shibuya / 夜パフェ専門店　パフェテリアベル渋谷
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku,
東京都渋谷区道玄坂1丁目7-10 新大宗ソシアルビル3F
Hours: 6:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. (Mon-Thu); 6:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. (Fridays and days when the following day is a public holiday); 3:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. (Sat); 3:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. (Sun and public holidays). Last order 30 minutes before closing.
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