Don't look now, but here comes the fall. Seasons always arrive early in the Japanese food scene, with store shelves already displaying seasonally flavored goods and drinks boasting fitting designs. The weather might betray it, but at least your shopping cart can feel like autumn.
Dessert chain Cozy Corner is getting into the spirit with a new line of apple-flavored sweets, available nationwide until Halloween. All of them look tasty, but only one looks extra photogenic — that would be the Ringo Dome cake, which has been modeled to resemble the very fruit this campaign celebrates. This offering (¥421 after tax) promises a fresh apple jam in the center of the big red top.
As you'd expect from a cake shaped like the fruit, this sweet delivers plenty of apple taste. It offers a nice tartness via the mix of apple mousse at the top and jam in the center. Yet what makes this worth the price tag is the pleasant black tea custard that has been worked in, offering a welcome bitterness to a treat that could have been a little too ... apple. This is a solid way to pretend the fall is beginning.