Totoro is looking sweeter than ever.
In Japan, you don’t need to be in love in order to love Valentine’s Day, since the day is as much about chocolate as it is romance. So regardless of whether or not you’ve found your soulmate, you can make some sweet Valentine’s memories with a special someone: Totoro.
Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory, the Tokyo sweets shop run by relatives of Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki, has revealed its lineup of special Valentine’s Day chocolate treats for this year. First up is the Small Totoro Pair Cake, a chocolate tart with a layer of creamy ganache at the bottom, above that a strawberry mousse with bits of strawberry mixed in, and then an enticingly shimmery chocolate glacage glaze. Sitting atop the cake is a happy Small Totoro couple made out of white an (sweet bean paste), accompanied by a chocolate ribbon that makes this both a mouthwatering and heartwarming gift, whether you’re presenting it to someone else or treating yourself.
While Shirohige’s illustrated diagrams are always cute, the actual tart is even more adorable.
As the bakery’s full name implies, though, cream puffs are Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory’s flagship temptations. While they’re always shaped like Totoros, for Valentine’s day they’re getting a special, all-encompassing coating of chocolate.
Two types are on offer, with the milk chocolate-covered Totoro cream puff filled with ganache and orange caramel, and the white chocolate one containing strawberry ganache and berry gelee. They also each come with a pair of acorn-shaped cookies.
If you’re looking for something lighter, but still sweet, to nibble on, there’s a three-piece Totoro cookie set, with Totoros in both standard buttery and chocolate biscuit forms, plus a raspberry-flavored leaf cookie (that looks like some forest dweller has already taken a little bite out of it).
And speaking of cookies, Shirohige’s Catbus sandwich cookie is also getting chocolatey for Valentine’s Day, replacing its usual butter raisin filling for one of ganache made from a blend of two types of chocolate.
Cute as they are, none of these will break your wallet’s heart. At 1,000 yen (US$6.50), the tart is as pricey as they get, with Totoro cream puffs and Catbus cookies 850 yen and the Totoro cookie set 500 yen. If you want to spend bigger, though, Shirohige has a Valentine’s assortment of various baked confectionaries for 2,500 yen, though aside from the one Totoro cookie, they don’t have any anime aesthetics to them.
All of the items are available for preorder (either in-person or via phone, as explained here) as of February 4, with possible pickup dates of February 11-14 for the chocolate Totoro pair tart and chocolate Totoro cream puffs. The window is a little wider for the cookies and baked confectionary set, which can be picked up between February 7 and 14. Oh, and if your Valentine’s dessert schedule is already so full that you can’t fit one more treat in until late February at the earliest, don’t despair, because the chocolate Catbus cookie will be available at Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory’s branch in Tokyo’s Kichijoji neighborhood through March 30.
Source: Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory (1, 2)
Images: Shirohige’s Cream Puff Factory
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