"Seuchosaeng (Strawberry Chocolate Fresh Cream Cake)", a mega-hit menu item from Twosome Place that reportedly sold 80 pieces per minute. This product became so popular that many people visited Twosome Place specifically to buy "Seuchosaeng" rather than coffee. However, it also revealed the structural limitation of cakes, as most sales occurred mainly at the end and beginning of the year.

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This year, Twosome Place ambitiously launched the new "Gwa-il Saeng (Fruit + Fresh Cream)" series to target year-round cake demand. The strategic goal is to reduce dependence on Seuchosaeng by utilizing a variety of seasonal fruits.

So far, there are three products in the lineup. These include "Mangosaeng (Mango Fresh Cream Cake)" made with the summer fruit mango, "Peach Saeng (Peach Fresh Cream Cake)" made with peach, and "Geumgyulsaeng (Kumquat Fresh Cream Cake)" made with kumquat.

From the left, "Mangosaeng (Mango Fresh Cream Cake)" made with the summer fruit mango, and "Geumgyulsaeng (Kumquat Fresh Cream Cake)" made with kumquat. Photo by Han Yeju

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To target individual servings, Twosome Place introduced Mangosaeng and Peach Saeng in a spoonable form, while Geumgyulsaeng is available in a petite size, in addition to whole cakes.

The most recently released "Mangosaeng" is a fruit fresh cream cake that combines tangy mango compote (fruit simmered with sugar and cooled), soft custard fresh cream, and moist cake layers. The cake maximizes the mango's unique sweet and tart flavors. On the first bite, the thick fruit flesh and abundant juice stand out, and there is no artificial mango aroma. Given the wide availability of mango products like mango cakes, mango bingsu, and mango jelly in the market, this cake offers a familiar taste that most people can enjoy without strong preferences for or against it.

After four attempts roaming around stores in Seoul, I finally bought and ate the "Tteomeokneun Peach Saeng (Peach Fresh Cream Cake)." Photo by Han Yeju

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Currently the most popular, "Peach Saeng" immediately catches the eye with its pink hue, which is rarely seen in cakes. It took four attempts to finally find and try the spoonable Peach Saeng. Although whole Peach Saeng cakes were available in Seoul stores, the spoonable version was hard to find, requiring extra effort to locate. This product is a renewed version of the "Peach Fresh Cream Cake" launched in July last year, which is now sold year-round, contributing to its popularity.

Peach Saeng is characterized by the rich sweetness unique to peaches, matching its beautiful appearance. The combination of peach compote and peach fresh cream creates a soft flavor, while the peach-plum jam between the cake layers adds a refreshing touch to the sweetness. Thanks to its light taste, it seems like a cake that can be enjoyed even on hot days without feeling heavy.

The most impressive among the three cakes was "Geumgyulsaeng," a cake sandwiched with kumquat mandarin compote and kumquat fresh cream. As the first product in the Gwa-il Saeng series, it stands out visually by retaining the appearance of a whole cake in a smaller form, unlike the other two, which are spoonable and have a somewhat rough rectangular shape. Geumgyulsaeng even comes wrapped in a decorative band.

Among the three products, Geumgyulsaeng also contains the most fruit. Peach Saeng features two pieces of peach, Mangosaeng has three pieces of mango, but Geumgyulsaeng is topped with eight slices of tangerine. The combination of sweet fresh cream and tangy tangerine makes it enjoyable even for those who do not prefer sweet flavors, allowing them to eat it for a long time without getting tired of it.

However, although I thought a cake made with tangerines would be the least fattening, it surprisingly has the highest calorie count, almost to the point of feeling betrayed. Geumgyulsaeng contains 745 kcal, which is more than twice as much as Mangosaeng at 380 kcal and Peach Saeng at 310 kcal. It is also the most expensive. The spoonable Peach Saeng is the cheapest at 6,700 won, followed by the spoonable Mangosaeng at 6,800 won, and the petite Geumgyulsaeng at 8,800 won.

One disappointing aspect is that all three products contain much less fruit than the whole cakes. The appeal of Twosome Place's Gwa-il Saeng cakes is the abundance of fruit that almost spills out when sliced. The petite versions are visually less impressive, and the amount of jam is also smaller compared to the whole cakes.