Feeling special

I happened to be in Specialty Cakes' neck of the woods after work Thursday, and I couldn't resist stopping to see if they had a new flavor (or two) to try. As it turned out, they had four flavors left in the mostly empty display case, and two of them were flavors I wanted to try -- strawberry and carrot cake

Strawberry, left, and carrot cake

Based on the other two Specialty Cakes cupcakes I sampled with my coworkers Kathy and Jayette a few weeks ago -- chocolate with vanilla frosting and white cake with vanilla frosting and raspberry filling -- I knew I'd like these two. Specialty has great frosting -- sweet, thick and creamy. And the cake is moist and light. The strawberry and carrot cake were, not surprisingly, no exception. Bold best describes the flavor of the strawberry cake, topped with a generous swirl of vanilla frosting. And the carrot, which was blissfully free of nuts, found its perfect partner in cream cheese frosting. These are modestly sized cupcakes, so it's not at all hard to eat more than one in a sitting. I controlled myself, though, and ate only half of each cupcake so there would be some left for Camille.

I don't make it to Specialty often because its Wabash Avenue location isn't particularly convenient to home or work, but when I happen to be driving by, it's definitely worth the stop. The other perk to Specialty's cupcakes (besides their deliciousness)? The price -- $1 per cupcake. To someone who's paid as much as $6 for a cupcake (at More Cupcakes in Chicago), that price is worth of a double take -- and a second cupcake.