Pumpkin Petit Fours

I used to pore over King Arthur catalogs, from the 'Sir Lancelot' flour mixture (what made this flour so heroic I'm not sure—the name alone merited it a penciled star in the catalog) to a selection of whisks, from wee ones  to giant, balloon-shaped mixers. Many of their products have somewhat narrow uses, but I found a strong sense of possibility in paging through the gadgets and ingredients. Pizza-sized spatulas! Monochromatic sugar-dusted cookies! Finally, armed with a generous gift card to the mail-order service (a trip to the Vermont retail store and bakery, alas, is yet to come together), I bought the following: a bundt pan that made six perfect maple leaf-shaped cakes. Only terribly useful for one season out of the four. But such perfectly shaped cakes!

This recipe, sans pan, is infinitely more flexible. You do not need a maple-leaf pan to make this cake successful—far from it. In fact, it's quite the pain to clean (all those leaf tendons), although the result is rather pretty. I've made this cake in a few forms, and it always turns out very tasty. You'll just want to increase the baking time and dip the knife in warm water between slices. When properly baked, the cake's top forms a shiny, near gooey layer. No frosting needed. Just pumpkin, spiked by cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg—all the good stuff you'd expect in a fall dessert. 

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen's Pumpkin Cupcakes
Pumpkin Petit Fours
Ingredients:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground gloves
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (I didn't have any, so I made sour milk: 1/2 TBSP apple cider vinegar mixed with enough milk to make 1/2 cup of liquid)
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin

Directions:
--Cream together butter and sugars. In another bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Whisk eggs into butter mixture and then add flour mixture and buttermilk, alternating between the two as you mix. Add pumpkin and stir until fully combined.
--Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with muffin cups or grease an 8x8-inch or 9x13-inch pan. Pour batter into the pan(s). Bake 12 minutes for muffins, 18 minutes for 9x13-inch pan, and 20 minutes for 8x8-inch pan.