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The Bundt, that unmistakable round cake with a hole in the middle, has been a staple at bake sales, potlucks, and backyard barbecues for decades. It’s the subject of dozens of cookbooks and had a pop culture moment in the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”
(“It’s a BUNDT!” the groom’s Midwestern mother tries to explain to her Greek hostess in the film.)
All that, plus a little water cooler talk, led reader Tim Drake to wonder: Was the Bundt cake really invented in Minnesota? He looked for answers on Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune’s reader-generated reporting project.
“My mom used to make a lemon poppy seed Bundt cake, and we all loved it,” said Drake, of Isanti, Minnesota. “It’s one of my first memories.”
The Bundt as we know it today dates back to 1950. And yes, it started in Minnesota. The style of cake originated in Europe, but the Bundt became a uniquely American creation thanks to Minnesota ingenuity. What began as a request to replicate an Old World cake pan with a lightweight aluminum pan became a cultural phenomenon that earned a place in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
And its simplicity was a dessert game-changer.
“It’s a unique move because the pan creates the party,” said author and baking expert Zoë François. “You don’t need to do over-the-top decorations because the pan is so festive. It’s an easy way to do something fun or elegant.”
Basement Beginnings
Just four years before the debut of the Bundt pan, H. David and Dotty Dalquist founded a cookware company called Nordic Ware in the basement of their Minneapolis home. Nordic Ware began as a manufacturer of specialist Scandinavian kitchen products, such as Rosette and Krumkake griddles, and Ebelskiver frying pans, all of which are still part of its catalogue. The Dalquists moved the business from their basement to St. Louis Park in 1947.
The idea for the Bundt pan came from two Minneapolis women named Rose Joshua and Fannie Schanfield, said Susan Dalquist Brust, the company’s vice president and the Dalquists’ daughter.
In 1950, the women approached H. David Dalquist with the idea of replicating a cake pan they called a bund pan to raise money for the local chapter of Hadassah, the Jewish women’s organization, Brust said.
“(Rose) wanted pans to give to her friends so they could bake the heavy cakes she remembered from her native Germany,” he said. “The term sponge cake meant a cake for a gathering of people. The Hadassah women liked the redesigned cast aluminum fluted pan we made for them, and we also began carrying the pan in major department stores.”
Soon, almost every member of Hadassah owned one of the saucepans. In 1966, Dalquist added the “t” to the package and trademarked the name.
Bundt cakes became a familiar sight in the Dalquist household over the years, and Dotty created recipes that would appear in several Nordic Ware cookbooks as the company became a major player in the baking industry. kitchen utensils.
The recipe that changed everything
As ubiquitous as Bundt pans are today, the fluted pan with the distinctive hole in the center was slow to catch on.
“After Nordic Ware first introduced the frying pan in the early 1950s, we almost discontinued it a few years later because it didn’t sell well,” said David Dalquist, president of Nordic Ware and son of the founders. “American bakers weren’t sure exactly how to use it because they didn’t have recipes that matched the skillet.”
That changed in 1966, when Ella Helfrich of Houston used the mold to create the Tunnel of Fudge cake. She participated in that year’s Pillsbury Bake-Off and took second place. The novelty of a dessert that mysteriously develops a “fudge tunnel” filling as it bakes (and only requires seven ingredients) has won the hearts of busy cooks across the country.
The recipe, which came with a $5,000 prize, appeared in “The Pillsbury Busy Lady Bake-Off Winners” recipe booklet. Bundt pans instantly became a must-have kitchen utensil, prompting 200,000 requests for help locating out-of-stock pans, according to General Mills, which now owns Pillsbury.
The popularity of the recipe also led to a line of Pillsbury Bundt cake mixes, sold from the 1970s to 1986, which Pillsbury jointly promoted with Nordic Ware.
“When their mixes hit supermarket shelves, it was difficult to keep them in stock and we couldn’t make our Bundt molds fast enough,” Brust said. “This was the beginning of a trend that continued for almost two decades.”
‘Like modern art’
Building on that success, Brust said, Nordic Ware experimented with other designs and introduced the Rose Bundt, which creates a cake in the shape of a single flower with intricate petals. This was just the tip of the Bundtpan iceberg. Customers began requesting seasonal designs and Nordic Ware created pans to meet the demand.
There are now 80 year-round designs online, Dalquist said, and Bundt pans for the holidays and all seasons. They make a Bundt mold shaped like a sand castle, a mold with a ring of small pumpkins, and another adorned with a fleur-de-lis.
The company uses proprietary design tools to create distinctively shaped molds and produces sand-cast aluminum molds for test baking to ensure the design translates to the cake. Permanent tools are then made and vessels put into production. The entire process takes about four months.
Over its nearly 75-year history, Nordic Ware has produced more than 75 million frying pans; The original fluted design remains the most popular. The new designs help make the Bundt pan, which is still manufactured at Nordic Ware’s sprawling headquarters in St. Louis Park, strong.
“They have all their original classic shapes, but then they have all these other absolutely stunning and beautiful pans, almost like modern art,” said François, who has more than a dozen pans.
A lasting legacy
From the beginning, Dotty Dalquist understood that the Bundt was more than just a frying pan. She led the way with alternative uses for the pan as author of the book “Over 300 Delicious Ways to Use Bundt Brand Fluted Tube Pans.”
Cooks now use the pots to make meatloaf and roast chicken. They also hold an ear of corn stable while removing the kernels. They are also pretty enough to hang on walls.
The Dalquistas have their favorite ways of using the frying pan.
David Dalquist said the trays work great for baking eggs. Brust’s family likes to make savory recipes, like spaghetti Florentine, or hang bundts of suet and seeds outdoors for the birds. Jennifer Dalquist, the company’s executive vice president of sales and granddaughter of the founders, uses the saucepans to make festive ice rings for punch: freezing herbs and fruits in water.
It’s a long way from Dotty and David’s basement workshop.
“At first, I think my parents thought the pan would be an easy way to make a classic cake look really special, nothing more,” Brust said. “You would be surprised to see what your humble bread has become.”
And what about the reader who inspired the question?
“My mom was the best cook I know,” said Drake, who is still trying to recreate her Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake. “I have the recipe and I make the cake. It just doesn’t taste the same.”
How to prevent sticking
As simple as it is to make a Bundt cake, the more ornate designs make some bakers wonder: How can I keep it from sticking?
“That’s what stops people from using them every day, the intimidation they cause,” François said. “Once you get the formula down, they almost never stick.”
That formula depends on the baking spray and the time.
François warns to use baking spray, which contains flour, not cooking spray. Use enough to cover the pan so the cake turns easily. But not so much that it pools at the bottom of the pan and becomes part of the recipe.
“You have to remember to turn the cake after 12 to 15 minutes,” François said. “You can’t let the cake cool completely in the pan, or it will stick to the pan.”
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Nicole Ploumen Hvidsten is the Star Tribune’s senior Taste editor. In past journalistic lives she was a reporter, editor and designer (sometimes all at the same time) and she has yet to find a cookbook she doesn’t like.
nicole.hvidsten@startribune.com 612-673-7563
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