A Bundt pan is one way to add instant retro-inspired flair to a cake recipe.
As reported by cookbook author Marcy Goldman in that piece, the pan’s origins were in fact pretty humble. Around 1949, members of the Minneapolis chapter of Hadassah, a Jewish women’s group, approached engineer H. David Dalquist about replicating a European ceramic baking mold used to make Bundkuchens, party or “gathering” cakes. Dalquist obliged with a heavy cast aluminum model he created for, the line of cookware he founded with his wife, Dotty, that is still run by the family.
Part of the brilliance of the fluted tube pan is its shape. The hole in the center helps conduct heat to the middle of the batter, which is why its especially adept at baking the dense, moist cakes often made in it.Two developments helped catapult the Bundt into the stratosphere. In 1966, a Texas baker named Ella Helfrich placed second in the Pillsbury Bake-Off with her Tunnel of Fudge Cake. At roughly the same time, Dalquist figured out how to manufacture a lightweight aluminum version.
Today, Nordic Ware estimates that more than 75 million households around the world have one of its iconic pans, which now come in, from the classic fluted to much more elaborate shapes, including braids, flowers, hearts and even a haunted house. Recipes that call for a Bundt pan can also be made in 9- or 10-inch tube pans, Goldman says. Many Bundt recipes can be halved and baked in an 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch or 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.