[6] The classic Bundt: scallops and flutes create a design that requires no frosting, and is easy to slice (photo © Taste Of Home).
2. THE HISTORY OF THE BUNDT CAKE
The Bundt pan was created in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, founder of Minneapolis-based Nordic Ware, a manufacturer of kitchenware products. He did so at the request of Rose Joshua and Fannie Schanfield, members of the Minneapolis chapter of Hadassah, a Jewish women’s service organization.
According to an article in the Fall 2005 issue of Generations, the newsletter of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest, Fannie remembers a Hadassah luncheon when Rose lamented the quality of light and fluffy American-style cakes, and longed for the rich, dense cakes of her European childhood.
These, however, required a special type of of pan—one with a hole in the center that allowed heat to penetrate heavy cake batter from all sides. With this type of form, a heavier batter could be baked without leaving under-baked dough in the center.
Fannie’s husband arranged a meeting with Dalquist, and Rose joined her to show Rose’s mother’s ceramic kugelhopf cake pan. This became the prototype for the Bundt pan.
Members of the Hadassah had asked Dalquist to reproduce a traditional heavy ceramic or cast-iron mold in a lighter material.
He refined the Old World fluted form of the Kugelhopf/Gugelhupf into a tapered ring with a more elegant/conical center tube, and created distinctive, architectural pattern of alternating broad scallops and narrower flutes (photo #6).
The sculptural pattern decorated the cake without frosting and creates natural divisions for slicing (photo #1).
He used cast aluminum to create a lightweight pan. He named and marketed it as the Bundt pan (see the next section).
Some months later, a dozen Nordic Ware factory “seconds” were delivered to Hadassah member Mary Juster’s home, and Hadassah sold the pans to members for $4.00 each.
[7] The Kugelhopf pan is taller and narrower than the Bundt (photo © Nordic Ware).
How The Bundt Got Its Name
The way the story is told, the name Bundt comes from the German word bund, which means “community” or “a gathering of people”; and that Dalquist just added the letter “t” to the end and trademarked the word.
However, there is a citation for a “Bundt form” as early as the 1903 edition of the famous Milwaukee Settlement Cookbook†, 63 years before Dalquist filed for his trademark on March 24, 1966. One can surmise that the Jewish women of Milwaukee had the cookbook and asked for a Bundt pan. Still, Dalquist was granted the patent.
In 1960, the Good Housekeeping Cookbook showed a pound cake baked in a Bundt pan; that feature turned the Bundt into the number-one selling cake pan in America. But it was the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off, where the Tunnel of Fudge Cake recipe baked in a Bundt won second place, that launched the Bundt trend.
How To Describe The Shape
What do you call a center-tubed ring mold with an sculptural rhythm that alternates broad scallops and narrow flutes?
We asked A.I. if there was a name for the style of flutes and scallops. Here’s the response, which we include here rather than losing it for all Nibble posterity:
In concise culinary descriptions or glossary entries, the Bundt is often summarized as “a ring-shaped, center-tubed cake characterized by alternating alternating broad scallops and narrow flutes that create a decorative, sculpted crown.”
The ring-shaped, fluted silhouette has distinct architectural and functional features.
Ring/Toroid Shape with a Hollow Center: The signature hollow center chimney (or tube) ensures even heat distribution throughout dense, heavy batters, allowing the center to bake through without over-baking the exterior.
Alternating Flutes and Ridges: The exterior features rhythmic, vertical rounded flutes (grooves) alternating with raised, softly sculpted ribs that taper gently from the wider base toward the top crown.
Scalloped Crown and Perimeter: When inverted onto a platter, the top forms a continuous scalloped ring. These crests and troughs create natural channels for glazes, powdered sugar, or ganache to cascade down.
Tapered, Sloped Sides: The gentle taper from base to top not only aids clean release from the mold but also gives the cake its sturdy, crowned appearance.
Crisp Surface Definition: Cast-aluminum construction gives the baked cake defined edges and a uniform golden-brown crust that holds up well with or without frosting.
Now you know!
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*The best apples for this recipe: Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Mutsu, or Pink Lady.
†In the 1903 Milwaukee Settlement Cookbook, “Bundt form” is found on page 319 in the following text (under BUNDT KUCHEN, No. 2): “Grease Bundt form (a heavy round fluted pan with tube in center) well, and flour lightly. Cream butter and sugar well, add beaten yolks and beat, then the raised mixture and the rest of the flour, and lastly the beaten whites. Pour in pan, let rise until very light, and bake until well done and brown in a moderately hot oven, about forty-five minutes.” (Read details of the Settlement Cookbook source material). The Settlement Cookbook, first published in 1901 in Milwaukee to raise funds for the Settlement House for immigrants, is considered to be the most successful fund-raising cookbook in American history. It is still in print; the 1976 edition was named to the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame.
‡Streusel is a crumb topping made from butter, flour, and sugar (photo #5). It can also contain chopped nuts or rolled oats. It’s used on cakes and pies alike. Pronounced SHTROY-zul, the word derives from the German “streuen,” meaning to sprinkle or scatter. The American mispronunciation “STROO sul?” Fuggedaboudit.
‡‡We learned a new word: A toroid is a three-dimensional ring-shaped form resembling a doughnut or an inner tube. Mathematically, a standard torus is created by rotating a circle around an axis outside the circle. A Bundt cake is approximately toroidal, but it is not a perfect mathematical toroid because it has a flat base, tapered sides, and decorative fluting. For us non-mathematicians, “ring-shaped” or “circular with a hollow center” makes it clear.
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