The History of Bundt Pans

In honor of National Bundt Day, we are delving into the history of the humble Bundt pan. The famous pan was invented by H. David Dalquist in 1950. As the owner of Minnesota's Nordic Ware company, Dalquist cast the pan for the Minneapolis-based Hadassah Society. (The Jewish women in the Society wanted to recreate traditional kugelhopf, a dense, ring-shaped cake). He originally called his creation a bund pan after the German word for “bond” or “alliance.” He later added the “t” at the end – no one knows exactly why. Some people speculate that it was for trademarking purposes, while others think Dalquist did it to help distance the name of his product from a pro-Nazi group with a similar moniker. Demand for Dalquist’s Bundt pan grew slowly at first, but in 1966 a Bundt cake placed second in the 17th annual Pillsbury Bake-Off, inspiring women all across America to try baking their own. In response to the demand, Dalquist ramped up production to 30,000 Bundt pans a day. He continued to oversee the production of his famous pan until his death in 2005. Today, over 70 million households have a Bundt pan.