American Heritage Baking—Let’s Bake and Learn

The Bundt Cake--Serving Up Americana Along with a Cake
By Nancy Baggett

When most of us hear the word history, we automatically think “long ago,” or “way before my time.” But delving into American baking history for my latest cookbook, The All-American Dessert Book, reminded me that history is happening all the time. Often, we don’t notice important moments because they only appear noteworthy in retrospect.

Such is the case with the arrival of the Bundt pan, which a Minnesota metallurgist and kitchenware manufacturer named H. David Dalquist began marketing in 1950. It’s said that he got the idea from some Jewish ladies of a local Hadassah chapter, who asked him to replicate a vintage fluted and tubed ceramic baking dish that their European ancestors used to make a cake called “Kugelhopf.” The name “Bundt” came from the German word “Bund,” meaning fellowship, or group; Dalquist added a t and copyrighted the name.

Although Dalquist’s “Bundt” moniker was new, his pan was not a great novelty. Other American companies had been producing attractive, tubed metal and ceramic pans and molds since the nineteenth century. (Depending on their intended use and specific shape, the earlier fancy “spouted” forms were variously called baba cake molds, turban or turk’s-head pans, fluted pans, pudding molds, jelly molds, etc.) The Wagner Manufacturing Company, a major American cookware and bake-ware company based in Sidney, Ohio, had been selling quality fluted metal cake pans that were similar to the Bundt pan for decades. Little wonder that at first the Bundt didn’t leap off the retail shelves.

Then, in1966, Ella Helfrich of Texas won second place in the 17th annual Pillsbury Bake-Off for her “Tunnel of Fudge Cake,” a handsomely-shaped, chocolate-drizzled cake that she baked in a Bundt pan. Highly-publicized by Pillsbury, her memorably-named entry was a national sensation, and soon, the Bundt pan was hot, too. Dalquist’s NordicWare firm quickly upped production to 30,000 a day. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that Bundt cakes boomed in the same period large numbers of American women were entering the workforce. Time-pressed home cooks were looking for kitchen shortcuts, and the Bundt cake was a very festive, yet less labor-intensive alternative to the frosted layer cake.

In 1970, Pillsbury added fuel to the fad by introducing a line of cake mixes specially designed for Bundt pans. Over the next several decades, millions of American cooks bought Bundt pans, and by the time Dalquist died last year at age 86, the company had sold an estimated 45 to 50 million of them. The special cake mixes were phased out in the late 1990s, and sales of the pan are on the decline.

The Bundt pan craze appears to be waning, but the name Bundt may endure. Many Americans, myself included, now refer to any cake baked in a decorative, tubed pan as a “Bundt cake” whether the pan was manufactured by NordicWare or not. I have a number of pretty ceramic and metal authentic Kugelhopf pans that I purchased while living in Germany in the 1970s, but I make Bundt cakes in them, nonetheless.

Banana Bundt Cake with Glossy Chocolate Glaze

The Pillsbury Bake-Off “Tunnel of Fudge Cake” that helped launch the Bundt cake craze was based on a Pillsbury frosting that’s been discontinued, so that dessert can’t be exactly replicated today. Moreover, the original would likely seem too sweet and perhaps not chocolaty enough to appeal to most modern tastes. However, the following recipe—one of my favorites—features wonderfully full-bodied banana and chocolate flavors (a dynamite combination) and a moist crumb. For best banana aroma and flavor, be sure to use over-ripe bananas; ones with black skins and very soft, pulpy interiors are just fine!

If you don’t happen to have a real Bundt pan, any large, tubed oven-proof pan or ceramic dish—or even a plainer-looking angel food pan—will do. The pan does need center tube; it ensures that the interior of the cake is exposed to heat and bakes through by the time the outside is done.

Tip: To save time, you can skip the chocolate glaze and garnish the cake top with a sifting of powdered sugar. Not as dramatic or decadent, but still quite good.

3 cups unsifted cake flour
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
Scant 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened
1/3 cup corn oil or canola oil
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups mashed over-ripe banana (4 medium-large bananas)
1/3 cup whole or low-fat milk
3 large eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon banana or almond extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels, optional
Glossy Chocolate Glaze
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 3 tablespoons hot water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Very generously and carefully grease a 12-inch Bundt pan (or similar deep 10-inch fluted tube pan or angel-food tube pan), or generously spray with nonstick spray; be sure to reach all the crevices. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out excess.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt onto a sheet of wax paper. In a large bowl with mixer on low, then medium speed, beat butter, oil, and sugar until very light and fluffy, about 1 1/2 minutes. Scrape down bowl as needed. Add banana and beat until very smooth. With mixer on low speed, beat in half of dry ingredients. Beat in milk, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract until evenly incorporated; scrape down the bowl sides. Stir in remaining half of dry ingredients (and chocolate morsels, if using) just until evenly incorporated and smooth.

Turn out batter into pan, spreading to edges until evenly distributed. Bake on middle oven rack for 50 to 65 minutes or until the top is browned and springs back when lightly pressed, and a toothpick inserted in the thickest part comes out clean. Transfer pan to wire rack and let stand until cake is completely cooled. Very carefully run a knife around pan edges and center tube to loosen cake. Rap pan sharply against counter several times to loosen completely. Invert pan and slide out the cake, or, if a two-part tube pan is used, run a knife under cake bottom and then invert. If adding glaze, brush away any loose crumbs from cake surface. If desired, slide wax paper strips under cake edges to catch glaze drips.

For glaze: In a microwave-safe medium bowl, stir together the chocolate morsels and butter. Microwave on 50 percent power for 1 minute. Stir and, if necessary, microwave 30 seconds longer until mostly melted. Stir in corn syrup, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons hot water until mixture is completely smooth and well blended. Let glaze cool for 5 minutes. If it is too thick to flow readily, stir in a little more water until it is fluid enough to flow when spooned over the cake top. Spoon it over the cake, allowing the glaze to flow partially down the sides. Cake keeps, covered, 3 to 4 days.

Makes about 12 servings.

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