July 16, 2021 • 32 mins
These fluted tube pans can be used to create dense, beautiful cakes with a minimum of fuss. Anney and Lauren explore the science and history of Nordic Ware's Bundt pans.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about bunt cake pans. Yes,
that's right, you heard correctly, which is a fun one.
It's a fun one. Um. I don't often eat bunt
cake or cake in general. And you can see our
(00:29):
cake versus Pie episode on Richard Blaze's podcast Food Court.
For my very strong opinions about that. Oh yeah, very
very strong, very strong. Indeed, Yes, I have preferences. Um,
but I do have some really fond bunt cake memories. Yeah.
I had a good friend in high school whose grandmother
(00:49):
used to make a boozy as hell rum bunt cake
that was delicious, so good. Um, and one of my
best friends and well should we were. We've known each
other since we were four. She she lived next to
me growing up, and on one of her birthdays in
middle school, we had a snow day, snow like legitimate
(01:10):
snow on the ground, sticking snowing, because a lot of
times in Georgia snow day can be in my snow
snow Okay, yes, And I was determined to really do
her birthday up so I made a bunch of her
favorite things, including this rainbow bunt cake. Yes. But also
this is when I tried and succeeded and using the
(01:33):
infamous home alone defense while sludding, which is, if you
don't know, I built we had this deck and it
had these steep stairs and then a downhill and then
a rock wall ramp and then you'd go down the stairs.
I built a rampet of snow. You go down the stairs,
and then you hit the hill, and then I built
(01:54):
another ramp so you'd go over the rock wall. Oh no, yes,
sounds extremely garious. Oh it was. And I told my
parents and they're like, well, you don't think you should
do this, Annie, I said, he did it at home Alone. Pause,
all right, didn't they see that movie? That movie was
(02:16):
really like physics shoddy? What how dare you questioned the
accuracy and science of Home Alone. I know that they
did it. Like I know for a fact, if I
touched something exposed myself to electricity, my skeleton will become visible.
Any any one of those pranks would have killed a
(02:38):
human person. Well, I tried and succeeded in It's one
of my great great successes in life that the tale
and it was so fun. Um. Also, she my friend
I was building this ramp and she took a video
of herself like talking like the Hulk, and she threw
(03:02):
this huge snowball at the back of my head and
I did the most like dramatic whoa fall with the
really undignified shout. And I still have the video and
it's a beloved memory of mine. That's that's gorgeous. I
love it. It was quite quite great. It was hilarious.
But yes, punt cake. I also went to a party
(03:25):
a few years back where they served mini bunk cakes
from a local place and that was I've never seen
that before, but it was really nice. Yeah, and for
some reason, I own a bunt cake pan. I can't
recall why or how it looks new. Um, I have
used it to make my famous exploding volcano. Oh yeah,
(03:47):
it sounds like a really like not dangerous but living
on the wild side party here with my sledding and
my cakes. M hmm, think about that later. It does.
I think it does say something about you, but not
something bad. You know. That is that is an acceptable
(04:07):
type of danger. That's fun danger, Yes, only fun danger here. Yeah. Uh,
I don't have any danger stories some fun cakes sprise. Yeah,
I don't. I don't have a great deal of bunk
(04:30):
cake experience in my past. It wasn't a type of
cake that um, that was made in my family very often. Um,
if we were going to do something like a pound cake,
it was going to be in like a like a
normal red loaf tin. Um. But but I yeah, they're
they're pretty. I like them. And I do have this
(04:53):
this this piece of Nordic weare bakeware that's it's shaped
like a like an octopus in this ce scape and
it's really intricate and gorgeous, given to me my my,
my dear friend Julianna. And I have never made anything
with it because I am so intimidated by the thought
of trying to deepen a cake from this gorgeous sculptural artwork.
(05:20):
That's fair that that moment of deep panning it can
be very very full of tension. Yeah, and it can
go quite wrong. I even before cooking shows were a thing,
I felt like I was on a cooking competition show
every time. Every time. I didn't have a word for that,
(05:41):
until you know, top Chef or whatever, mm hmm. I
was like, oh no, oh no, a little pressure so poorly. Uh. Um.
National Bunkcake Day is November. We are just about as
far out from that as we can be. Was intentional
for you, Yeah, doing a November in July thing, That's
(06:05):
definitely what we're doing. Oh yes, always planned these things. Um,
I guess that brings us too hot? Question? Sure, butt cakes?
What are they? Well, the bunk cake is a genre
of cakes baked in bunt pans, which are shaped like
(06:27):
a like open topped inner tubes. Uh, like a open
topped life saver, like like you bust the lid right
off of a donut. They're they're kind of ring shaped. Yeah.
They have a hole in the center. Tend to be
deeper in volume than than other pans of a similar
diameter because of the design of the pan, which gives
the cake more more surface area. Um, you know you've
(06:50):
got those two baking edges instead of one. You don't
have a puddly center that will stay cooler so much longer. Uh. Yeah.
You can use a fairly dense batter. Cakes in this
type of and butter cakes, olive oil cakes, sour cream cakes,
that kind of thing. Um. Bump pans can be plain
rings or can be made with any number of decorative
shaping and detailing on the bottom and sides of the pan,
(07:12):
which will be the the top and sides of the
cake when you turn it out of the pan upside down,
you know. Um yeah, structural segments or swoops or fluting
or ridges or floral patterns, et cetera. Um. And that's
canna be fun because it means if all goes well,
that the cake is pretty right out of the oven
(07:32):
and you don't need to do a lot to decorate it.
If you don't want to, you can just do like
a dusting of powdered sugar, drizzle a glaze, and you're done. Yeah,
that's been cool seeing uh some of the designs. Yeah right,
I'm like, oh, just just really gorgeous, like weird, like
like swoopy deco looking things. I'm like a whole new
(07:54):
cake world for me to realize. Uh. Yeah. And they
can come in side eizes from them from individual right
sort of like cupcake sized molds like you were talking
about having seen at that one party, um, or you know,
like like normal cake pan diameter molds. They often come
with nonstick coatings to help you ease that cake out
in one piece, though you should still butter and flour
(08:16):
them for best results. Yes. Yes, the bunt pan is
a proprietary name. Um. It is a brand belonging to
aforementioned maker, nord A quare Um. The generic term is
a fluted tube pan, and the flutid part indicates that
they're they're different from regular tube pans um, which tend
(08:38):
to be non nonstick. Yeah. Um meant for for leavened
airy cakes like a like angel food or chiffon um,
which you want to be able to cling um to
the sides and climb the pan as as they rise
in the oven like an octopus. Sure, sure, like an
(09:00):
octopus made of batter. So my Angel food cake climb um.
That was weird even for me, Like like I'm not
not into it. I'm just saying, oh goodness, um uh.
(09:25):
And you can you can take advantage of the high
surface area shape of um tube pans or fluted tube
pans to cook other things like like a like roast chicken,
roast vegetable stuff like that. Um. Maybe if it were
me personally, UM, I would keep my like roast chicken
bunt pan and my cake bunt pan separate because you'll
(09:47):
you'll you'll get the best cake release from a pan
that's free of scratches and that's really well cleaned. And
I would just I would be concerned. I would have concerns.
In the words of the offspring, you gotta keep them separating.
I can imagine like that causing drama at a party
where I've I've accidentally used somebody's pan they didn't want
(10:07):
me to use one, And I'm just imagining a situation
where I'm like putting this roast chicken bunt in a
in an oven and somebody's like, or you're using the cake,
but chicken disaster. Also, I have seen pictures of aspects yeah,
(10:30):
made in these and they look as glorious and horrifying
as ever. Yep, yep, yes, but what about the nutrition? Uh,
cake is a treat. Don't don't eat baking pans again,
unless you're like the Hulk or some type of entity
(10:54):
maybe a goat. Yeah, I can't speak to goats. Um,
I know some things like eat maybe transformers. I don't
know their diet either at all, but you know cats. Sure,
As a human, I do not recommend that you eat
an aluminum baking pan. I think that's a fair I'll
(11:17):
get behind that one. We do have some numbers for you.
We do. According to Food and Wine, over seventy million
homes have a bunt cake pan just ready to go.
The Washington Post reported in nine that two out of
three American homes are stocked with a bunt cake pan.
(11:38):
That same Washington Post article reported in that Nordic Wear,
which he has the company behind bunk cake pans, operated
out of a two d and seventy thousand square foot
manufacturing center complete with fourteen molding presses, sixteen metal forming presses,
and six high production coding lines. They have over twelve
loading docks and are looking to add six more. I
(11:58):
don't know what that means, but it's sounds impressive. It does.
And yeah, they sold some ten to fifteen million bunk
pans in the nineties and early two thousand's alone, So wow,
it's a bunch of pans. It's a bunch of bunks.
(12:18):
And the history of of this pan is quite fascinating.
It is um and we will get into that as
soon as we get back from a quick break. For
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(12:39):
thank you so cake like confections go back to at
least Neolithic times, and cultures all over the world have
had iterations of them, though quite different than what most
of us would probably think of today when we think
of cake. And I was thinking about the past episodes
we've done, and I feel like some people would even
say cake, something like cake goes back to ancient times.
(13:02):
It's just very basic, uh simple version of it. But yeah,
but levined cake the way that we understand it today
didn't really happen until gosh, what was that, like the
seventeen or eighteen hundreds. So yeah, Um, in the early
written record, the terms for cake and bread were interchangeable,
(13:22):
so that also adds a layer of confusion. Historians think
the ancestor of the bunt cake specifically emerged out of
Eastern Europe hundreds of years ago. Um. I didn't really
find corroborating evidence, but I suppose thinking about our episodes
on bagels and doughnuts, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, And
this type of um of like less leavened, denser cake
(13:45):
would have been what was more common before those modern
Leveners popped up. Um, although you know, East Levening did exist,
and this is yet another pastry episode that how ties
to a siege on Vienna. I I don't understand how
(14:08):
many desserts someone in Vienna claims is like tied to
this one siege. Um, but so supposedly in three after
the city fought back a siege from the Turkish Empire,
local bakers made these tall molded victory cakes that were
meant to evoke turbans and supposedly that was the ancestor
(14:31):
of the bunt pan. See this seems like I I
am the type of person that would do this of like, ah,
here's this event, I shall make twenty items, all of
them themed. Perhaps no one will get the theme. Ah,
now you absolutely would. And I know this from personal
(14:52):
experience playing DND with you. UM any y'all d n
D A side real quick and he definitely bring themed
uh food and or beverages to every game of Dungeons
and Dragons that we play together. And when she's the
d M, when she's you know, running the game, it
can be very concerning. Uh Like for example, she she
(15:16):
brought it. There's a there's a local brewery called Orpheus
that um that does this beer called All You Get
is All You Get And she shows up with this,
and I'm like, oh, no, that doesn't bode well. I
would be lying if I don't say I enjoy that.
(15:39):
I think once I bought one that was called like
the Reaper, and I remember setting it down and everyone
like looking at it and then looking up at me
and the fear, the fear in the eyes, like, well,
I'm gonna drink this, but heck, I don't like it.
I don't like what this implies. Okay, alright, alright, sorry sorry,
(16:02):
d n d A side a side back to bunk cakes. Um, alright,
so so by. By the early eighteen hundreds, UM, no
matter the ties to a Turkish siege on Vienna, UM,
pans like this uh tall molded cake pans were We're
both common household items at their simplest um and fancy
(16:26):
status symbols at their budget around Germany and other parts
of Eastern Europe, and often used to make these yes
yeast riven breakfast cakes or coffee cakes called Google hoof
or Google hoof from you know, varying varying bits of
language are fun yeah, Google Google coming from the idea
(16:48):
of of ovens, of a specific type of oven, Google
being a type of baked dish in Ashkenazi Jewish culture,
and um hoop either way being a derivative of a
word for yeast. Ah. Yeah, I love that they were
status symbols at their fanciest. That's great, my pen. Do
(17:13):
you know what kind of cakes I get out of
this pan? Very fancy ones indeed, But what about the
bunt cake pans specifically? That was actually a more modern invention,
thought to be the creation of H. David Dauquist, Sr.
In nine or nineteen fifty, after returning to Minnesota after
(17:35):
serving in the Navy during World War Two, he started
a small company called Northland Aluminum Products along with his brother,
or perhaps his wife Dottie, or both were involved. I think,
I think, I think yeah, both Yeah. With a little
more than five dollars they got this company going. In
the early days, the pair would make industrial products out
(17:55):
of aluminum in their family basement, the pair here being
the brothers. On top of this, Duquis started making consumer
pants that he sold via mail order, perhaps largely leaning
towards Scandinavian baked goods. Uh yeah. So David had a
degree in chemical engineering with a focus and metallurgy, and
Dotti's family was Danish and so she had grown up
(18:19):
with treats like a like rosette, which is a sort
of a doughnut made by dipping a shaped mold in
batter and then into hot oil. UM and a crumb cock,
which are cookies made with a sort of like like
waffle iron type device molded with designs UM and uh.
And stuffed pancakes which are made in pans Uh they
(18:39):
remind me of like taco yaki pants um with little
rounded hollows for each pancake. And so yes, based on
that um, they were making some of these types of
baking pants Yes. And the bunt pan was a request
um from a group of Jewish women uh Douquas later
(19:00):
called them very nice ladies who were looking to bake
up a traditional ring shaped cake called a google hoof. Yes.
As mentioned earlier, they approached him describing a handmade ceramic
baking mold that was round and scrolled with a tube
in the middle to make a dancer cake that was
good for gatherings and parties. This pan that they were
(19:22):
describing had been inherited by the chapter president's Eastern European grandmother,
and they were looking to get the same thing but
in metal Dalchist came through creating a loabed, fluted mold
out of heavy cast aluminum. The ladies were reportedly quite
pleased with it. Yeah yeah, And they apparently intended to
(19:43):
use the pans to bake cakes for fundraisers for their
for their for their group, UM, but wound up selling
the pans too, so much so that Delquist began selling
them imperfect factory seconds for the cause. Dalquist called his
innovation bund Pan, the T Bund being a German word
meaning bond or alliance, and or the cakes these women
(20:06):
were describing may have been called bun kuki in um.
He decided to trade market under his Nordic wear baking line. Yeah,
there's I've I've read different differing versions of the story,
and it's one of them was that the women were
calling these cakes bund because they were like, yeah, yeah,
they're alliance cakes. Yeah. A lot of stories buying that,
(20:31):
also a lot of stories buying this. When and why
did the T get added to the end, No one
is quite clear, though some speculated it was Doubtuss way
of differentiating his pan from a pro Nazi group called
the German American Bund. Yeah, others speculate it may have
been a decision based around trademarking. And yes, according to Daubtquis,
(20:52):
the name fluted tupan is the proper term, uh if
you're not not under his purviews company, and that legally
only Nordic Wear is allowed to use the bunts in
advertising and selling. Yeah. Yeah. These original pans were sand cast,
which involves creating a single use sand mold by hand
(21:15):
in order to cast each pan, which was fairly laborious
and uh thus a fairly expensive process. When the product
first debut, there was a small but steadily rising demand
for it. Um, a lot of it from editors who
worked for Women's magazine, So they were like taking pictures
of these pretty cakes, right right, Um, but yeah, but
(21:37):
sales were low for a long time, so low that
Nordic Wear considered dropping the line during the nineteen fifties.
They went like a decade before they were profitable at all.
One of the Dlquist's daughters, a woman by the name
of Linda Jeffrey, once told New York Times magazine that,
um that even the employees at the plant weren't that
impressed at first. Quote when the general manager at the
(22:00):
saw the prototype. He told my father, if you can
sell that thing, you can sell anything. Well he did,
so there you go. Yeah, and these low sales numbers
changed in nineteen sixty six when a bunt cake took
second place at the seventeenth annual Pillsbury Bake Off. The
(22:21):
winning entry was called Tonnel of Love and it was
a decadent, gooey chocolate dessert. You can find the recipe online. Um.
All of a sudden, dal Quest was getting thousands of orders.
Production of these pans reached about thirty thousand a day.
It also helped that around the same time he had
(22:41):
improved the design with the lightweight formed aluminum pan. Before
this invention, about half a million homes in the US
owned a bunt pan. After that the numbers went way up. Yeah.
I read that Pillsberry got like two hundred thousand letters
like some looted Chris number of letters UM asking about
(23:03):
the pan that this amazing dessert had been baked in
UM and uh yeah, a note on the on the
material science there so UM so formed aluminum pans, which
is this um innovation in design UM that he had
made around that time. Those are made by spinning out
and stamping a shape into a solid metal sheet. And um,
(23:24):
so yeah, they're they're more lightweight and less expensive. Um,
a little bit less crisply detailed around the edges, but
but still but still a quality pan that you can
get for a low price. Sounds like you're sounds like
an ad right now, Laura, to the quality pan you
can get for the low low price of just in dollars.
(23:48):
I'm I'm reporting on what I read about it from
to be fair representatives from the Nordic Wear company. Um,
they're not a sponsor of this episode. We just find
it all interest sting. Uh. Sometime around the seventies or
the eighties, they also revamped their their classic hand molded technique,
switching from sand casting to die casting, which, um, which
(24:12):
involves creating a steel mold that can be used to
create any number of pans. Um though yeah it is
still it is still a handmade process. So yet another
factor in this boost in the bunt cake pans sales.
The Duquis began hosting higher ups from Pillsbury, also not
a sponsor. Um. Both of these companies were located in Minneapolis,
(24:35):
and of course the du Quist served these higher ups
bunt cake yes, and it's hard not to think that
this didn't at least in part, lead to Pillsbury introducing
a whole line of Bunt cake mixes with flavors like
black forest, cherry and Chocolate Claire. In some versions of
the history, the Duques proposed the idea for the mixes
to Pillsbury themselves, using Dotties recipes for some of the
(25:00):
these mixes. Pillsbury partner directly with Nordic Ware to sell
the cake mix packaged with the Bunt cake pan. Yeah,
and the demand was high higher than anticipated. Um, Yeah,
like you said. Lauren Feelsbury reported that at one point
in nineteen seventies they were getting like two requests for
people they were looking for the pan, but they were
(25:20):
unable to find one. Yes. Um. In nine seven, Pillsbury
retired their line of Bunt cake mixes, citing consumer shifts
towards snack your options and larger family style cakes, perhaps
in response. That same year, Nordic Ware announced their own
(25:43):
line of Bunt gourmet cake mixes. They put out a
Bunt cookbook as well, complete with over two hundred recipes.
Also in a pair of entrepreneurs started up a bakery
franchise called Nothing bunt Cakes. That's the that's who was
catering that party I was talking about. Oh there you go.
(26:04):
I think they're Georgia based. Oh really, huh okay cool?
Uh yeah. And also in the nineteen nineties, uh, Nordic
Weare started making a bunch of new um designs that
would boost sales like ah, there's a there's a rose
shaped bunt wreaths and hearts, small kinds of stuff. When
Dalk was died in two thousand five, he was eighty
(26:26):
six years old and still heading up production of the
bunt cake pan. Yeah. Interesting guy. He also designed an
early version of the turntables that you use in microwaves
to heat food more evenly way back in, so kept
kept doing the stuff. Um and uh. The Nordic Ware
family is still run by the Dalquist family, um by
(26:49):
I believe by a grandson whose name is also David.
A bunk cake played a role in the two film
My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I I've not seen this movie,
but from what I read, it's a joke along the
lines of like cultural misunderstandings, where someone is giving a
bunt cake to someone and this person receiving it is like,
(27:11):
why is there a hole in my cake? It's missing
cake happened to it. In twenty nineteen, the Norway House
collaborated with inga riston Nordic Marketplace on the exhibit Nordic
Ware The Art and Science of the Bunt I. It
sounds like it was a delightful exhibit. They collected stories
(27:33):
from from people to include as part of it. Uh
and yeah. Um. Nordic Ware sales boomed during the pandemic,
leading the company to make plans to expand their Minnesota factory.
In there is part of it. They're looking to build
a bunt cafe. Oh that's exciting. Yeah, bunt cafe. Uh wow,
(28:03):
one day maybe we'll get to go add it to
our field trip. Ye. Ever, growing, it's never getting smaller,
no no, no, no, no no. Uh yeah. This has
been a fun one, this fun research. Uh. This is, however,
(28:24):
all we have to say about the bunt cake and
the pants today, Yes, for now. But we do have
some listener mail for you and we're going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
(28:46):
we're back. Thank you sponsor. Yes, thank you, and we're
back with I could have gone two ways that way,
or I was gonna do like Ringing the horror movie.
I feel like the right vibe. I could have done
(29:08):
a Lord of the Rings thing, and we just did
a Lord of the Rings in our d and d
um yeah yeah, we had to throw a thing into
a volcano and everything. Yeah, and then you had to
fight essentially Kylo Wrinn. And then I felt bad about
it later because some of my opinions came out pheel
(29:30):
Gil about pict character. It's okay, I don't think. I
don't think you hurt his feelings too hard good. I
would hate I would hate for that to happen, Emily
wrote my listener males actually in response to the request
for a mulberry episode. Who knew this would be the
reason I write in Annie talked about thinking mulberry is
(29:52):
being made up like snash berries and really walk in
the chocolate factory. Also a lot of fun things to say.
Um continued. We live in Ohio where mulberry trees are plentiful,
and my husband refers to them as snowsberries. Our kids
actually believed that's what they're called. I've told them We're
going to have to start using the correct terminology. Are
(30:13):
our children will be at school someday talking trying to
correct their teacher. Our friends at these berries are snowsberries
and get crazy looks. He has yet to start calling
them mulberries. And I'm in the minority at our home.
See that's fun. Um Again, if I was a teacher,
(30:35):
I might not necessarily know me personally. I'm not saying
teachers at large, and I might be like snausberries. That
might be right, Like, all right, anything is possible. It's true, Um,
April wrote, I was just listening to the Baked Beans
(30:56):
episode and heard you discussing dessert hot sauce. I used
to work with an awesome pastry chef in Jersey who
had a hot sauce business on the side. One of
the things they make are fruity hot sauces that somehow
taste like freshly picked fruit that is blazing hot. The
other hot sauces are fantastic as well. My personal favorite
was the ginger a thousand percent. Check them out Jersey
(31:18):
barn Fire. Oh yes, I'm into it. I want it.
This is like it's become such a point, a ridiculous point.
Of indecision every day where I'm like, what hot sauce?
Why limit myself to one? So yes, I'm very excited
(31:43):
about this, eager to try even more. Yes, add to
the collection, Yes, a whole shelf. No joke in my
pantry is just sauce, So add some more in there?
Why not? Yeah? Thanks to you both of those listeners
for writing. If you would like to write to us,
(32:04):
you can our emails hello at savorpod dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
super producers Dylan Fagin and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
(32:26):
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have an episode for you about bunt cake pans. Yes,
that's right, you heard correctly, which is a fun one.
It's a fun one. Um. I don't often eat bunt
cake or cake in general. And you can see our
(00:29):
cake versus Pie episode on Richard Blaze's podcast Food Court.
For my very strong opinions about that. Oh yeah, very
very strong, very strong. Indeed, Yes, I have preferences. Um,
but I do have some really fond bunt cake memories. Yeah.
I had a good friend in high school whose grandmother
(00:49):
used to make a boozy as hell rum bunt cake
that was delicious, so good. Um, and one of my
best friends and well should we were. We've known each
other since we were four. She she lived next to
me growing up, and on one of her birthdays in
middle school, we had a snow day, snow like legitimate
(01:10):
snow on the ground, sticking snowing, because a lot of
times in Georgia snow day can be in my snow
snow Okay, yes, And I was determined to really do
her birthday up so I made a bunch of her
favorite things, including this rainbow bunt cake. Yes. But also
this is when I tried and succeeded and using the
(01:33):
infamous home alone defense while sludding, which is, if you
don't know, I built we had this deck and it
had these steep stairs and then a downhill and then
a rock wall ramp and then you'd go down the stairs.
I built a rampet of snow. You go down the stairs,
and then you hit the hill, and then I built
(01:54):
another ramp so you'd go over the rock wall. Oh no, yes,
sounds extremely garious. Oh it was. And I told my
parents and they're like, well, you don't think you should
do this, Annie, I said, he did it at home Alone. Pause,
all right, didn't they see that movie? That movie was
(02:16):
really like physics shoddy? What how dare you questioned the
accuracy and science of Home Alone. I know that they
did it. Like I know for a fact, if I
touched something exposed myself to electricity, my skeleton will become visible.
Any any one of those pranks would have killed a
(02:38):
human person. Well, I tried and succeeded in It's one
of my great great successes in life that the tale
and it was so fun. Um. Also, she my friend
I was building this ramp and she took a video
of herself like talking like the Hulk, and she threw
(03:02):
this huge snowball at the back of my head and
I did the most like dramatic whoa fall with the
really undignified shout. And I still have the video and
it's a beloved memory of mine. That's that's gorgeous. I
love it. It was quite quite great. It was hilarious.
But yes, punt cake. I also went to a party
(03:25):
a few years back where they served mini bunk cakes
from a local place and that was I've never seen
that before, but it was really nice. Yeah, and for
some reason, I own a bunt cake pan. I can't
recall why or how it looks new. Um, I have
used it to make my famous exploding volcano. Oh yeah,
(03:47):
it sounds like a really like not dangerous but living
on the wild side party here with my sledding and
my cakes. M hmm, think about that later. It does.
I think it does say something about you, but not
something bad. You know. That is that is an acceptable
(04:07):
type of danger. That's fun danger, Yes, only fun danger here. Yeah. Uh,
I don't have any danger stories some fun cakes sprise. Yeah,
I don't. I don't have a great deal of bunk
(04:30):
cake experience in my past. It wasn't a type of
cake that um, that was made in my family very often. Um,
if we were going to do something like a pound cake,
it was going to be in like a like a
normal red loaf tin. Um. But but I yeah, they're
they're pretty. I like them. And I do have this
(04:53):
this this piece of Nordic weare bakeware that's it's shaped
like a like an octopus in this ce scape and
it's really intricate and gorgeous, given to me my my,
my dear friend Julianna. And I have never made anything
with it because I am so intimidated by the thought
of trying to deepen a cake from this gorgeous sculptural artwork.
(05:20):
That's fair that that moment of deep panning it can
be very very full of tension. Yeah, and it can
go quite wrong. I even before cooking shows were a thing,
I felt like I was on a cooking competition show
every time. Every time. I didn't have a word for that,
(05:41):
until you know, top Chef or whatever, mm hmm. I
was like, oh no, oh no, a little pressure so poorly. Uh. Um.
National Bunkcake Day is November. We are just about as
far out from that as we can be. Was intentional
for you, Yeah, doing a November in July thing, That's
(06:05):
definitely what we're doing. Oh yes, always planned these things. Um,
I guess that brings us too hot? Question? Sure, butt cakes?
What are they? Well, the bunk cake is a genre
of cakes baked in bunt pans, which are shaped like
(06:27):
a like open topped inner tubes. Uh, like a open
topped life saver, like like you bust the lid right
off of a donut. They're they're kind of ring shaped. Yeah.
They have a hole in the center. Tend to be
deeper in volume than than other pans of a similar
diameter because of the design of the pan, which gives
the cake more more surface area. Um, you know you've
(06:50):
got those two baking edges instead of one. You don't
have a puddly center that will stay cooler so much longer. Uh. Yeah.
You can use a fairly dense batter. Cakes in this
type of and butter cakes, olive oil cakes, sour cream cakes,
that kind of thing. Um. Bump pans can be plain
rings or can be made with any number of decorative
shaping and detailing on the bottom and sides of the pan,
(07:12):
which will be the the top and sides of the
cake when you turn it out of the pan upside down,
you know. Um yeah, structural segments or swoops or fluting
or ridges or floral patterns, et cetera. Um. And that's
canna be fun because it means if all goes well,
that the cake is pretty right out of the oven
(07:32):
and you don't need to do a lot to decorate it.
If you don't want to, you can just do like
a dusting of powdered sugar, drizzle a glaze, and you're done. Yeah,
that's been cool seeing uh some of the designs. Yeah right,
I'm like, oh, just just really gorgeous, like weird, like
like swoopy deco looking things. I'm like a whole new
(07:54):
cake world for me to realize. Uh. Yeah. And they
can come in side eizes from them from individual right
sort of like cupcake sized molds like you were talking
about having seen at that one party, um, or you know,
like like normal cake pan diameter molds. They often come
with nonstick coatings to help you ease that cake out
in one piece, though you should still butter and flour
(08:16):
them for best results. Yes. Yes, the bunt pan is
a proprietary name. Um. It is a brand belonging to
aforementioned maker, nord A quare Um. The generic term is
a fluted tube pan, and the flutid part indicates that
they're they're different from regular tube pans um, which tend
(08:38):
to be non nonstick. Yeah. Um meant for for leavened
airy cakes like a like angel food or chiffon um,
which you want to be able to cling um to
the sides and climb the pan as as they rise
in the oven like an octopus. Sure, sure, like an
(09:00):
octopus made of batter. So my Angel food cake climb um.
That was weird even for me, Like like I'm not
not into it. I'm just saying, oh goodness, um uh.
(09:25):
And you can you can take advantage of the high
surface area shape of um tube pans or fluted tube
pans to cook other things like like a like roast chicken,
roast vegetable stuff like that. Um. Maybe if it were
me personally, UM, I would keep my like roast chicken
bunt pan and my cake bunt pan separate because you'll
(09:47):
you'll you'll get the best cake release from a pan
that's free of scratches and that's really well cleaned. And
I would just I would be concerned. I would have concerns.
In the words of the offspring, you gotta keep them separating.
I can imagine like that causing drama at a party
where I've I've accidentally used somebody's pan they didn't want
(10:07):
me to use one, And I'm just imagining a situation
where I'm like putting this roast chicken bunt in a
in an oven and somebody's like, or you're using the cake,
but chicken disaster. Also, I have seen pictures of aspects yeah,
(10:30):
made in these and they look as glorious and horrifying
as ever. Yep, yep, yes, but what about the nutrition? Uh,
cake is a treat. Don't don't eat baking pans again,
unless you're like the Hulk or some type of entity
(10:54):
maybe a goat. Yeah, I can't speak to goats. Um,
I know some things like eat maybe transformers. I don't
know their diet either at all, but you know cats. Sure,
As a human, I do not recommend that you eat
an aluminum baking pan. I think that's a fair I'll
(11:17):
get behind that one. We do have some numbers for you.
We do. According to Food and Wine, over seventy million
homes have a bunt cake pan just ready to go.
The Washington Post reported in nine that two out of
three American homes are stocked with a bunt cake pan.
(11:38):
That same Washington Post article reported in that Nordic Wear,
which he has the company behind bunk cake pans, operated
out of a two d and seventy thousand square foot
manufacturing center complete with fourteen molding presses, sixteen metal forming presses,
and six high production coding lines. They have over twelve
loading docks and are looking to add six more. I
(11:58):
don't know what that means, but it's sounds impressive. It does.
And yeah, they sold some ten to fifteen million bunk
pans in the nineties and early two thousand's alone, So wow,
it's a bunch of pans. It's a bunch of bunks.
(12:18):
And the history of of this pan is quite fascinating.
It is um and we will get into that as
soon as we get back from a quick break. For
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
(12:39):
thank you so cake like confections go back to at
least Neolithic times, and cultures all over the world have
had iterations of them, though quite different than what most
of us would probably think of today when we think
of cake. And I was thinking about the past episodes
we've done, and I feel like some people would even
say cake, something like cake goes back to ancient times.
(13:02):
It's just very basic, uh simple version of it. But yeah,
but levined cake the way that we understand it today
didn't really happen until gosh, what was that, like the
seventeen or eighteen hundreds. So yeah, Um, in the early
written record, the terms for cake and bread were interchangeable,
(13:22):
so that also adds a layer of confusion. Historians think
the ancestor of the bunt cake specifically emerged out of
Eastern Europe hundreds of years ago. Um. I didn't really
find corroborating evidence, but I suppose thinking about our episodes
on bagels and doughnuts, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, And
this type of um of like less leavened, denser cake
(13:45):
would have been what was more common before those modern
Leveners popped up. Um, although you know, East Levening did exist,
and this is yet another pastry episode that how ties
to a siege on Vienna. I I don't understand how
(14:08):
many desserts someone in Vienna claims is like tied to
this one siege. Um, but so supposedly in three after
the city fought back a siege from the Turkish Empire,
local bakers made these tall molded victory cakes that were
meant to evoke turbans and supposedly that was the ancestor
(14:31):
of the bunt pan. See this seems like I I
am the type of person that would do this of like, ah,
here's this event, I shall make twenty items, all of
them themed. Perhaps no one will get the theme. Ah,
now you absolutely would. And I know this from personal
(14:52):
experience playing DND with you. UM any y'all d n
D A side real quick and he definitely bring themed
uh food and or beverages to every game of Dungeons
and Dragons that we play together. And when she's the
d M, when she's you know, running the game, it
can be very concerning. Uh Like for example, she she
(15:16):
brought it. There's a there's a local brewery called Orpheus
that um that does this beer called All You Get
is All You Get And she shows up with this,
and I'm like, oh, no, that doesn't bode well. I
would be lying if I don't say I enjoy that.
(15:39):
I think once I bought one that was called like
the Reaper, and I remember setting it down and everyone
like looking at it and then looking up at me
and the fear, the fear in the eyes, like, well,
I'm gonna drink this, but heck, I don't like it.
I don't like what this implies. Okay, alright, alright, sorry sorry,
(16:02):
d n d A side a side back to bunk cakes. Um, alright,
so so by. By the early eighteen hundreds, UM, no
matter the ties to a Turkish siege on Vienna, UM,
pans like this uh tall molded cake pans were We're
both common household items at their simplest um and fancy
(16:26):
status symbols at their budget around Germany and other parts
of Eastern Europe, and often used to make these yes
yeast riven breakfast cakes or coffee cakes called Google hoof
or Google hoof from you know, varying varying bits of
language are fun yeah, Google Google coming from the idea
(16:48):
of of ovens, of a specific type of oven, Google
being a type of baked dish in Ashkenazi Jewish culture,
and um hoop either way being a derivative of a
word for yeast. Ah. Yeah, I love that they were
status symbols at their fanciest. That's great, my pen. Do
(17:13):
you know what kind of cakes I get out of
this pan? Very fancy ones indeed, But what about the
bunt cake pans specifically? That was actually a more modern invention,
thought to be the creation of H. David Dauquist, Sr.
In nine or nineteen fifty, after returning to Minnesota after
(17:35):
serving in the Navy during World War Two, he started
a small company called Northland Aluminum Products along with his brother,
or perhaps his wife Dottie, or both were involved. I think,
I think, I think yeah, both Yeah. With a little
more than five dollars they got this company going. In
the early days, the pair would make industrial products out
(17:55):
of aluminum in their family basement, the pair here being
the brothers. On top of this, Duquis started making consumer
pants that he sold via mail order, perhaps largely leaning
towards Scandinavian baked goods. Uh yeah. So David had a
degree in chemical engineering with a focus and metallurgy, and
Dotti's family was Danish and so she had grown up
(18:19):
with treats like a like rosette, which is a sort
of a doughnut made by dipping a shaped mold in
batter and then into hot oil. UM and a crumb cock,
which are cookies made with a sort of like like
waffle iron type device molded with designs UM and uh.
And stuffed pancakes which are made in pans Uh they
(18:39):
remind me of like taco yaki pants um with little
rounded hollows for each pancake. And so yes, based on
that um, they were making some of these types of
baking pants Yes. And the bunt pan was a request
um from a group of Jewish women uh Douquas later
(19:00):
called them very nice ladies who were looking to bake
up a traditional ring shaped cake called a google hoof. Yes.
As mentioned earlier, they approached him describing a handmade ceramic
baking mold that was round and scrolled with a tube
in the middle to make a dancer cake that was
good for gatherings and parties. This pan that they were
(19:22):
describing had been inherited by the chapter president's Eastern European grandmother,
and they were looking to get the same thing but
in metal Dalchist came through creating a loabed, fluted mold
out of heavy cast aluminum. The ladies were reportedly quite
pleased with it. Yeah yeah, And they apparently intended to
(19:43):
use the pans to bake cakes for fundraisers for their
for their for their group, UM, but wound up selling
the pans too, so much so that Delquist began selling
them imperfect factory seconds for the cause. Dalquist called his
innovation bund Pan, the T Bund being a German word
meaning bond or alliance, and or the cakes these women
(20:06):
were describing may have been called bun kuki in um.
He decided to trade market under his Nordic wear baking line. Yeah,
there's I've I've read different differing versions of the story,
and it's one of them was that the women were
calling these cakes bund because they were like, yeah, yeah,
they're alliance cakes. Yeah. A lot of stories buying that,
(20:31):
also a lot of stories buying this. When and why
did the T get added to the end, No one
is quite clear, though some speculated it was Doubtuss way
of differentiating his pan from a pro Nazi group called
the German American Bund. Yeah, others speculate it may have
been a decision based around trademarking. And yes, according to Daubtquis,
(20:52):
the name fluted tupan is the proper term, uh if
you're not not under his purviews company, and that legally
only Nordic Wear is allowed to use the bunts in
advertising and selling. Yeah. Yeah. These original pans were sand cast,
which involves creating a single use sand mold by hand
(21:15):
in order to cast each pan, which was fairly laborious
and uh thus a fairly expensive process. When the product
first debut, there was a small but steadily rising demand
for it. Um, a lot of it from editors who
worked for Women's magazine, So they were like taking pictures
of these pretty cakes, right right, Um, but yeah, but
(21:37):
sales were low for a long time, so low that
Nordic Wear considered dropping the line during the nineteen fifties.
They went like a decade before they were profitable at all.
One of the Dlquist's daughters, a woman by the name
of Linda Jeffrey, once told New York Times magazine that,
um that even the employees at the plant weren't that
impressed at first. Quote when the general manager at the
(22:00):
saw the prototype. He told my father, if you can
sell that thing, you can sell anything. Well he did,
so there you go. Yeah, and these low sales numbers
changed in nineteen sixty six when a bunt cake took
second place at the seventeenth annual Pillsbury Bake Off. The
(22:21):
winning entry was called Tonnel of Love and it was
a decadent, gooey chocolate dessert. You can find the recipe online. Um.
All of a sudden, dal Quest was getting thousands of orders.
Production of these pans reached about thirty thousand a day.
It also helped that around the same time he had
(22:41):
improved the design with the lightweight formed aluminum pan. Before
this invention, about half a million homes in the US
owned a bunt pan. After that the numbers went way up. Yeah.
I read that Pillsberry got like two hundred thousand letters
like some looted Chris number of letters UM asking about
(23:03):
the pan that this amazing dessert had been baked in
UM and uh yeah, a note on the on the
material science there so UM so formed aluminum pans, which
is this um innovation in design UM that he had
made around that time. Those are made by spinning out
and stamping a shape into a solid metal sheet. And um,
(23:24):
so yeah, they're they're more lightweight and less expensive. Um,
a little bit less crisply detailed around the edges, but
but still but still a quality pan that you can
get for a low price. Sounds like you're sounds like
an ad right now, Laura, to the quality pan you
can get for the low low price of just in dollars.
(23:48):
I'm I'm reporting on what I read about it from
to be fair representatives from the Nordic Wear company. Um,
they're not a sponsor of this episode. We just find
it all interest sting. Uh. Sometime around the seventies or
the eighties, they also revamped their their classic hand molded technique,
switching from sand casting to die casting, which, um, which
(24:12):
involves creating a steel mold that can be used to
create any number of pans. Um though yeah it is
still it is still a handmade process. So yet another
factor in this boost in the bunt cake pans sales.
The Duquis began hosting higher ups from Pillsbury, also not
a sponsor. Um. Both of these companies were located in Minneapolis,
(24:35):
and of course the du Quist served these higher ups
bunt cake yes, and it's hard not to think that
this didn't at least in part, lead to Pillsbury introducing
a whole line of Bunt cake mixes with flavors like
black forest, cherry and Chocolate Claire. In some versions of
the history, the Duques proposed the idea for the mixes
to Pillsbury themselves, using Dotties recipes for some of the
(25:00):
these mixes. Pillsbury partner directly with Nordic Ware to sell
the cake mix packaged with the Bunt cake pan. Yeah,
and the demand was high higher than anticipated. Um, Yeah,
like you said. Lauren Feelsbury reported that at one point
in nineteen seventies they were getting like two requests for
people they were looking for the pan, but they were
(25:20):
unable to find one. Yes. Um. In nine seven, Pillsbury
retired their line of Bunt cake mixes, citing consumer shifts
towards snack your options and larger family style cakes, perhaps
in response. That same year, Nordic Ware announced their own
(25:43):
line of Bunt gourmet cake mixes. They put out a
Bunt cookbook as well, complete with over two hundred recipes.
Also in a pair of entrepreneurs started up a bakery
franchise called Nothing bunt Cakes. That's the that's who was
catering that party I was talking about. Oh there you go.
(26:04):
I think they're Georgia based. Oh really, huh okay cool?
Uh yeah. And also in the nineteen nineties, uh, Nordic
Weare started making a bunch of new um designs that
would boost sales like ah, there's a there's a rose
shaped bunt wreaths and hearts, small kinds of stuff. When
Dalk was died in two thousand five, he was eighty
(26:26):
six years old and still heading up production of the
bunt cake pan. Yeah. Interesting guy. He also designed an
early version of the turntables that you use in microwaves
to heat food more evenly way back in, so kept
kept doing the stuff. Um and uh. The Nordic Ware
family is still run by the Dalquist family, um by
(26:49):
I believe by a grandson whose name is also David.
A bunk cake played a role in the two film
My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I I've not seen this movie,
but from what I read, it's a joke along the
lines of like cultural misunderstandings, where someone is giving a
bunt cake to someone and this person receiving it is like,
(27:11):
why is there a hole in my cake? It's missing
cake happened to it. In twenty nineteen, the Norway House
collaborated with inga riston Nordic Marketplace on the exhibit Nordic
Ware The Art and Science of the Bunt I. It
sounds like it was a delightful exhibit. They collected stories
(27:33):
from from people to include as part of it. Uh
and yeah. Um. Nordic Ware sales boomed during the pandemic,
leading the company to make plans to expand their Minnesota factory.
In there is part of it. They're looking to build
a bunt cafe. Oh that's exciting. Yeah, bunt cafe. Uh wow,
(28:03):
one day maybe we'll get to go add it to
our field trip. Ye. Ever, growing, it's never getting smaller,
no no, no, no, no no. Uh yeah. This has
been a fun one, this fun research. Uh. This is, however,
(28:24):
all we have to say about the bunt cake and
the pants today, Yes, for now. But we do have
some listener mail for you and we're going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
(28:46):
we're back. Thank you sponsor. Yes, thank you, and we're
back with I could have gone two ways that way,
or I was gonna do like Ringing the horror movie.
I feel like the right vibe. I could have done
(29:08):
a Lord of the Rings thing, and we just did
a Lord of the Rings in our d and d
um yeah yeah, we had to throw a thing into
a volcano and everything. Yeah, and then you had to
fight essentially Kylo Wrinn. And then I felt bad about
it later because some of my opinions came out pheel
(29:30):
Gil about pict character. It's okay, I don't think. I
don't think you hurt his feelings too hard good. I
would hate I would hate for that to happen, Emily
wrote my listener males actually in response to the request
for a mulberry episode. Who knew this would be the
reason I write in Annie talked about thinking mulberry is
(29:52):
being made up like snash berries and really walk in
the chocolate factory. Also a lot of fun things to say.
Um continued. We live in Ohio where mulberry trees are plentiful,
and my husband refers to them as snowsberries. Our kids
actually believed that's what they're called. I've told them We're
going to have to start using the correct terminology. Are
(30:13):
our children will be at school someday talking trying to
correct their teacher. Our friends at these berries are snowsberries
and get crazy looks. He has yet to start calling
them mulberries. And I'm in the minority at our home.
See that's fun. Um Again, if I was a teacher,
(30:35):
I might not necessarily know me personally. I'm not saying
teachers at large, and I might be like snausberries. That
might be right, Like, all right, anything is possible. It's true, Um,
April wrote, I was just listening to the Baked Beans
(30:56):
episode and heard you discussing dessert hot sauce. I used
to work with an awesome pastry chef in Jersey who
had a hot sauce business on the side. One of
the things they make are fruity hot sauces that somehow
taste like freshly picked fruit that is blazing hot. The
other hot sauces are fantastic as well. My personal favorite
was the ginger a thousand percent. Check them out Jersey
(31:18):
barn Fire. Oh yes, I'm into it. I want it.
This is like it's become such a point, a ridiculous point.
Of indecision every day where I'm like, what hot sauce?
Why limit myself to one? So yes, I'm very excited
(31:43):
about this, eager to try even more. Yes, add to
the collection, Yes, a whole shelf. No joke in my
pantry is just sauce, So add some more in there?
Why not? Yeah? Thanks to you both of those listeners
for writing. If you would like to write to us,
(32:04):
you can our emails hello at savorpod dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at saver pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit
the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our
super producers Dylan Fagin and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you
(32:26):
for listening, and we hope that lots more good things
are coming your way
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