The Man Behind the Pan

While we were in the city last week there was a program happening at the Mill City Museum called "Tunnel of Fudge Cake: the Bake-Off and the Bundt Pan". Had it not been in conflict with the ball game we would have been there. You betcha.

The bundt pan story was already somewhat familiar to me. I remembered reading the obituary of its inventor a few years back.


H. David Dalquist, 86, Bundt Pan's Inventor, Dies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 6, 2005

EDINA, Minn., Jan. 5 (AP) - H. David Dalquist, creator of the aluminum Bundt pan, died on Sunday at his home here. He was 86.

The cause was heart failure, his family said.

Mr. Dalquist founded Nordic Ware, which has sold more than 50 million Bundt pans.

He designed the pan in 1950 at the request of members of the Minneapolis chapter of Hadassah, who sought to recreate cakes baked in Europe but wanted a pan made of modern materials. Mr. Dalquist created a new shape based on a German original, adding regular folds to make it easier to cut the cake.

The women from the society called the pans "bund pans" because "bund" is German for an organization or group of people. Mr. Dalquist added a "t" and trademarked the name.

For years, the company sold few such pans. Then in 1966, a Texas woman won second place in the Pillsbury Bake-Off for her Tunnel of Fudge Cake, made in a Bundt pan. Suddenly, bakers across the country wanted their own Tunnel of Fudge cakes.

Mr. Dalquist founded Nordic Ware after returning from duty in the Navy in World War II. He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in chemical engineering.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy Margerite Staugaard Dalquist; a son, David, of Minnetonka, Minn.; three daughters, Corrine Lynch of Eden Prairie, Minn., Linda Jeffrey of Medina, Minn., and Susan Brust of Dellwood, Minn; and 12 grandchildren.



Perhaps the story of yet another iconic couple who got their start in Minnesota has put you in the mood for a trip through the Tunnel of Fudge ?