Post #365413 by Murph on Fri, Mar 7, 2008 3:06 PM

Bundt History:

H. David Dalquist, a metallurgy expert who unwittingly secured a place in culinary history when he cast the first Bundt cake pan in 1950, died Jan. 2 of heart failure at his home in Edina, Minn. He was 86.

Dalquist made the Bundt pan - a tubular form with a center post and elegantly fluted sides - for the Minneapolis chapter of a Jewish women's society, whose members sought to reproduce a cake their European mothers had made.

Sixteen years later, the confluence of a baking contest, changes in women's lives and the rise of convenience foods made the pan a kitchen staple and put Dalquist's Nordic Ware brand on the map.

His Minneapolis-based company has sold more than 45 million Bundt pans since and inspired a host of imitators, making the distinctive cake mold one of the most popular in the world.

Dalquist also pioneered a carousel that rotates foods during microwaving, microwave splatter covers, microwave egg poachers and other products that worked in both conventional and microwave ovens.

Dalquist enjoyed making Bundt cakes with his wife of 59 years, the former Dorothy Staugaard, who survives him along with four children and 12 grandchildren.

Pillsbury Bundt cake were eliminated from the product line in the late 1990s, a move that might have contributed to a decline in Bundt pan sales. By 2002, according to the market research firm NPD Group, the specialty pan could be found in only 15 percent of American households, a drop from 21 percent in 1993. A baking industry expert suggested the downturn was due to trends that favored snack cake mixes and store-bought goodies.