C. Dianne Zweig - Kitsch 'n Stuff: "vintage bundt pans"

Monday, May 17, 2010

Collecting, Decorating And Baking With Bundt Cake Pans

The Art Of Collecting Bundt Pans

Some people make an art out of baking delicious Bundt cakes, while others find the art within the pan itself and love collecting these old world treasures.

The Cake With The Hole In The Middle

With an estimated 60 million Bundt pans existing across A

merica, it is easy to find a variety of these German inspired fluted cake pans used to make the "cake with the hole in the middle" popularized in a very funny movie "My Big fat Greek Wedding".

My Big Fat Greek Wedding And The Bundt Cake

If you recall in the hit movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding", the groom's mother brings the bride's mother a Bundt cake and in several hilarious exchanges , the mother of the bride-to -be calls the

cake a "bunk" cake and serves the cake with a potted plant in the middle.

The Settlement Cookbook

Bundt cake recipes show up in America in the early 1900's and can be

found in The Settlement Cookbook by Lizzie Kander. Originally made as ring shaped coffee cakes, Bundt cakes were first referred to as German bundkuchen, made in ceramic pans and familiar to Germany, Austria and Hungary. The early old world pans were fluted and very heavy made

of ceramic or cast iron.

Introducing Nordic Ware Aluminum Bundt Pans

"In 1950, the landmark pan was introduced, after the Minneapolis Chapter of the Hadassah Society asked Dave and Dotty to produce a kuglehof pan, similar to the one the society's president had received from her grandmother in Germany. Dave produced the pan from cast aluminum for the

Hadassah Society and a few for the Nordic Ware trademark, which he sold to department stores using the name, bund pan. (The word bund means a gathering-thus a bund cake, with its characteristic fluting, was a cake suitable for a gathering or party.) Nordic Ware created the pan and filed for a trademark to protect its creation, renaming the pan the Bundt pan." http://www.nordicware.com/about/founders.

Bundt Pans Come In

A Variety Of Shapes

There has also been many variations to the original ring shaped design including rectangular shapes, hearts, roses, flowers and even Star of David Bundt pans ( Nordic Ware). See
http://www.jewishrecipes.org/kitchenware/bakeware/star-of-david-bundt-pan.html

Vintage Bundt Pans Are Reasonably Priced

You will find Bundt pans made of ceramic, cast iron, Graniteware, glass, tin, aluminum, copper in a variety of colors and sizes .
Prices vary according to materi

als, age, rarity and condition but for the most part, there are lots of Bundt pans in the very reasonably priced category that you can pick up for a few dollars. Look out for dents, chips, rust. Companies that made Bundt pans are Nordic W