Is the Bundt cake, a stalwart of the 1970s dessert table, enjoying a revival?
Everywhere I look these days — in every magazine, in every new cookbook — I seem to come across a recipe for a Bundt cake.
The second Columbus-area franchise of Nothing Bundt Cakes recently opened at 5073 N. Hamilton Rd. near Gahanna, after the first one two years ago in Dublin.
A third location is expected to open soon near Lennox Town Center.
This year, it turns out, is a big one for the Bundt cake.
Nordic Ware, the Minnesota maker of the Bundt cake pan, is celebrating its 70th birthday.
And the Tunnel of Fudge Cake recipe — which saved the pan from culinary obscurity — is turning 50.
The fluted tube pan that we know as a Bundt pan wasn’t invented in the United States, but it did get its name here.
In 1950, Nordic Ware founder H. David Dalquist was approached by members of the Minneapolis Hadassah Society — who asked him to create an aluminum version of a cake pan from their native Germany that made a coffeecake known as gugelhupf or bundkuchen.
Dalquist named the result Bundt, adding a “t” to the German “bund” to make the pronunciation easier for Americans.
The pan, though, was far from successful.
In fact, it was about to be removed from production when a Houston homemaker, Ella Rita Helfrich, entered the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off and dramatically changed the course of its future.
Helfrich placed second in the bake-off, winning $5,000 for her Tunnel of Fudge Cake, made in a Bundt pan.
As the winning bake-off recipes were promoted, her cake became more popular than the grand-prize winner that year.
And, to this day, Pillsbury identifies Tunnel of Fudge Cake as the recipe “most associated with the bake-off” and as its most-requested recipe of all time.
Before her death on July 21 at age 98, Helfrich saw her recipe and the Bundt pan in which she made it become part of the National Museum of American History exhibition on food at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
The recipe saved the Bundt pan: Nordic Ware had to move to round-the-clock production to keep up with the demand.
The success continued through the 1970s, when Pillsbury introduced a line of Bundt cake mixes.
The 1980s, however, weren’t as kind.
Sales of Bundt pans flagged after Americans discovered the microwave oven, said Dana Norsten, public-relations and communication manager for Nordic Ware.
Recent years have been better: Nordic Ware started issuing Bundt pans in various intricate designs — stars, crowns, even a princess castle — that found their place not only on the shelves of mass-market retailers but also in gourmet stores.
“The upswing began when we started making new shapes in the late 1990s,” Norsten said.
Blogs, websites and TV shows also helped, she said, by creating a heightened awareness of food and cooking.
Nordic Ware offers 50 pan designs and, to mark its 70th anniversary, plans to release three new ones with a special gold finish. The company also intends to reissue three retired designs, including the original from 1950.
Because every birthday needs a cake to celebrate, I’m sharing the latest Pillsbury recipe for Tunnel of Fudge Cake.
The original recipe by Helfrich called for a Pillsbury Double-Dutch Fudge Buttercream frosting mix, which is no longer made.
After the mix was discontinued, Pillsbury developed the revised recipe to answer customer demands.
A word of advice: Don’t leave out the nuts, which are essential to the structural success of the cake.
Recipe from www.pillsbury.com:
TUNNEL OF FUDGE CAKE
Makes 16 servings
For the cake:
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups butter or margarine, softened
6 eggs
2 cups powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups chopped walnuts
For the glaze:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 to 6 teaspoons milk
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube cake pan or 10-inch tube pan. In large bowl, combine sugar and butter; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar; blend well.
By hand, stir in flour and remaining cake ingredients until well-blended. Spoon batter into greased and floured pan; spread evenly.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes or until top is set and edges are beginning to pull away from sides of pan.
Cool upright in pan on wire rack 1 1/2 hours. Invert onto serving plate; cool at least 2 hours.
In small bowl, combine all glaze ingredients, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Spoon over top of cake, allowing some to run down sides. Store tightly covered.
PER SERVING: 570 calories, 8 g protein, 62 g carbohydrates, 3 g fiber, 43 g sugars, 32 g fat (6 g saturated), 80 mg cholesterol, 260 mg sodium
Lisa Abraham is the Dispatch food editor.
labraham@dispatch.com
