Bundt?

Ever happen to you?

Bake something that didn’t want to release from the pan?

That’s what happened to me with this pecan bundt cake last Saturday . It wouldn’t come out of the pan, even after a cool-down, and careful edging to loosen it.  In desperation, I smacked the pan with the results shown above – it came out, but in several pieces.
But all was NOT lost because the pieces were delicious served with some butter pecan ice cream brought by friends M&B and served after after dinner.

What’s a bundt?
If you are a movie fan – like Grenville and myself – you may recall the exchange from the 2002 film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding in which a  young Greek woman (Toula Portokalus) falls in love with a non-Greek teacher (Ian Miller) and worries whether her family will accept him. At a family gathering, Toula’s future mother-in-law brings a bundt cake. Toula’s father (Gus) introduces every family member to Ian’s parents, the Millers. When the introductions are over, Mrs. Miller holds out a bundt cake. Completely confused, Toula’s mother asks,

“What’s this?” “It’s a bundt cake.” Mrs. Miller says. Completely dumbfounded, Toula’s mother repeats, “Bundt?” “Yes, bundt.” “Bundt?” “BUNDT!!!”
“Oh…It’s a CAKE!” She finally confirms, adding “This cake has a hole in it.”

The term bundt cake is is used chiefly in North America to describe a dessert cake that is baked in a bundt pan, shaping it into a distinctive ridged ring. “Bundt”
derives from the German word, bundkuchen.  The German word bund in bundkuchen originated either from bundling or wrapping the cake's dough around the pan's center hole or because a bund is a gathering of people The d in "bundt" is assimilated into the t.
The term, bundt, was trademarked in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, founder of Minnesota-based Nordic Ware. Dalquist developed the pan at the request of members of the Hadassah Society chapter in Minneapolis, Minnesota who wanted a lighter version of the traditional German cast-iron Kugelhupf (or bundkuchen) pan. which were heavy and hard to use. The women called them “bund pans.”

Dalquist modified existing Scandinavian pan designs and made an aluminum pan. The pans sold slowly until 1966 when “Tunnel of Love” was baked in a bundt pan and won second place in a Pillsbury Bake Off contest. Sales of the pan increased and it surpassed the tin Jell-O mold to become the most popularly sold pan in the U.S. Since its introduction, more than 50 million bundt pans have been sold by Nordic Ware. Pillsbury licensed the name in 1970 for a line of cake mixes.

More stuff: the bundt pan has its own celebration since the Governor of Minnesota declared November 15 as National Bundt Day. Some early bundt pan designs are on display at the Smithsonian Institute.

We now know — and so do you about “bundt.”