National Bundt Day (11.8.23)

Essayists can, occasionally, be confessional, so brace yourselves, readers. I have a problem with bundt pans.

In the years of dedicated home-based volunteerism, there are many situations in which one brings food to a gathering. Committee meetings, celebratory gatherings, mourning gatherings, teacher gifts, children’s parties, graduation parties, retirement parties. Welcome to the team. Farewell and best wishes. Parent groups can be particularly pernicious, since there is often someone who bakes or cooks competitively, living for the moment of reveal, sweeping the cover off their elaborate creation, created in their shiny home-based test kitchens, smiling modestly at the cooing of observers, with ears sharply pricked for attention.

I never really enjoyed that, although I admit that these solitary-in-preparation volunteer efforts were infinitely preferable to group decision-making. (I remember spending thirty minutes early on in a group of women trying to hang a banner in a school auditorium.  Should be higher. Lower. It’s not centered on the wall. It’s crooked. Could it be less wrinkled? “Oh,” I remember exclaiming, “look at the time!”)

I was not, and am not, immune to the pleasure of bringing food to people you love, and even people you do not. It can be warm, genuine, and personal. It can be loving and a source of some pride. IMHO, it just shouldn’t be a test.

My defense was the bundt cake. And my secret weapon was, and is, a fancy pan.  Yes, these are military and strategic terms, a touch hawkish, even a trifle martial. Note the accompanying image which shows a portion of my arsenal, deployed in good service – and in good humor – over a period of years, accompanied by my secret weapon, a special shaker for dusting powdered sugar over the top.

In a fancy bundt pan, the most pedestrian of cakes shines…absolutely presides…over the buffet table. After all, as Julia Child said, “A party without cake is really just a meeting.” Thousands of recipe options range from the very simple (a tricked-out cake mix) to the very elaborate (studded with treats, festooned, elaborately layered and frosted on the horizontal, flowers peeking from the center hole.) 

On the flavor, well, suit yourself. Phyllis Diller noted “I like to serve chocolate cake, because it doesn’t show the dirt.”

November 15 is National Bundt Day. Fun facts: The idea of the bundt started in Minnesota through a small family company that later became Nordic Ware. In 1950, the company was asked to develop a pan reminiscent of Old World gugelhopf pans, which were cast iron, heavy and largely for fruitcake. The pans were sold for a Hadassah fundraiser, which was a success, but afterward, the pan didn’t sell much; production was nearly discontinued. Then in 1966, a woman named Ella Helfrich took second prize in the extremely famous and popular Pillsbury Bake-Off, with a cake called Tunnel of Fudge, baked in a Nordic Ware Bundt pan. The resulting publicity led 200,000 people to write Pillsbury and ask where they could find a bundt pan. Nordic Ware eventually made 30,000 pans a day, and the bundt surpassed the tin Jell-O mold as the most-sold pan in the U.S. As of 2016, more than 70 million bundt pans had been sold by Nordic Ware across North America. A number of the originals are in the collection at the Smithsonian.

Fun fact to act on: Nordic Ware has a factory outlet store in St. Louis Park, near Minneapolis. Highly recommended by the essayist. They sell fancy pans in many shapes, including autumn and the holidays. Tell them Peg sent you. 

We learn about National Bundt Day from an abundance of websites that identify every day in the year as an opportunity for promotion of one thing or another. No day is untouched! Some of these websites appear to be substantive. Some appear to be translated from an alien language. Or…are they written by (distinct shudder)…artificial intelligence?

“National Bundt Day is celebrated every year all over the country with a view to spreading the joy of bundt cake that is one of the favorite foods for citizens of all ages in the United States.” (Okay.) “National Bundt Day brings happiness to all to have the bundt cake surely on the list of the food menu.” (Starting to wander.) “Every year in the month of November, this day is celebrated with a great enthusiast.” (Does one advertise for this person?)

“National Bundt Day is observed not only in some of the popular cities but also in all of the places in the United States.” (So, unpopular ones, too.) “Many of you search for the best National Bundt Day wishes.” (We do?) “By wishing them using these, you can make them surprised.” (Uh…)  

So, in the spirit of surprise, I wish you a happy National Bundt Day with this sentiment from me via, apparently, AI: “When it’s National Bundt Day, look nowhere and enjoy the day very much!”  And this inspiring idea, from someone named Unknown, “I love to have a bundt cake, not a bread cake. Bread cakes are too mainstream and monotonous.” All right. A more solid piece of advice: bake a bundt and don’t share it with anyone else.

One more, from a person named, well, let’s say, “so-and-so.” When I googled “so-and-so,” the name came up as a writer, but I’m not so sure. His stirring observation: “Snake people know how to make a bundt cake.” Let’s just leave it there.  

Happy National Bundt Day to all!

Photo by the author.