Nordic Ware

Nordic Ware was born in a basement in 1946 when Dave Dalquist, a WWII veteran and engineer, and his wife Dotty launched a small kitchenware company with just $500 and a passion for Scandinavian cooking. Their early products were niche Scandinavian tools — rosette irons, krumkake irons, and ebelskiver pans — sold mainly to local Scandinavian communities in the Midwest. The company's breakthrough came around 1950 when two members of a local Jewish women's organization asked Dave to recreate a traditional German bund cake mold — and the Bundt pan was born. It remained a modest seller for years until a Texas home baker placed second at the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off using a Bundt pan to make her famous Tunnel of Fudge Cake, sending demand soaring overnight. Nordic Ware has since sold over 40 million Bundt pans worldwide. Today the company is still family-owned, led by the founders' son David Dalquist, and manufactures more than 400 kitchenware products entirely in its Minneapolis factory — a rarity in an industry that has largely moved production overseas.