Nordic Ware

Despite the Scandinavian name, Nordic Ware is a heart-warming American family success story – almost the stuff that movies are made of!

Returning from the second world war, Dave and his wife Dotty were determined to go into business together. They took their $500 in savings, some good ideas, a lot of determination and set up business in the basement of their humble home in Minneapolis.

Starting with cookware items with a Scandinavian heritage – the Rosette iron, Krumkake iron, Platte pan and – still a Divertimenti favourite today – the Ebelskiver pan, the Nordic Ware brand was born in 1946.

In the 1950s, the company launched what was to become its signature piece – the Bundt pan (they also invented and registered the name – only a Nordic Ware pan is a true Bundt pan). Disappointingly for Dotty and Dave, though, consumers didn’t take to the Bundt pan and it made little impact on its launch.

All that changed literally overnight, when the Bundt pan was used by an enterprising baker to bake a prize-winning cake in a national competition. The next day bakers across the nation sought out this miracle pan – and since then, over 70 million households across the world now own one. Many have even amassed large collections, adding with each season’s new launches.

To this day, every Bundt pan is still made in Minnesota by the family-run company that Dotty and Dave started. They’ve been made famous by bakers such as Nigella (a big fan of a beautifully decorated Bundt cake!) and graced many tables, cookery books and magazine articles.

More recently, Nordic Ware have identified the trend away from non-stick bakeware to produce their superb pure aluminium ‘Naturals’ range of baking tins. Loved by bakers such as Edd Kimber (“The Boy Who Bakes”) – who devoted his best-selling book One Tin Bakes just to Nordic Ware’s 9x13” baking pan – these fantastic American-made tins make baking a joy. The range includes pieces such as Jelly Roll pans, insulated baking sheets (for perfect bakes, without the dreaded ‘soggy bottom’) and baking trays.

Divertimenti is proud to have been a partner of Nordic Ware in the UK for many years – chances are, if you’ve seen a Bundt cake featured in a cookery book or on a television show, the tin to bake it probably came from Divertimenti. Today, we carry a wider range a Nordic Ware in stock than any other UK retailer and we were selected by Nordic Ware to launch their Naturals range of aluminium bakeware.