Lakeland 8inch 1/2 sphere cake tin

[notasausage]

I'm trying to use this for only the second time. It takes a whole Victoria sponge mix which should take 25 minutes at 180oC when divided into 2 sandwich tins. Because I was baking it as one I dropped the temp to 170 to try and stop it burning before it was cooked. It took almost an hour to be done in the middle but is overdone round the outside.

Any tips? I am cooking in a electric fan oven and had it on the bottom shelf as its quite a deep tin.

My other question is that all my sponges including cupcakes rise unevenly with a big peak in the middle when when smooth in the tin when it goes in the oven. How do I get the nice slightly risen finish of a proper victories sponge?

Yeah, I have the same issue. It takes aaaaages to cook.

It also rises unevenly, every time! So I just cut the lump off.

Annoying!

This is Lakeland's instructions [http://www.lakeland.co.uk/info/owl-cake] and they say cook for 65-75 mins at 160 fan. I stood mine in a ring of scrunched-up foil and I think that may have helped protect the outside a bit.
The peaking is caused, I think, by an incorrect sugar/fat ratio, but I might be wrong about that.

link fail www.lakeland.co.uk/info/owl-cake

Thanks for that MyCat. Wish I'd seen that earlier today! I have until Tuesday to get this right, but as DH said DD2 is only going to be 2 and its only us eating it!

I tried to do the two together to make a sphere thing, but a victoria sponge wasn't dense enough to hold it's shape, so I'm going to use madiera next time. I have made just one half to make a hill on another cake and that turned out fine.
Good luck with your cake, hope it turns out well

Oh, I made a sphere with Victoria sponge. It was fine! And a chocolate cake was fine too!

I used these in my 'ambitious cake project' and used madeira cake as it held its shape better, but it was pretty solid!

Second attempt worked out fine, even after a minor huge panic when DH confessed to puting the tin through the dishwasher! Cooked at 155 - 160 for 60 minutes.

That looks fantastic!

Awesome! Love his smiley face :)

That's fab

The pointy sponge thing is because of too much sugar. Try reducing sugar a little bit.