Anyone had any experience with hemisphere moulds?
For LOs birthday I made him a ladybird cake, in the image of the ladybird character from his favourite storybook. The cake looked fab, and would have tasted even better had it not taken 1 and 3/4 hours to cook and ended up with about 4mm of dark dry crust - albeit a perfect smooth hemisphere surface for decorating with fondant. Everyone who had some loved it, but I was fixated on the dark crust and kicking myself for not doing something to prevent it with such a deep cake.
It was a madeira sponge - 6 egg quantity to fill the 20cm large hemisphere mould (the one from the online and high street store beginning with L...).
I will be using it again, but how can I ensure the deep cake cooks evenly without the crust going dark and dry?! (aside from doing a fruit cake, that is...)