Fat Daddio's PHA-8 Anodized Aluminum Hemisphere Pan, 8 x 4 Inch

Expecting cake turned out perfect.

Worked great to make the top head of Minnie for my daughter's birthday cake!

This is another wonderful Fat Daddio pan. My particular order was wrong, but the pan is great. First, what is right: the pan, even though there isn't anything to hold it still, stays upright. I didn't use anything on the counter or in the oven and it still stayed upright--I was very gentle with it. I followed the directions/suggestions on the Fat Daddio website for baking. The only note is that even with a heating rod the cake needed to bake much longer than expected. I used Bakers Joy and the cake came out of the pan perfectly. The cake itself came out denser than the other cakes, but that's not necessarily an issue. Now what is odd. I wanted a smaller "ball" to sit on a 2-layer 9" cake so that there would be room for icing grass around it. When the pan arrived, it wasn't the 6.5" I ordered but as I was on a time crunch, I went with it. The label says 6.5", but the pan itself is labeled "8" and the measurement is 8". If I hadn't already baked the 2 9" layers, I would have used a 14" square base instead but in this case time and inclement weather encouraged making-do. Later I contacted Fat Daddio, who responded immediately and were very helpful and kind. Turns out the sticker added to the label was by the seller and it is covering up a large "8." UPDATE: The seller, Cake Supplies on Sale, sent me the 6.5" pan after I reached out to them, so wonderful customer service by them, resolving an initial mistake very well by having me keep the 8" pan. Fat Daddio's pans themselves are made well and work well, and I'll continue to invest in them.

I bought this 8" pan along with the Wilton sport ball set to make the pregnant mommy cake. This was too small for the belly and the Wilton set was too big for the boobies. This pan is sturdy and cleans easily. The negative: came with no instructions at all and the worst thing, no stabilizing ring and you can't find them for sale separately. I baked a butter pecan cake mix, 1 box and it almost overflowed. Baked in convection gas oven at 325 for 80 minutes. It didn't fall over but I was scared it was going to. I have ordered round metal cookie cutters as someone else suggested to use as a stand while baking. That is why I deducted a star. I used butter and flour to prepare pan and the cake came out of the pan perfectly. Over all, a good solid pan that baked evenly event for a some size spot in the center was slightly undercooked, I bought the heating rod but forgot to use it. Does not bend but tips easy and no instructions for use. (The ring its sitting on in the picture came with the Wilton set)

Works great once you learn how to use it. I will start by saying that, as far as dome pans go, this one is of excellent quality and there is nothing wrong with the design of the pan itself. Although, I learned while making a watermelon shaped cake for my son's birthday that there are some quirks to account for, and I did end up having to discard my first attempt and sculpt a few layer cakes because my cake would not bake through. The middle turned to a puddle of bubbling goo, while the edges turned brown. For my second attempt with this pan, I made a BB-8 cake and needed a perfect dome shape for the head. I invested in a heating rod (highly recommend it if you're using a dome pan) and I also used a thicker batter than the first attempt, and only filled it about half full. I used a layer of regular 9" round cake for height. I also reduced the heat from 350 to 330 for the first 40 minutes then turned up to 350 until it was finished (about another 15-20). I got the perfect dome I needed and the cake cooked perfectly. This pan does not include a stabilizer, but I found that using the thicker batter, (which really works best anyway), if you spread the batter where it needs to be, tipping in the oven is not an issue. While using a dome pan can be a challenge, it's not a design flaw in this particular pan. Any large dome pan will carry the same issues. You just have to learn to work with them.

Well made! Super easy to clean and use for fun cakes. I had so much fun using this to create the shell for a turtle cake! The kids loved it. My only suggestion would be to have a little stand that comes with it to provide more stability when putting it into the oven and removing it to keep pan from rolling around. I had to brace this with two other pans to keep from spilling

I desperately needed a sphere cake pan for my sons pikachu cake. I bought two of these, totally worth the money. They are durable and not incredibly thin so they don’t dent unless you do something that would ruin them. You have to hand wash them of course like majority of cake pans and I do recommend setting them on-top of an either smaller round cake pan or a glass Pyrex bowl that would hold the pan so the batter stays even as it’s baking. It does take a little bit longer to bake the cake in it. I usually do convection bake and that takes longer anyway. But this is by far the best hemisphere cake pan I’ve ever used. I also recommend like I do with all of my cake pans, to coat the inside with Crisco then pour some flour into the pan and turn the pan around until the flour covers all of the crisco, dump out the excess flour then take some parchment paper, cut it into a circle big enough to fit in the pan and then pour the batter. It helps the cake come out of the pan A LOT easier.

The pan itself is sturdy and turned out one great cake. However, when obtained there were no instructions listed with the pan. It did say on the side to go to the website listed for baking instructions, however when followed, there were no instructions for the hemisphere pans at all so each time I had to attempt to play it by sight alone. One cake ended up just fine, the other was too moist and fell apart. There were also no instructions for how much the cake held, and how many boxes would appropriately fit it. Overall, for an experienced baker who could probably eye it, or knows how to use a hemisphere pan this should be fine. For someone who has never used one before I may try to find another that comes with better instructions first.

This is perfect for a pokemon ball cake but it is very big. Once baked, it makes such a heavy cake, there is no way to make a complete round ball without any additional support as we found out. lol Great cake mold but the instructions are very lacking even on their website. It actually can take up to 2 cake mixes is what it boils down to.

Excelente producto, aunque un poco más chico de lo esperado, pero de uen calidad.

Meine Tochter wollte einen runden Kuchen als Apfel garniert. Mit dieser Backform hat das super funktioniert, so daß'ich sie gleich für den nächsten Geburtstag ebenfalls verwendet habe. Kam in der Schule prima an!

Pour le plaisir de la créativité.

Great product. Used to make a floating hot air balloon for a birthday cake!