Hello all, I am making a turtle cake for this Saturday. I will be baking the cake in a pyrex bowl. The size is approx. 9 inch wide bowl and the batter amount is equal to 1 boxed cake mix. How long do I bake it for 
and do I lower the baking temp. of oven?Thank you Cheffie 
I've baked in Pyrex a few times (see the top of the fairy mushroom, and the space ship in my pics). I used a 2.5L bowl (measures about 8.75" across). I think the key to getting edible cake is to avoid overfilling the bowl. A whole cake mix is too much.
I had success when I used an inverted rose nail as a heating core, and used only enough batter to cover the tip of the nail (it rose well, but didn't quite make the top of the bowl). I've tried using more batter, but have ended up with "raw in the middle" disasters.
I used doctored mix and baked at 325F. It took about 1 hr, 15 minutes for mine to be fully cooked. I used a wooden skewer to test for doneness.
Best of luck!
Ann
Here is the simple answer...............
Until you can smell that wonderful aroma! Yes, use your nose 
It depends on how deep the bowls is. The deeper, the longer.
As a basic rule of thumb.......20-60 minutes for one mix. Yes, that is a big spread but if one is using say a WonderMold (doll skirt pan) it will take longer (60+ minutes) than if the batter is only says 4" deep (about 30-40 min) or even much longer than if it is 2" deep (about 20-30 min).
It also depends (a lot) on how accurate your oven is.
Hello all thank you for the responses so far. Wow I didnt think it would be this tough of a question. Hmmm. I am also glad I was not the only one to have it. 
, The bowl in question is the 2.5 quart/2.4 liter one. Are there any other suggestions out there on what to use to make the turtles body (other than carving one out of stacked rounds)? The turtles body needs to be about 6-8 inches round,enough to feed about 10-15, 8-12 yr. old children and a couple of adults.I think that will be about the size that I need, if not what size will I need? I am also making the head and legs out of cake. I just wanted to use the bowl for the shape but also do not want a dry cake either, of which it sounds like I may have if I bake it in the bowl. Can I wrap the outside of the bowl with cake baking strips? Or wrap it with a damp dish towel and cover with foil around bowl? Thank you all again , Cheffie
Can I wrap the outside of the bowl with cake baking strips? Or wrap it with a damp dish towel and cover with foil around bowl?
As Kakeladi said, you sure can. But do be aware that this can increase your baking time quite a bit.
I bake in pyrex bowls, but for the big ones - and I count 9 inch wide as big, I would try to divide it. Wouldn't it be better to bake half of the batter in the bowl (to aprox. 2" high) and one 9 in round cake, again to 2" high? You would still need to carve the round cake, but for me this is easier than to try get the cake in bowl to bake perfectly.
If you bake it in the bowl all at once, I wouldn't go over baking temperature of 300 F (and heating core from the flower pin). It will take ages to bake, but this guarantees that you won't get raw middle.
I've used my 2.5 quart with one flower nail, baking at 325 degrees and the cakes came out fine. Takes a bit longer, but I haven't had problems with the cake being dry. I use a full batch of batter (about the same as one cake mix). I also cut a small circle of parchment to fit in the bottom of the bowl (grease bowl, add parchment, grease parchment, then flour) to help the cake release better. Last time I used it was to make Rocket (from Little Einsteins)...don't think I ever posted that pic, but the pyrex bowl worked nicely. Good luck!
Bec
Thank you. Sweet how much longer do you think it should bake for (approx.) if I decide to wrap bowl? Cheffie
I believe that I had to add about 20 minutes, bringing me to 1 hr 35 minutes. (My towels were quite wet!) I just remembered that I also used 2 flower nails sitting side by side. I really hope this works out for you!
Hello all, well I finished the cake and am posting a couple of photos of it. Thank you for all the suggestions about baking in the pyrex bowl. I ended up baking in the 2.5 quart putting batter about 1/3 full, the also baked an 8 inch round. They fit perfectly on top of each other. The bowl cake was a little drier on the edges than I like so I made a wash and used that to moisten the edges. Let me know what you think. Thanks Cheffie
Really adorable turtle what did you make his head out of? You did an amazing job.
Love it! Glad to know that you can use a pyrex bowl! I have thought of it, but didn't want to screw a cake up
Thanks all, the head,legs, and tail were made out of fondant. Some of the little turtles, snakes, and butterflies were made out of gum paste free handed, and the other small turtles were made with white chocolate in a mold. The turtle crossing sign was gum paste also. And the sand was graham crackers crushed. Again, thank you Cheffie
I know this thread is a million years old, but I was just referred to it for a cake Im doing. I used the method as suggested by using a nail in the middle, wrapping th outside in a wet rag, and wrapping that in foil to hold it on.
It took over 2 hours to bake. Maybe like 2.5 hours. 
Crazyness. Can anyone tell me if I can take the foil and rag off halfway through to get it to bake a little sooner? The bowls I think are maybe like 6" and 8". Will I mess up the cake if I mess with it? Ive got them in the over now.
I tried to bake the top of my mushroom/fairy house tonight in a pyrex bowl (quite a large one) and whilst the top and middle were fine the outside of the cake was burned :(.... I guess I baked it too high at 350 but is that going to happen anyway if I bake it at 325 since its so large? bowl is 10" wide but the perfect size for what I was going for.
I use stainless steel mixing bowls for baking bowl shaped cakes. You could do a Google search about baking instructions.
AI use a pyrex bowl all the time and it works well. Try putting less batter in the bowl and the remainder in a cake tin/s with the same diameter as your bowl to get the height you need. Cook at a lower temp for longer. The flower nail has been recommended to me as well, haven't tried it yet but I intend to.
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