Christmas Cake help needed

Just wrap brown wrapping paper round the outside of the tin and tie with string. There is also another thread about making Christmas cake full of helpful tips

www.gransnet.com/forums/christmas/1286521-Making-the-Christmas-Cake

Here

I always make Mary Berrys recipe and no brown paper required on the sides it always cooks very nice and everyone comments on it . Good luck .

I haven't lined the outside of the tin since Domestic science lessons at grammar school! I make either a Dundee cake or Mary Berry's Christmas cake, I never rated Delia to be honest but I've no doubt someone on GN will enlighten us as to the benefits of the brown paper, grammar school was so long ago can't remember why?

It helps the cake cook more evenly and stops the outside from burning. It acts as insulation...😊

Thanks everyone. I’ll have read of the thread *Suzie woozie*🌺

We always used to use brown paper, then newspaper. This was explained to me by the local 'expert', a friend of my grandmother, who made my parents' wedding cake.

Ovens had 'hot' and 'cold' spots. If you left something in for hours, then, even at a low heat, it might 'catch' and this was especially a problem with fruit cakes (as anyone who has ever burned any dried fruit knows!)

So, brown paper first (more hygienic) then newspaper, to insulate the cake a bit from the vagaries of the oven. I haven't done this for some years now as modern ovens are safer and more predictable. My friends with Agas disagree among themselves (!)

I'd like to add that this lovely lady was a Belgian refugee, so everyone thought she understood 'cake' the best! My uncle has a memory of delivering a birthday cake she had made on his bike and having an accident. They had to rush the cake back for an emergency repair job, and summon the one neighbour with a car to deliver it in time!

But if you have a fan oven the cake will cook evenly anyway and no extra wrapping is needed.

I use a recipe from DH’s great grandmother who was a Mrs Bridges. I am no cake maker but it never fails and doesn’t need feeding either.