Anyone used Baking Strips?

why not make
your own with greaseproof paper; tie them round the cake tin with string.

That is what we did with rich fruit cakes.
Double brown paper tied with string.
Worked a treat.

I've used them when baking sponge cakes and the results were excellent. Fully risen and even topped, the best results I've ever had with sponge cakes. Different altogether than baking fruit cakes - apparently it's all to do with the moisture released during the baking process. I'm sure you won't be disappointed - good luck !

My family uses baking /greaseproof paper and then 2 or 3 layers of brown paper tied on with string for wedding cakes etc. (exactly as butterandjam says). In addition we put a layer of card over the top.

The paper sticks up an inch or so above the cake tin.
No idea why.

My dad (who made the best rich fruit cakes I've ever tasted) showed me how - and I always do it if it's important to be perfect.
He also taught me to shape the mixture in the tin so that it was very slightly concave in the middle of the mixture.

Our recipe is mostly fruit and butter it seems to me though - so very stiff.
It's nearly as dark as a Christmas pudding!

Spinnaker thanks. Do you remember if the strips affected the cooking time?
One of the cakes will be 3 layers so it would be better if they are flat without having to be trimmed

I always use baking paper .
I don't like it if my sponges are too brown on the outside .

Just to clarify, the Baking Strips I am asking about are special strips with an inner layer which is damp when it goes round the tin. You can buy them readymade or make your own with wet kitchen roll incased in foil

eddiecat78

Spinnaker thanks. Do you remember if the strips affected the cooking time?
One of the cakes will be 3 layers so it would be better if they are flat without having to be trimmed

eddiecat78
No, the cooking times remained the same. You could always do three single layers in separate tins, which is what I have done in the past and they've always turned out very good and not needed any trimming.

I've never heard of baking strips.

Interesting though!

Sorry eddiecat.
I looked baking strips up .
I used to bake a lot and had never heard of them .
No one uses them for the bake sales at church .
My local Lakeland has closed and I would have noticed them if browsing .
I used to make a depression in my cake mix before putting it in the oven if I wanted a flatter cake top .
It wasn't 100%
Maybe baking strips would have been better .

We used newspaper around our fruitcake tins, same idea I suppose. I never considered trying it with sponges. Might try it (if I remember).

I also put newspaper around a tin if baking a fruitcake .
I've put them in the oven on the lowest temperature before bed .
I once had an emergency and had to leave a fruit cake cooking so I put it on the lowest temperature and asked my neighbour to check it .
We were both really surprised when it came out well and that's when I started cooking them overnight .

My recipe is a roughly 8 hour bake, Esmay
Used to cook them in the bottom of the Aga.

Delia Smith’s instructions when making a Christmas cake say to wrap,brown paper strip around outside of tin and to place a double layer of greaseproof paper over the top with a hole the side of a 50p in the centre. I have done that for years.

I too always used to use folded newspaper or possibly brown parcel paper back in the day when I baked Christmas cakes as a business.
What exactly are “baking strips” ?

Check them out on Amazon

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09VB6PG2N?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details&tag=gransnetforum-21