1. Fruit cake requires a longer baking time than other cakes, so it’s essential that tin is well lined.
2. Lay out a sheet of greaseproof paper. Measure a strip about 2cm (¾in) wider than depth of tin. To do this, lay tin on its side, against edge of paper, to gauge how much paper is needed. Use a pencil to mark paper. Cut strip using scissors. Ensure that strip that’s been cut is long enough to wrap around tin.
3. Fold over one long edge of strip by roughly 1cm (½in). Make cuts about 2.5cm (1in) apart, along this folded edge, up to folded line.
4. Take another sheet of greaseproof paper and draw a circle around base of tin.
5. Cut out circle. Lightly grease bottom and sides of tin with butter. Press strip on to inside of tin so that it lines side and snipped edge sits on base. Lay paper circle in bottom of tin.
6. Cut out a double layer of newspaper or brown paper, to wrap around outside of tin. If paper isn’t long enough to wrap around, fill gap with another section of paper. Make sure paper is a couple of inches higher than top of tin. This lining is essential to stop sides of tin getting too hot and burning cake.
7. Take a length of kitchen string folded in half, make sure it’s long enough to wrap around tin, then thread two ends through loop end, pull two ends in opposite directions to pull string tight, and wrap them around tin, to meet at opposite side. Tie string to secure.
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An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
