I know this is not a cake topic but can not find this on google 

here in the UK we can not get corn husk wraps (if anyone knows different please direct me)

can i use baking parchment? and would i need to grease it?

have you tried looking for plantain leaves?? Apart for corn husks, many other countries use plantain leaves although they will give your tamale a different flavor...not so pronounced but they will give it a more earthy tone, I would experiment with parchment paper but I will recommend using a more sturdy and thicker parchment paper

 Hopes this helps!

and there shouldn't be reason to grease the parchment paper, tamales are somewhat greasy with the amount of lard used in it so I believe there's no need for it

AAmazon UK has the corn husks. Do you have any ethnic markets? Perhaps you can find some there.

our ethnic shops concentrate on ASIAN we are just  beginning to get stuff from the baltic states but mexican and south american foods are almost non exsistant in the UK

APaperlace1 I'm not sure where you are in the UK, but there is a large Mexican shop in East London (near Bethnal Green) called Casa Mexico. They sell Mexican groceries, including packs of corn husks. If you can't get there in person I think you can also order online.

AHere's the link to their site: http://www.casamexico.co.uk/products/corn_husks_for_tamales_150g-863-40.htm

A

In the asian markets you should be able to fing banana leaves and corn husks. They are usually in the frozen section and are imported from the Phillipenes.. I'm in Canada and just found this hard to find item there this past weekend.

You can try using wax paper as well.  The canned tamales are wrapped with wax paper.

AYou can use aluminum foil, I do this all the time no grease need, good luck