Learn how to make bird seed cakes for your backyard birds. They're also excellent holiday hostess and teacher gifts that the kids can help with!
One of my favorite things to do once the weather starts cooling down and the birds have fewer natural things to eat in the yard (berries and worms) is to make suet bird seed cakes.
Birds can benefit from suet because it's high in fat and protein and gives them much-needed energy during the cooler months when they don't have access to as much fat out in the wild.
You can make them in traditional square shapes, but why limit it to that when you can make them in fun shapes too!
For instance, I recently found this heart-shaped jello mold at a thrift store.
I didn't make jello with it because that would just be too obvious. And who wants to hear about making jello anyhow? Snoozefest!
I made suet cakes for birds with it!!!
That uses gelatin. So, come to think of it, I sort of made jello for you after all.
Come along as I take you through the journey of how to make something you can probably buy in the store for $1. It's so much more fun to make it yourself though!
Homemade Birdseed Cakes
Ingredients:
- 3 cups wild bird food
- ½ cup boiling water
- 3 tablespoons Karo syrup
- 1 packet unflavored gelatin powder (Knox or a generic version)
- ¾ cup flour
- non-stick cooking spray - I prefer Pam, for obvious reasons 🙂
- a mold of some sort - jello mold, bundt pan, cookie cutters, etc
- string, twine, ribbon or yarn
- a straw if your mold doesn't have a hole for easy hanging
Directions:
Spray your mold with cooking spray
Mix the gelatin packet into the boiled water until it is dissolved.
Add flour and syrup until it is mixed well. It's going to look like a thick cake batter.
Add birdseed into the mixture and mix well.
Spoon ½ the mixture into your mold.
Push straw through the seed mixture to the bottom of the mold.
Add a bit of string (this is going to act like a piece of rebar in cement and add extra stability).
Spoon the remaining seed mixture into the mold and compress it down as much as humanly possible.
Put the mold into the fridge or freezer overnight to harden up and allow the gelatin to set.
In the morning remove your cake from the mold. If your seed cake doesn't slide out of the mold easily when you turn it upside down, sit the bottom of the mold in a shallow pan of warm water for a few minutes and the cake should pop out.
Gently remove the straw and thread a piece of string through the hole for hanging.
I figure the birds can steal the "rebar" string to make their nests with when they're done eating through the cake.
I added an extra step of putting a twig in the hole as a little perch for the birdies.
I did not put that in the official directions, because so far none of the birds are using the darn twig. They'd prefer to just stand precariously on the top and eat the seed.
So much for my plan of a quaint photo of a cardinal sitting on the twig, eating the birdseed cake and smiling at the camera.
Tips For Making Your Suet Cakes:
This recipe is for a medium-sized jello mold. If you were going to use a large bundt pan as your mold, you may want to double the recipe.
Do not dilly-dally when making this. Once the mixture starts to cool, you don't have a lot of time to work with it in the molds before it starts setting up.
If you plan to give these as gifts, please keep them refrigerated or in a cool place until you gift them.
If you're looking for a low-melt suet recipe that holds up better on warmer days, I have a recipe with peanuts and berries that the birds LOVE → No Melt Suet Cakes For Birds.
I also use suet when I show you how to make a rustic Log Bird Feeder.
This Explains So Much:
About Karo syrup - My mom used to use Karo syrup for pancakes and waffles and such. The first time I ever had maple syrup was in college and I about gagged. It's funny that Karo syrup is what I thought syrup was supposed to taste like.
Needless to say, my Mom was not the best cook 🙂 I won't get into what she used for spaghetti sauce.
Now get out of here and feed the little birdies! They need to gain their winter five ten pounds like the rest of us.
Some "Repurposed" Bird-Related Content:
DIY Bird Bath
Vintage Snack Set Bird Feeder
Vintage Tin Dollhouse Repurposed Into Birdhouse
Bird Feeder From Repurposed Cookie Tins
Ted
I tried this recipe and made 2 cakes reusing my suet tray. I had many birds here with the suet and they tried to get at this seed cake, but it was definitely too hard to even peck out a seed. This was in my suet feeder so stable to try. I cannot imagine on a free hanging branch.