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
Vicki@MorePowerfulBeyondMeasure
I sure don't want my birds to find out how well you treat your birds. I have spread peanut butter on little wooden hearts and rolled them in seeds for my birds. Even though they are wild birds, they are ours, right? Ha! Mostly, I just toss seeds everywhere and fill the feeders. I will be copying your recipe and trying it out. I buy those suet thingys for $1.99 but this looks like fun. I want to see the other side...did it take on the mold design?
My husband makes syrup...sugar, water and maple flavoring brought to a boil. That's the way his mother stretched their budget. I'm so glad we can afford real syrup now.
Pam Kessler
@Vicki, the side that's showing IS the side that was against the mold design part. lol. If you're really up close and look at it from an angle you can see the design on it, but it's not enough that you can see it well in the photos.
Andrea Ostapovitch
This is a fantastic idea! Now I just need to find a suitable mold. Love that you put the twiggy in there. So thoughtful of you!
Andrea
Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces
This is such a fun project...pinning! Seems like something kids would enjoy doing, too! I am loving reading all these funny food stories. I'm racking my brain thinking about whether we eat anything weird...we probably just don't know it's weird lol.
Musings from Kim K.
I actually remember putting Karo syrup on my pancakes growing up. It was always an option on our table (along with maple syrup and a bowl of brown sugar). I hadn't thought about that syrup in ages. I'm sure your birds appreciate their special Valentine gift.
Joanne Noragon
The rebar part is very clever.
DaiseyJayne.com
I'm laughing about the Karo syrup, we only ever used that as a recipe ingredient. But I was in my teens before I actually had real Maple syrup as we grew up on Mrs. Butterworths! Now my kids have only ever had the real thing. I'm also smiling at suzieQ's comment. My dad (a real New England Yankee) wound put ketchup on his spaghetti that my VERY Sicilian mother had just prepared and she would just say "Eech! how do you eat that!?!" 🙂
Pam Kessler
I tasted it when I was making the birdseed cakes and it's very very sweet. And thick!!! I can't even imagine using that on pancakes now. I had never heard of the ketchup thing before. That's hilarious!
Mary@mydogsmygardenandmary
I feed the birds so this is a great idea - thanks for the directions and recipe.
Mary
marie
I love this Pam...and whether the birds use it or not, the twig is the perfect touch!!
Thanks for sharing it.
suzieQ
My grandfather had a big appetite and my grandmother would serve spaghetti with ketchup, being from New England. Their son, my Dad, married an Italian girl and Pop loved going to Nuni's house for spaghetti and meatballs. I was wondering what you were going to make with that Jell-o mold. Hope those little birds cooperate so you can get some pictures. Birds are so beautiful.
Pam Kessler
OK, ketchup beats tomato PASTE in grossness 🙂
TARYTERRE
LOve the heart birdseed cake. How original and sweet. GREAT idea.
Jill
So cute, hope lots of birds come to visit!
Joani
I put out a glass of bird seed a day as well as I have a regular seed block. They prefer the loose stuff to the stuff on the block but they are picking at it. Your idea was intriguing. Thanks for sharing.
Shara
Did your Mom use plain old tomato sauce? My husband's Mother used to make mac and cheese a lot (the boxed stuff) but she didn't.....wait for it..........DRAIN IT. She just put the powdered cheese into the water, stirred it up and served it 'soup style'. BLARG. The first time I made it, he was astonished. "It's SO good", he said. I have a bunch of mold around here - think I might have to do some bird cooking.
Pam Kessler
She used tomato PASTE. Just opened a can of tomato paste and stirred it into the cooked noodles. Wow, that mac and cheese makes my stomach turn. Blah!
Lorna Orick
I'm gonna call my Mom and thank her for being such a great cook! lol
These "recipes" had me cracking up. That Mac and Cheese! UGH.
The Speckled Hen Cottage
These are so cute! I'm going to come back for the recipe as I've never used this one. I have everything for the peanut butter and lard ones (doesn't sound yummy but the birds are suppose to flock to it, we'll see). Like the twig idea, but don't know about it because of the deer, they manage to get to all my regular feeders. I can just see them now chewing on the stick or worse yet poking there face with it while they eat! I refuse to stand on a ladder to hang feeders...
Anonymous
helpful hint: to keep deer away from feeders, hang a cheap bar of face soap from the feeder.
$store face soap is fine to use, take a small sharp knife, slowly drill a hole into the middle of
the bar, thread some heavy string or twine thru the hole, make it about 10" to 12" long..tie the twine or heavy string in a knot, hand next to feeder or from the end of the feeder. Also works to place the soap bar in shrubs if the deer find them tasty also! I've tried just about every idea to keep deer away from the feeders, scrubs, and garden..wherever I lived, and this method works the best. Won't hurt to give it a try. Leave out all year long. Nancy W.
~Lavender Dreamer~
Oh, the birdies are getting special treatment...I love it! We feed the birds like crazy here and right now we have flocks of goldfinches coming by every day. We at Karo syrup, too or molasses. My Mom wasn't a cook and we thought tv dinners were a treat! haha! Enjoy your weekend! Hugs!
Vickie @ Ranger 911
Oh, no! I wonder what my daughters say about my cooking? hehe
If you stand there long enough, I'm sure you'll get a wink and a smile from a hungry little bird! After all, you cooked dinner for them. Or is it breakfast since it's got Karo syrup in it?
Nice photos, Pam!