Bird seed cake tutorial

Here are the items I needed to make the cakes... Wax paper, food storage container in the size you want cakes to be, flour, measuring cups, spoon for mixing and pressing, corn syrup, wild bird seed, and unflavored gelatin.

First I used a glass measuring cup and put in 1/2 cup water...put it in the microwave for 1.5 minutes to bring to a boil. Added the package of plain, unflavored gelatin. Mix.

Added 3 Tablespoons of corn syrup. Mix.

Added 3/4 cup flour. Mix.

Here is what it looked like...sort of like white glue (it smelled like it too)!!!

I put 4 cups of birdseed in a big bowl,


and added the "glue" mixture and stirred it with a big spoon.

I used the spoon to put the seed mixture into a 4 inch square plastic food storage container, and pressed the mixture in with the back of the big spoon. The seeds will not stick to the spoon, but they WILL stick to your fingers, so avoid touching the mixture with your hands. You really can do the whole thing without using your fingers/hands, which was wonderful.

After pressing into the container, I immediately turned the container upside down on top of wax paper, and the cake popped out perfectly!

This recipe made 4 seed cakes just the right size for a suet feeder! Of course, you can shape them into ornaments to hang in the trees (use a straw to punch out a hole to hang the ornament through), or make 2 larger blocks for bigger feeders.

I let them lay where I placed them (without moving the wax paper) for at least 1 hour, to allow the cakes to get hard enough. After 2 hours, you can lift them off the paper and turn them over to dry the underneath. You can see the first one I made (on the far left) is thicker than the others, and I think it may be too thick to fit in the suet feeder, so I thinned up the others. I will use the thicker one in my large feeder.

The recipe says to let them dry on the wax paper for 2 days before using in your feeder. The batch I made up yesterday is really nice and dry and firm...although
I have decided to throw away the those first cakes that had artificial sweetner in them, since there is no way to be sure of the effect on the birds. Better safe than sorry. I appreciate everyones input into what to do about that situation. Thanks!!!

I am planning to send 2 of these new cakes to my cousin for her suet feeder. Yeah...no more melting suet cakes in the warmer weather!!! I sure hope the birds like them now!!!

I hope any bird lovers can give this a try...it is a lot of fun to do...
xoxo- Julie

Oh, boy, what a dummy!

OK...now I am going to tell all in regards to making my seed cakes! I screwed up. I ran over to K-Mart of find some perfect bird seeds to make the cakes. I found something that looked pretty good. Here is the bag I bought:


The first thing I did wrong was to not take more pics for you guys!

Secondly, when I went to K-Mart I looked for plain gelatin, and all they had were flavored ones. I was talking to the lady in the garden shop about what I was doing, and I had said I was concerned about using sweetened jello due to bugs, etc. and she said, "Well, you are already going to have corn syrup in it". Well, duhhh...OK, so I decided I already had a flavored/sweetened one at home, so I would use that.

Problem #3 was that the one in my pantry was a sugar-free jello...which means it is sweetened with aspertame. It was also strawberry flavor, so it put a red hue on everything.

Now I am concerned about giving aspertame to the birds. Does anyone know if this would be terrible. I have tried Googling the answer, but haven't really found anything!

The recipe is soooo easy, I could go ahead and throw out this batch, and chalk it up to experience.

The 4th thing I did wrong was BELIEVE I had a small square clean roughly 4 x 4 inch plastic disposable container available (I always do)...and then as I was ready for it, there were none! What a dummy. The good thing was that I had plenty of time to work with the mixture before it dried too hard...at least 20 minutes I would say.

The square corelle serving dishes I used were the wrong sizes, but I took a butter knife and easily cut them into the sizes I wanted. I cut a 4 x 4 x 1.5 block for my cousins' suet feeder, and the biggest block I cut in half and put the half on top of the other half and pushed it down to make a thinker block for my feeder. Perfect. I left three chucks here to throw in with hers, or use in mine, if I decide it is OK to feed to this stuff to the birds.

To push down or manipulate the seeds while molding them, I suppose it would be good to oil up your fingers/hands to keep the seeds from sticking. I ended up using the back of a large spoon, and they did not stick to that AT ALL.

Here are my creations. Now I just have to wait two days for them to harden completely. Please let me know your thoughts on aspartame, if you know anything at all about safety in birds.

Make your own seed cakes for the birds!

Birdseed Jubilee

Make these treats into a single shape, or use a variety of cookie cutters if you like. Mix an edible glue to hold the treat together with 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 cup water, 3 Tbsp. corn syrup and a package of plain gelatin. Add to this glue mixture 4 cups of the following, mixed together: bird seed, nuts, fruits, raisins and berries. Cover a large tray with wax paper and roll out the mixture till it's 1/2 inch thick. You may use cookie cutters or hand shape the mixture into wreaths and let it dry for six hours. Turn the shapes and dry them an additional six hours. Tie them with raffia or ribbon and hang them from trees and porches.
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I am going to believe (until I make one of these) that this "glue" will hold together a large block of seeds for my feeder (AND NOT MELT IN WARM WEATHER, like suet does). I am not making ornaments, although these sound fun for kids to make. I was about to step out the door to go get my birdseed and gelatin (the only two things I did not have in the house), and it started pouring rain!!! OH, I am also not planning to add any fruit to the mix...only seeds, to cut down on any rotting in the warm air here. I may have to wait until tomorrow, sadly. I am a "do it NOW" kind of person, and here I sit with dark skies and pouring rain. Pooey.

I will report back (planning to take pics of the process) later with full details. Hope this will inspire some of you to try making your own bird treats! Read more: Homemade Birdseed Treats at EHOW.

Non-melting seed cakes for your suet feeder!

I had given my cousin a really cute suet feeder and some suet cakes for Christmas as she lives in a somewhat cooler climate and I figured she would have a longer period to use them without melting issues. Well, she is having melting issues already, sadly. I had recently bought a large seek CAKE (not suet, so it does NOT melt) and holder at Lowes. I went online and found that Birdola makes a "junior" sized seed cake for all of the traditional sized suet holders!!! I was so happy! I am gonna get her a few RIGHT AWAY!!!

If you have a tradional sized suet holder, you want to look for the seed cakes called "junior" sized, and they are made to fit. Isn't this great...something that works in the summer heat!

Here are the places I have found where you can buy them:

1. First try your local Lowes...if they do not have them, talk to the manager, they might be able to order them for you, as they do have them on their website.

2. Amazon.com sells them directly from the Birdwatchers.com company.

3. directly from Birdwatchers.com.

Passion flowers, bees and Morning Glory wreathlets!

How do you like this quote by Robert Brault???
"Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden".


Who is Robert Brault? A free lance writer...you can find his stuff HERE!

For those of you who expressed interest in seeing my red passionflowers...here they are! On the fence that is the backdrop to the tire garden, I have red passionvine, jasmine (4 kinds),the little light purple flower vine (seen below with bees/unknown to me), and Morning Glories. I worry at times that the chain link fence may fall over one of these days, but not only is it gorgeous, but works as a privacy screen between yards. As much as I love my neighbor, it is nice to have that visual barrier.


I went out to the garden in early evening the other day and found all of these closed up Morning Glories! Are they not the sweetest? I can honestly say I have not paid close enough attention to them previously to even notice. I had to take a few pics!




And a few bee shots too! They are adorable popping in and out of these flowers covering a larger and larger portion of the fence. (Some sort of vine, I know not what).