Homemade Birdseed Cakes

Bird watching is a favorite past time for many people, which is why bird baths, bird seed, and bird accessories sell so well. Why pour bird seed into a feeder when you can have fun making this cute birdseed cake? Besides, it’s prettier to look at and more fun to watch the birds eat it.

These are very simple and easy to do,which makes them a great project to do with kids.

Supplies:

• 3 cups birdseed
• Cookie cutters or jello molds
• 1 packet unflavored gelatin (1/4 oz)
• twine or string to hang it with
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 3 tablespoons corn syrup
• 3/4 cup flour
• non-stick cooking spray
• short piece of straw to make a hole

Instructions:

1.  Spray your mold with cooking spray
2. Mix the gelatin packet into the boiled water until it is dissolved.
3. Add flour and syrup until it is mixed well. It’s going to look like a thick cake batter.
4. Add birdseed into the mixture and mix well.
5. Spoon 1/2 the mixture into your mold.
6. Push straw through the seed mixture to the bottom of the mold.
7. Add a bit of string (this is going to act like a piece of rebar in cement and add extra stability).
8. Spoon remaining seed mixture into the mold and compress it down as much as possible.
9. Put mold into the fridge or freezer overnight to harden up and allow the gelatin to set.
10. Remove from the mold. If your seed cake doesn’t slide out of the mold easily when you turn it upside down, put the bottom of the mold in a shallow pan of warm water for a few minutes and the cake should pop out.
11. Gently remove straw and thread a piece of string through the hole for hanging.

Pam from House of Hawthornes provided this project on her blog and she said she stuck the twig in the hole, thinking the birds would use it to sit on while they ate. None of them ever did, however, as they always sat on the top and leaned over to pick at the cake.

Project and Image source: House of Hawthornes