How to Make Bird Food Suet Cakes

Most people really enjoy watching birds. And a way to view a large variety of birds is to place bird feeders in your yard.
Sunflower seeds are a favorite of many birds; cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, finches and many more.
But a favorite of a great many birds are the suet cakes. These will have your feeders full of all types of birds.
So here is a simple bird suet recipe to make yourself that is better then any commercial made suet cakes you can buy.
I know the birds like it much more then the store bought.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Peanut Butter - 1 cup
• Lard - 1 cup
• Oats - 2 cups
• Cornmeal - 2 cups
• Flour - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1/3 cup
• Extra - nuts and/or dried fruit

1. First, place the peanut butter and the lard in a large pot and melt it slowly over a medium low heat. Stirring as it melts to keep it from sticking. DO NOT get it too hot, it will burn.

2. After these two ingredients have melted and blended, add all of the dry ingredients, one at a time (oats, cornmeal, flour, sugar - you can use Quaker Instant Oats that you use for oatmeal) and mix well. I add the
   powered ingredients first, then the coarser stuff.

3. If you want or have these on hand, add any nuts and dried fruit like raisins to the mixture. Mix and blend well.

4. After all of the ingredients are mixed well, pour the mixture into containers with lids while it is still warm. Let cool, cover and store in the fridge.

5. After the mixture has set, cut it into blocks to fit your suet cages.

Tips & Warnings

• Add the dry ingredients into mix one at a time. This makes it easier to combine them as the mixture will be thick and stiff.
• I use the disposable Glad sandwich size containers. The cakes from these fit nicely in the suet cages, plus they have lids for storage.
• If you add the nuts and fruit, you will have many types of birds feeding from these cakes. Mocking birds, cardinals, robins, finches and many more will be lining up for a taste.
• I always double and triple the ingredients so I have alot made.
• Be careful to not heat the peanut butter to fast, always heat it and the lard over a very low heat. It will burn and splatter if heated to quickly.

[whiteshoulder]

on 9/24/2009 Sounds very easy to do and in the long run it is much cheaper than buying them in a store. Thanks for sharing this and the great tips as well.