A few years back we invested in several bird feeders that were designed to hold birdseed cakes. This was good for awhile but when the price of the cakes reached $5.00 each, we decided it was time to figure out a way to make them.
If you don’t have these type of feeders, there are alternative feeder ideas at the bottom of the post. Cakes are nice as the birds take longer to consume them then a conventional platform feeder.
I hunted for recipes online and came up with this very simple process that takes about 5-10 minutes.
List of ingredients: 3/4 cup flour, 3 tablespoons of Karo syrup, 1/2 water, 4 cups birdseed of your choosing. I also started using cayenne powder in my recipe. It deters squirrels but not the birds and it helps keep them warm in the cold. So far I used 1/2 teaspoon but will continue to play around with that one if squirrels are still a problem.
Mix together until lumpiness is gone.
Add birdseed.
Stir in until the seed is thoroughly coated.
Look around your house and see what you can find for a mold. I found a wooden box (from a less then delicious Christmas fruitcake) that I had hung onto. Turned out to be the perfect size for my wire feeders. If you don’t want to make a box or other design, you can use a cake pan or oblong pan and cut the cakes to size. Cut or slide in some kind of divider while they are still moist in the pan.
This box is 7″ square and 2″ deep. I make 1 1/2 recipes to fill this box completely.
Line the pan/box with wax paper and glop in the sticky birdseed mix, carefully keeping the wax paper up on the sides.
Immediately press into the corners and sides and pack tightly to compact it together. You can use another piece of wax paper on top or keep your hands wet or even use a wet spatula.
Cover with a piece of wax paper.
Invert box.
Pull the box off.
While cake is still moist (that would be immediately), pull off the wax paper. There may be some seeds stuck to it. Wet your fingers or spatula and scrap them onto the cake and press them in.
Press the cake on each side to compact it side to side and let it dry for 6-8 hours.
When they are dry, slide into feeder.
If you don’t have a feeder, you can make your own by using string or wire or other hole-y material. Kevin had a thought that if using just string the cake could fall out too easily as the birds ate down the cake. So we used the net from the outside of our turkey and it works great!
