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Making a Birdseed Wreath

February 22nd, 2012

On Sunday I was mixing up a batch of suet for the woodpeckers and I posted it to my Facebook page. Krista asked if I had ever made a batch in a bundt pan. Since I hadn’t, I decided to give it a try. I mixed up a batch and make cakes as usual and mixed up another batch and put it in a bundt pan. Here’s my suet cake recipe.


My bundt pan isn’t a real one, it’s a springform pan with a bundt insert. I was worried about the removal of the wreath from the pan, but a few minutes over the warm oven vent and it popped right out. I think one of these silicone bundt pan would be perfect since you could peel it right off and these mini bundt pan would make the cutest gifts!

If you do make one, make sure you hang it with wide ribbon as a thinner string might cut right through the suet on a warm day. I hung mine from the maple tree by the bird feeder and within a few hours the woodpeckers had already found it.  This will be perfect because I won’t have to replace the suet cakes quite as often.

Any great crafting going on in your kitchen?  

14 Comments to “Making a Birdseed Wreath”
  1. Andrea Duke on February 22, 2012 at 6:21 am

    I made these 2-3 years ago for Christmas gifts. I tied a wide, red ribbon on mine like you did. Everyone seems to love them.

    Have you ever looked at them online? Expensive!!

    Reply to Andrea Duke's comment

  2. Kathi Cook on February 22, 2012 at 6:54 am

    great picture and great idea!

    Reply to Kathi Cook's comment

  3. Victoria on February 22, 2012 at 6:55 am

    What an awesome idea! We have a lot of beautiful birds that I’d love to get a closer look at….and this looks like a kid-friendly project too.

    Sadly – not much crafting going on in the kitchen, I’m all about seed starting at the moment!

    Reply to Victoria's comment

  4. daisy on February 22, 2012 at 7:49 am

    How clever! It’s amazing the ways we can provide for nature. What a great homeschooling project!

    Reply to daisy's comment

  5. tj on February 22, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    …I love that! And thank you for the recipe. :o)

    …Blessings

    Reply to tj's comment

  6. Seren Dippity on February 22, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    I put out the fairly cheep suet feeders I purchase at the big box stores…. but I put them in a little cage container made for this. I then have to use multiple twist ties to bind it shut and to thoroughly secure it to the tree. Otherwise the squirrels will open it and take it away or carry the entire cage to the woods with them. The squirrels really don’t empty my bird feeders that much and they mostly leave my garden alone, but they go after that suet like it was chocolate or something!! (my biggest problem with them is they dig in my newly planted garden to bury their acorns)

    Reply to Seren Dippity's comment

  7. KimH on February 22, 2012 at 5:09 pm

    What a wonderful photo the woodpecker photo is.. How very cool too. I’ve never made suet cakes.. perhaps I should one of these days..

    No crafting going on here at the moment.. this has been a very quiet, low energy week..

    Reply to KimH's comment

  8. Janet Anderson on February 22, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    What a great idea – does it attract squirrels??? We have a huge squirrel population in Winnipeg and while they are cute they eat everything that isn’t nailed down!

    I would love to put these up next winter.

    Reply to Janet Anderson's comment

    • Susy on February 22, 2012 at 7:17 pm

      I usually don’t have trouble with squirrels getting into my suet – even when I did have lots of squirrels. If you do have squirrel problems you can add some powdered cayenne to the suet, birds can’t taste it and the squirrels can’t stand it!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  9. judym on February 23, 2012 at 12:22 am

    I went thrifting the other day and found some vases and plates to make stands. Also tea cups/saucers for plants & feeders. Did the tea cup thing several years ago for Mother’s at church. Each cup had a flower planted in it.

    Need to make some more suet for our little friends. We generally put ours in cardboard cartons after mixing. You just cut off what you need into neat squares and store the rest til needed.

    Reply to judym's comment

  10. Miranda on February 23, 2012 at 12:44 am

    oh, man: mini suet “bundt” wreaths would totally be amazing!

    Reply to Miranda's comment

  11. Alan on February 25, 2012 at 8:31 am

    If you are looking for a good source of organic suet, might I suggest birdsdonteatcows.com? They don’t have the bundt cake, but their ingredients and message seems solid.

    Reply to Alan's comment

  12. Diana Briscoe on March 4, 2012 at 11:25 am

    Love this idea!

    Reply to Diana Briscoe's comment

  13. whit on November 23, 2012 at 2:16 pm

    Susy, do you know how many batches of suet made this wreath? Trying to gauge about how much lard i’ll need to render. :)

    Thanks for the great Christmas idea. I’m putting my daughter “in charge” of concocting our own bird seed mix from our pantry. Then we are both going to learn to render lard in the crockpot from pork fat purchased at our neighbour’s farm stand. Simple, yet educational Christmas crafting….can you beat it? :)

    Happy Holidays!
    Whit

    Reply to whit's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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