Making a Birdseed Wreath
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?
Filed under Make Your Own | Comments (14)
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!!
to Andrea Duke's comment
great picture and great idea!
to Kathi Cook's comment
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!
to Victoria's comment
How clever! It’s amazing the ways we can provide for nature. What a great homeschooling project!
to daisy's comment
…I love that! And thank you for the recipe. :o)
…Blessings
to tj's comment
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)
to Seren Dippity's comment
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..
to KimH's comment
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.
to Janet Anderson's comment
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!
to Susy's comment
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.
to judym's comment
oh, man: mini suet “bundt” wreaths would totally be amazing!
to Miranda's comment
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.
to Alan's comment
Love this idea!
to Diana Briscoe's comment
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
to whit's comment