Do you love to feed the birds at your home? I love to feed the birds! I love all animals and I enjoy feeding the birds in my backyard. The bird feeder gets drained quickly as we have many birds so I love to put out suet too. I have an easy 2-ingredient DIY Peanut Butter Bird Seed Suet Cake recipe to share with you. It’s so simple even kids could easily make this homemade suet cake to feed the birds all on their own. The birds will love you for putting this out for them:)

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Making a suet cake is a great way to support wildlife, especially in the winter months when food is more scarce for birds.  It works best in the winter in cold climates; however it could work in warmer climates too, it would just be a bit messier once it thaws. But since you will only be handling it when it’s frozen, even if it thaws after it’s up, it shouldn’t matter. I don’t think the birds will mind either way though;)

This suet cake disappears in about a day at my house because the birds just love it!

I love how easy this is to make which makes it perfect for kids to help with or even do entirely on their own if the child is older. This is a great winter activity for kids which teaches them compassion and empathy. It’s also a great boredom buster!

 

Ingredients to Make the DIY Peanut Butter Bird Seed Suet Cake

It only takes two ingredients. That’s it!

• 1 cup smooth peanut butter (you could also try chunky peanut butter)
• 2 cups bird seed

Yes, two ingredients really is all it takes:)

How to Make the Homemade Suet Cake

The instructions on how to make it:

• The kids will love to help with this first part which is dumping 2 cups of bird seed into a large bowl.
• Next, add 1 cup of peanut butter and stir well. Mashing it down with the back of the spoon and stirring helps to mix it thoroughly.
• Scoop it out into a flat square or rectangular container (one similar to the shape of your suet cage) and flatten it into the container with the back of the spoon.
• Add the lid to seal the container (lid optional, however).
• Next, pop it in the freezer to freeze solid for about a minimum of 3 hours or whenever it seems frozen solid.
• Once it is frozen, pull it out and remove the lid.
• I let it sit on the counter only long enough for it to be loosened and easily removable from the container. I find if I twist the container slightly, I can see if it is frozen and ready to come out. Don’t set it out for too long because the more it melts, the messier it will be and the harder it will be to keep it together in a suet cake form. Flipping it upside down and twisting the container slightly to pop it out works well.
• Take it outside and slip it into your suet container. If it doesn’t fit perfectly, simply break off the extra and set it somewhere outside. The wildlife will definitely find it and eat it.

 

 

 

 

How I Came Up with this Idea

I came up with this idea out of not wanting to waste a cup of peanut butter.

I was making peanut blossoms this past Christmas and I scooped out the cup of peanut butter into a 1 cup measuring scoop. As I dumped the peanut butter into my mixer, in the time between when I had already scooped it out of the measuring cup and before it hit the bottom of the bowl, I noticed a dead bug down in the bottom of the bowl. I couldn’t use the peanut butter for the cookies with a bug embedded in it. I scooped it back out of the bowl with the bug stuck somewhere in the peanut butter, and I pondered what could I do with the peanut butter wad other than throw it away.

It hit me quickly that I could just feed it to the birds, but I didn’t want to just put a big messy chunk of peanut butter outside by itself. I remembered I had just bought a bag of bird seed so I grabbed it and slopped the peanut butter into a bowl (I thought many birds like to eat bugs anyway so no harm done). I added 2 cups of bird seed and thoroughly stirred it up. A flat plastic container (like the disposable kind of container sandwich meat is sold in at stores) was the perfect size to make a suet cake to fit into my suet cake feeder.

I was super happy because I didn’t waste the peanut butter and I was able to feed the birds. Read the full parent humor story of how this suet came about here.

I hope you enjoyed this DIY post! Making homemade suet is a great activity for adults and kids alike to feed the birds.

 

Looking for more activities for families and kids? Check out these posts:

Easy DIY Ball Lights for Inexpensive Home Lighting

DIY Pool Noodle Fish Float With Headrest

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