Easy to Make 3 Ingredient DIY Suet Cakes- A Cultivated Nest

How to Make Your Own Birdseed Suet Cakes.

A lot of people forget to feed the birds in their neighborhood when the weather starts to get warmer. But just because it’s not freezing out doesn’t mean your local birds wouldn’t appreciate an easily accessible meal. And if there’s anything that will keep a busy bird full for a while, it’s suet! You can easily make your own suet at home with this recipe for 3 Ingredient DIY Suet Cakes!

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What I love about suet is how non-messy it is! If you have birdseed bird feeders, you know how quickly birds scatter seed all on the ground. Which then just attracts squirrels and chipmunks. And what doesn’t get eaten by either critters or birds then starts to sprout. But with suet, the birds are so much neater! If you want to feed birds the low maintenance way, you need to try suet!

Of course, not all kinds of birds love suet. So if you want the biggest variety of birds to come to your home, put out a birdseed feeder, too. We currently hang a suet feeder and a birdseed feeder on the two sides of a double shepherd’s hook in our front yard. I love to sit by the window with my coffee in the morning and watch all the pretty birds have their breakfast!

3 Ingredient DIY Suet Cakes

Materials

2 cups of basic bird seed
1/3 cup of bacon grease, leftover cooking grease (hardened, not warm liquid), or vegetable shortening
1/2 cup of peanut butter (use one that is literally just peanut butter, no added salt or sweeteners, as they may be harmful to birds)
muffin pan (I used a foil muffin pan because it’s easy to press on the back of it to pop the suet cakes out)
spoon
mixing bowl

Directions

1. Begin by combining the grease and birdseed in a bowl (I used bacon grease). You should use hard, cool grease. Do not add hot or freshly drained grease. Mix well.

2. Add in the peanut butter and continue to stir. You will notice some clumping. This is normal and expected.
3. Continue to mix until all ingredients are stirred well. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to help the suet mixture set a bit.

4. Scoop the mixture into the muffin tins and place in a freezer for two hours. This will help harden the mixture and form suet cake pucks.

5. Remove your homemade suet cakes. Place in a suet feeder or on a lat surface on your bird feeders, if possible. Birds will love this protein packed snack! Avoid putting the pucks on the ground or your outdoor railings, as that will just attract non-bird critters.

Extra tip: If you have bird seed/suet feeders on poles, and squirrels climb those poles to try to eat what you’ve put out for the birds, just grease the poles with petroleum jelly. The squirrels will slide down every time they try to climb up, leaving your DIY suet cakes for the birds!

What types of birds do your feeders attract? Do you have any bird feeding tips?