Darling Little Birdseed Cakes Tutorial

This week's How-To is Darling Little Birdseed Cakes by Donni, from Fairyfolk here on the Natural Kids Team. Her blog is The Magic Onions and she has some great craft tutorials there (and more!). As I planned to share tutorials on "Valentine" themed crafts for a few weeks (staring last week), I am delighted to be able to share this one which is about feeding the birds. Where I am the ground is frozen with a thick layer of ice and snow and I'm sure the birds are challenged to find food. As I post this I can't get the song "Feed the Birds" sung by Julie Andrews out of my head... so I know what I'm going to be doing shortly!

Darling Little Birdseed Cakes:

I have been wanting to make these sweet little birdseed cakes for ages.

YAY, I finally remembered to buy gelatine at the supermarket... it has been on my shopping list for months but, alas, it was one of those things I just could NOT remember. At last, as I was looking through the spice isle for Cream of Tatar (to make playdough), GELATINE! suddenly popped into my head.

We have made the peanut-butter-on-pine-cone-feeders many times before and so were very excited to try something different. K is not a peanut butter person and it has always worried her that perhaps some birds wouldn't like peanut butter either. Sweet child.

Here are the simple ingredients;

1 oz Gelatine

Birdseed

Boiling Water

Molds

Yarn or string (for hanging loops)

In a mixing bowl, add 1 oz Gelatine and 1 cup of boiling water and stir until all of the Gelatine has dissolved.

Then add birdseed. We used about 3 cups but this amount will depend on the kind of birdseed you use. You want the mixture to be pretty stiff.

Spoon the mixture into your molds.

Cut your yarn for the hanging loops, knot one end and stick the knot into each seed cake. Cover the knot with a little birdseed mixture to make sure it will set firmly.
Now, you have to wait for the Gelatine to set. This takes quite a while, so amuse yourself in the meantime by making yarn earrings...
You can leave the cakes at room temperature to set. We, however, wanted them to set as quickly as possible, so we put them in the fridge.
To get the sweet little cakes out of the mold, dip the mould quickly into hot water. They should slide right out.

Voila! Birdseed cakes for the birds.

We have hung ours all over our garden and have taken great delight in watching the birds twitter around them. Our birds are VERY happy with their new treats!

Blessings and magic,

Donni

This tutorial is brought to you by Natalie, of Woolhalla

Please visit Donni at The Magic Onions where you can see her original post and blog "where the magic of nature and the wonder of childhood collide to make each moment a precious gift".