Make Your Own Homemade Birdola Birdseed Cakes

This year I have a new birdfeeder hanging from our tree which my Dad graciously passed along to me. Winters can be long and dreary here in Michigan and feeding the birds is a fun little diversion that I enjoy.

Copycat Birdola - how to make your own birdseed cakes

My new birdfeeder has two wire baskets for the square suet birdseed cakes, more commonly known by the brand name of Birdola. I’ve bought a couple of the Birdola cakes so far this winter season, but then (as I am so often prone to do) I began to wonder if I could Make My Own little birdseed cakes.

I started searching for recipes online and found this bird suet cake recipe at the rather unlikely website of Dave’s Repair, a site which mostly talks about appliance repair. He gave a glowing testimonial of how much the birds loved this recipe (along with bears and other assorted critters !!) so I decided to make it for myself and see how the birds in my neck of the woods like it. No bears where I live so we should be OK in that department.

It turned out the most puzzling thing would be finding the first ingredient in the recipe, good old fashioned lard. I ended up finding my lard in the Hispanic section of the grocery store. (read the follow up post: Looking For Lard – Can You Find it in a Grocery Store)

Birdola ing

Homemade Birdseed Cake Recipe

You will need:

1 pound lard (I used about 2 cups as I could only find a 2.5 lb tub and had to improvise)
18 oz jar crunchy peanut butter
1 cup raisins
1 cup mixed birdseed
6 cups cornmeal
5 cups all purpose flour

#1 – Melt the lard in the microwave. (I did 2 minutes and 20 second in a glass mixing bowl). Once melted, it will be a clear liquid.

#2 – Pour the melted lard into a very large mixing bowl. Stir in the peanut butter, raisins, and birdseed.

Birdola stir 1

#3 – Next stir in the cornmeal, and then stir in the flour. Toward the end of this process it works a little better to just dig in with your hands to mix it up.

birdola stir 2

#4 – Spread the mixture in a 9×13 cake pan and cool. Once it has cooled, cut into 6 square blocks. Store in the freezer in ziploc bags.

birdola pan

As stated in the original recipe, this did indeed make 6 blocks that are about 4″ square by 1-1/2″ thick that fit quite nicely into my feeder.

Once I had these all made up I was little surprised at how you really can’t see too much of the birdseed.  It does have a much higher proportion of cornmeal and flour. But so far it seems that the birds are enjoying this mixture!

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6 Comments

  1. I saved this receipe and just now am giving it a try. I have not seen any other comments on how it was received by our feathered friends. Can you give an idea on how the birds liked it and what species particularly went for it. Thank you!

    1. As usual for me, the squirrels seemed to be the ones who got the most enjoyment out of these cakes. I did not make any this year, but if I recall when I made them last year I had a few woodpeckers show up as well as cardinals. The littler birds like sparrows and wrens still seemed to prefer the loose birdseed I had out.

      1. Thanks so much for the quick reply!

        I do love your site and save, probably, about 70 percent of what you post to use when needed. It is terrific…….

  2. Wondering if this recipe might work making cookie cutter ornaments? I've been searching for one that would allow make ahead and store to avoid mold growth. It sounds like it would work into cookie cutters ok. Might have to pat extra seed on top (and place some in cookie cutter before filling. How long have you stored it frozen? Thanks Jackie

  3. Wondering if this recipe might work making cookie cutter ornaments? I've been searching for one that would allow make ahead and store to avoid mold growth. It sounds like it would work into cookie cutters ok. Might have to pat extra seed on top (and place some in cookie cutter before filling. How long have you stored it frozen? Thanks Jackie