Make Heart Shaped Birdseed Cakes

14 Days of Hearts, Day 5

We're progressing onto how and what birds eat in our bird unit and I'm doing 14 days of hearts, so I thought we would make some heart shaped bird seed cakes.  We made some last year, but with a different recipe.  This time we used a recipe that I found at The Magic Onions.  

I mixed one pack of Knox gelatin with a 1/2 cup of boiling water and stirred until the gelatin had dissolved.  Once it cooled a little, Juiciness and Sassyfras added about 2 cups of bird seed.  It was still a little moist at this point.  They helped spoon it into a silicone heart shaped muffin tin. 

We put straws through the centers so we could later string them.  Then it was time to pop them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.  Once they hardened, they popped right out of the silicone mold.  Here's a little tip to make stringing these easier... leave the straw in place and slide your string through it.  The straw will be blocked by some seed, but just push it through the other side and it will carry the string with it. 

While we were waiting for these to harden we started talking about a bird's beak.  I found this resource at the The Cornell Lab of Ornithology website.  If you click on the arrow to the left of the bird's name, it will take you to a video of the bird eating.  This link will take you to chart of beaks and a description of  how they help the bird eat.

Linking to:  Made by Little Hands Monday, Made by You Monday, Adventures in Mommyland, Mushki Loves, ABC and 123, Wow Me Wednesday, A Crafty Soiree, Link and Learn