Enjoy watching birds feeding in your garden all through the winter by making your own suet cakes for them. Feeding garden birds is important for their survival over the coming months so make up a pot of our mixture and watch the birds arrive. Once they recognize your garden as somewhere they can go for food they will be back for more, so get cooking!

Takes just 20 minutes.

Birds love suet cakes and at this time of year they are just what they need to give them energy and keep warm. But the feeding balls needn't be shop bought; you can use all sorts of kitchen scraps such as cheese and dry porridge oats. Just mix with melted lard or suet and set in the fridge overnight.

Avoid using turkey fat, which doesn't set like suet and lard, and can coat birds' feathers, preventing them from being able to fly. It can also spread disease.

What will you need?

• Suet or lard (unsalted)
• dry ingredients: sunflower seeds, linseed, pumpkin seeds, oats, barley, wheat, rye, nuts (unsalted peanuts, walnuts, hazelnuts), dried rowanberry, elderberry, hawthorn, rose hip, raisins
• empty yogurt cups
• twine

How to do it?

1. The best ratio for this recipe is one part fat to two parts dry mixture. Mix all your dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Melt some lard or suet in a pan and add the dry mix. Stir well until the fat has all been absorbed and the mixture sticks together.
3. Make a hole in the bottom of a yoghurt pot and thread through a length of twine or string, then pack the pot with your warm fat mixture.
4. Place in the fridge overnight to set, then cut through and peel away the pot. Tie a big knot at one end of the twine to secure the cake.
5. Hang the cake in a tree or shrub and wait for the birds to come and feast.

Tip: Kitchen scraps are great to use in the suet cakes but don't use anything too salty. Never use salted peanuts or very salty bacon.