Dani Venn

I usually go out of my way to avoid charity spruikers, you know the ones that hang outside of shopping centres with puppy dog eyes trying to guilt you into signing up to save the children or environment or whales or those poor CEOs affected by the GFC. Does that make me a bad person? [...]

Before last week I had always associated picking fruit as something English backpackers did to fund their travels around Australia. For some absurd reason it had never occurred to me that I could go and pick my own fruit from farms in my local area. Silly me, for all these years I have been missing [...]

Lamingtons are about as Australian as you get. You can tell this because when you type the word lamington it is not recognised as a word and comes up in spell check. As today is Australia Day I thought I’d get all patriotic and bake a bunch of these sweet squares of sponge cake coated [...]

The third episode of Homemade at Dani’s is inspired by one of my all-time favourite childhood books ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ written by Eric Carle. In some ways I can see myself in this little caterpillar as I often eat way too much for my own good and then feel all sorry for myself. I’m [...]

The Brits have bought a few good things, or two, to the shores of Australia. Convicts and colonialists, rabbits and foxes, the common cold and Christianity, but the best things would have to be public holidays and puddings. Let’s be honest, everyone loves a public holiday. Australians love a public holiday so much that they would rather [...]

I have an obsession with baking lately and I’m not sure what has caused this? Perhaps it’s because I’m breaking in my KitchenAid, maybe it’s my new house in the sticks which now qualifies me to become a member of the Country Women’s Association, or it could be that there’s nothing quite like a slice [...]

February has arrived. The kids are back at school (yippee!). It’s deliciously warm outside. You haven’t had a chance to catch up properly with the girls all year. And that new year’s resolutions to shed a few kilos has actually happened! So it’s time to relax a little. Invite some friends over. Enjoy a freshly [...]

My Gran was famous for quite a few reasons. She was the star of many theatre productions. She sung the loudest and clearest at church on Sundays. She was able to kill a snake with a shovel, even well into in her eighties. And she made the best sponge cake with passionfruit icing ever. Sadly my [...]

I’m going to call it early and say that whoopie pies are the next big thing. Like the popularity of the cupcake in 2007 or the macaroon in 2010, whoopie pies are about to take Australia by storm. Look out people! I was introduced to the humble whoopie during a certain MasterChef episode in New [...]

Last week I had the special task of creating a signature cake for Profiler Recruitment’s high tea, a company whose corporate colour is orange. It’s actually quite a difficult flavour and colour to incorporate into a cake, but I played around with a few versions and came up with a cake that’s dense but moist, [...]