Istanbul delights

Today I have prepared something special for you ;-)
It is a rainy german fall day and I was re-reading the wonderful novel "Loxandra" from Maria Iordanidou, a greek writer with roots in Istanbul, or "Poli", as the greek community there used to call its hometown until the early 1920's. The central figure, Loxandra, is a warm-hearted, gay person, loves her family, the beauty of Istanbul and cooking... I wanted to recommend this book, but again an English translation doesn't seem to exist :-( For everybody who is not reading greek at least some impressions from Old Konstantinople with a beautiful melody from Eleni Karaindrou, one of my favourite contemporary greek composers. She combines eastern and western musical heritage in the Greek tradition.
But now I want you to taste a greek-turkish cake called "Revani".
Ingredients for the cake:
140g of semolina (coarsly ground, if possible; what you use for Italian pasta or gnocchi)
130g of wheat flour
1 pckg of baking powder
200g of butter
6 eggs
125g of sugar
some vanillin sugar

for the sirup:
500ml water
200g sugar
100g honey
rosewater
cinnamon
pistachios

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter and flour a big, flat baking tin.
Mix wheat, semolina and bakingpowder, separate eggs (yolk from the white), stir the yolks with the butter and half of the sugar and vanillin and beat the whites with the secong half until stiff. Add the whites carefully, not beating them, and distribute the dough on the baking tin. Bake 40 min, until the cake is goldbrown.
Prepare now the sirup boiling water with the other ingredients for a minute. When the cake is ready, cut it into rhombs or quads and spill the sirup all over the cake. Decorate with pistachios.
Serve cold with vanillia ice cream or whipped cream.
Yummy!