I'm in love with the green stuff. Yes, the one that actually grows on trees. But having it might make your pocket seem a lot lighter. We're talking pistachios here! Its been making an appearance in almost everything I make these days. I try and use it sparingly, but I just can't resist it.

This one's for my friend Anjali.

If I had to write a story about this cake, I'd stay it started with a box of dates Mum had on the kitchen table. I could have made a Date & Walnut cake which Mama (my aunt) is renowned for. But then, why try to better the best eh? So I googled for date cakes and came across this really crazy sounding recipe on 'The Wednesday Chef' (Someday I'll figure out how to change the links back to blue, but for now please click on texts which look black and not grey.. yeah weird).

Everytime I look at my pictures, I think I should get myself a camera. And then I put aside the thought for another rainy day when I cook up a storm, take pictures and think oh man! there's just too much noise in these pictures. This one's been adjusted using instagram and picasa. Though I still can't make a bad shot good. The one I put up on FB was unfiltered and in my opinion was a sad picture for something as lovely as these rolls.

I'm not even going to bother getting into banalities this time. The recipe is soooo good, we've been having these shortcakes plain, with marmalade, now spiced plums. It just disappears. Batches and batches of shortcakes... and the shortcakes itself are so easy, you can make and bake them in 30 mins flat with no whisking shisking business.