Italian Christmas Cake

For the filling, combine all filling ingredients in a glass bowl, cover and let sit overnight, covered, stirring occasionally.

For the dough, make a mound of 4 cups of the flour on a pastry board or counter.

Make a well in the center, and using a fork, begin to add in the remaining ingredients, mixing the dry ingredients with the wet ones by stirring with the fork until you have created a soft dough. (Add additional flour if the dough is still too sticky.)

Knead by hand for 3 to 4 minutes with a little additional flour as needed until the dough is smooth, then divide into 8 equal sized balls.

To make the cakes, covering the rest of the balls, take one and begin to run it through a pasta machine to flatten.

Continue to lightly flour and pass through increasingly narrow openings, until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick. (I stop at number 3 to 4 on my roller attachment.)

Place the dough strip on the counter, and using a scalloped pastry wheel, run it along the outside edges of each side of the dough.

Next using the pastry wheel, cut the strip of dough in half lengthwise into two ribbons about 2 1/2 inches wide.

On each half of the ribbon, sprinkle on some of the walnut, raisin mixture and fold to close.

Starting at one end, begin to roll up the dough into a coil, using toothpicks to support it as needed.

Continue until you have an 6 inch cake, and follow the same steps to use up all of the dough up in this manner.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Place the cakes on a lightly floured baking sheet and bake for about 35 minutes or until lightly browned

Melt the honey in a pot and brush each of the cakes lightly over the top.

Bake an additional 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with the candy sprinkles.

Let cool completely and then wrap in foil to store.

To serve, remove the toothpicks and cut into wedges.