Ingredients
For dough
6 eggs
8 ounces sugar
6 ounces vegetable oil
36 ounces flour
2 1/2 teaspoons Magic baking powder
Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
1 ounce dark rum
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Oil for deep frying
For topping
about 2 cups honey
about 3/4 cup sugar
For decoration
Multi-colored sprinkles
Directions
Mix eggs and sugar.
Add vegetable oil.
Add lemon zest, rum and vanilla.
Mix Magic baking powder with the flour.
Gradually add the flour to the mixture so that you have a nice soft dough (Should have the consistency of a gnocchi dough).
Form the dough into a large ball.
On a floured wooden board cut out a large chunk of dough and roll it out into a long thin taralli-style long -- about 1/2 inch thick.
Using a sharp knife cut out small gnocchi-style pieces -- about 1/2 inches by 1/2 inches.
Heat up the oil.
Fry the tiny pieces of dough in the oil till golden.
Remove with a slotted spoon and place on absorbent paper.
Cool.
Heat up the honey.
Add sugar and mix well.
On low heat add a bunch of the fritters and let cook for a few minutes, until they are well-coated with honey.
Remove and place on a decorative lightly greased platter (The grease will prevent the fritters from sticking to the plate).
Place the fritters one on top of each other, forming a wreath or crown.
Decorate with sprinkles.
Cool.
For serving -- guests can either choose to pick a few balls at a time from the wreath or they cut themselves a slice of the dessert.
Notes
Mrs. Giulione notes that multi-colored sprinkles were available in her hometown of Mondragone in the 1940s. The townspeople got their supply from a bar (Not a store). Interestingly enough in Casacalenda, Molise (the hometown of Mary Melfi, this website's archivist) multi-colored sprinkles were not available in the 1940s. Home cooks in Casacalenda only had silver sprinkles to work with. The reason why Mrs. Giulione's hometown had more resources than Casacalenda is simple -- the town of Mondragone was much larger than Casacalenda. It had a population of about 40,000 while the town of Casacalenda had a population of about 4,000. Actually, Mondragone has now attained the status of a city. It is no longer a "town" as such..... Trivia notes and photo: Mary Melfi. | 
