1. Grease and flour a loaf tin (30cm long) and chill. Chop the prunes.
2. Beat the butter until smooth and fluffy. Add the sugar, maple syrup, vanilla sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, the cloves, nutmeg and salt while stirring. Gradually stir in the eggs. Mix the flour with the baking powder and the cocoa and briefly stir one half into the mixture fol-lowed by the other half. Then fold in the ground hazelnuts and prunes. Spoon the cake mixture into the loaf tin and spread smooth. Bake in a preheated oven (electric oven: 175°C/fan: 150°C) for ap-prox. 50 minutes. Leave the cake in the tin on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then turn out of the tin and leave it to cool.
3. Mix the icing sugar and remaining cinnamon with 2 tablespoons of water to a thick icing. Spread this over the cake.

Tip: Instead of using individual spices, you can simply add 2 tsp of a Christmas spice mix or gingerbread spice. Instead of icing, you could coat the cake with melted chocolate: melt 200g dark or milk couverture in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and then spread over the cake.