Honey Nut Coffee Cake
New York City stinks. Garbage, exhaust, crowds of human beings, and who really knows what. Fortunately there are little pockets of fragrance everywhere. My favorite city smell comes from the street-nut carts. The men who mind the carts stand all day long tossing peanuts in sugar over heat in copper drums, sending burnished sugar smoke wafting down the sidewalk. There’s no need to advertise or call out for customers. That smell, on an early fall afternoon, half hot and half cool, is like a magnet. This candied–peanut butter cake is an ode to those nut-cart guys. Thank you for making New York a little more wonderful. Add 2 cups of raspberries to the cake if you’d like a peanut butter and jelly effect, or keep it plain for simple butter-nut bliss.
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 6 3/4 ounces roasted, salted peanuts (1 1/2 cups)
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature