A nostalgic obsession for Cinnamon Coffee Cake/Bun with Pecan Caramel Topping

When I took Renal in my second year of med school, the professors who led the small group workshops brought treats incessantly. Nice kidney docs. My small group facilitator was a slightly rotund yarmulke-donned Jewish man who brought us the best pastries ever from a local certified Kosher bakery.

One such awesome treat was this cake pan-sized cinnamon bun/coffee-cake with caramel icing and pecans strewn all over the top. It was so good. The sturdy but soft cake with cinnamon swirl, the grainy/sugary caramel icing, the crunchy pecans embedded in the icing...I still drool today thinking about it.

Months after that class, Michael and I found the flagship bakery and stopped in to see what baked delights we could take home. I at once spotted the cinnamon bun cake with caramel pecan icing, and had to take an entire one home with me. It was less than $6!!! Such a bargain. But the bakery closed not long thereafter, rendering me cinnamon bun-less.

I hate to admit it, but there are still a couple slices of this confection left in my freezer because I can't bear to see it disappear into memory.

So I've decided to embark on a quest to recreate this confection. I at first thought it might be a variation on sticky buns, but after looking at a bunch of sticky bun recipes, I decided the caramel icing was another entity in itself. So I am scrounging around for all the cinnamon bun recipes I can find and will pair it with a caramel frosting and whole toasted pecans...and we'll see where we end up. I have a feeling this experiment will have to go through a few iterations since the original had a denser texture than I normally associate with cinnamon buns, and the caramel icing is going to have to be the kind that is grainy/sugary and melty at first but then sets with a semi-glossy sheen. I might have to look into "yeasted coffee cake" recipes instead. Anyone know the difference between a cinnamon bun recipe and yeasted coffee cake recipes?

It's going to be tough to match this kind of perfection (freshly dug out of the freezer for your benefit and for posterity):

(Yes, I know it's kinda gross to hoard food for this long in the freezer, but I'm sentimental and a pack rat, so I can't help myself. And I'm a scientist--I need a positive control in order to compare my homemade versions, and since the bakery is gone, I have no choice but to keep these around...)

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08180/893303-34.stm
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08001/845843-34.stm

Edit: I think I may have found a likely candidate bread recipe that is 1) historically Eastern-European Jewish, and 2) a sweet yeast dough that looks very similar to the crumb of the above mentioned cake: Babka!