Pour melted margarine or butter into a 9×13 baking pan. In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and your choice of spice. In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs, milk and vanilla.

In the bottom of your 9×13 baking dish, layer with the first 6 pieces of bread. Sprinkle half of your brown sugar/spice mixture over the bread. Layer the second half of bread on top of this. See the bottom for instructions on using cubed bread. Pour the egg mixture over all of it, and then sprinkle the remaining brown sugar and spice mix. Take your half cup of syrup and drizzle it all over the top of the casserole.

USING CUBED BREAD: If you use cubed bread, I recommend putting in half, sprinkling with half the brown sugar/cinnamon mix and then put in the remaining cubes of bread. Pour the egg mixture over the entire thing and then use the rest of the brown sugar/spice mix on top. Syrup can be drizzled over in the same fashion as above.

Cover and refrigerate overnight. For the record, I have made this a couple of hours before wanting to serve it, and let it refrigerate for only 2-3 hours and that works fine too.

When you are ready to make it, cover with tin foil, and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove the tin foil and continue baking 15 more minutes. The casserole should be browned and set.

When you are ready to serve, you can sprinkle the top with nuts and/or powdered sugar. Serve with warm syrup and fresh fruit for a yummy breakfast.