Valentine's Day Breakfast Cake/Valentine's Day Special Breakfast

There was a reason I decided on Valentine's Day Breakfast Cake as the item for the sweet course at the Sweetheart Tea-- I knew my daughters would immediately remember our Valentine's Day breakfasts when they were children as soon as they saw it.  Years ago when I was newly married, a neighbor down the street from my parent's house, Wanda Johnson (who had eight children), told me about their tradition of a special breakfast on Valentine's Day, and gave me this recipe.  I loved the idea and immediately implemented it.  Every Valentine's Day, no matter which day of the week it fell on, we had a special breakfast.  Even though I worked full-time outside the home while my kids were growing up, it was still possible to do this because the Breakfast Cake (their favorite part of the breakfast, of course) could be made the night before and refrigerated.  The next morning, I would just pop it in the oven to bake while I was preparing the other parts of breakfast, and it would fill the house with the most amazing aroma.  That was one morning that no one had to be coaxed out of bed!  It turned out to be one of our favorite family traditions.  Here's the menu:

Valentine's Day Special Breakfast

Fresh orange slices (twisty oranges, as the kids called them -- see picture)
Bacon or sausage (it's fun to make heart-shaped patties out of bulk sausage)
Scrambled eggs (if anyone wants my husband's delicious scrambled eggs recipe, leave me a comment)
Valentine's Day Breakfast Cake
Milk or juice

Valentine's Day Breakfast Cake

2-1/4 Cups GF Rice Powder Mix
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 Cup shortening
1-1/3 Cups milk
2 eggs

Whisk together dry ingredients.  Cut in shortening.  Beat milk and egg together and add to flour/shortening mixture.  Stir together.  Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan.  Sprinkle topping over batter.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, if desired.  To bake, remove plastic wrap and put in preheated 400 oven.  Cook for 25 minutes.  Let cool briefly.  Serve.  (For the non-GF version, just substitute 2-1/2 Cups regular flour in the batter and 1/2 Cup in the topping and eliminate the xanthan gum.)

Topping:

1/3 Cup brown or white rice flour
3/4 Cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Whisk together.  Cut in:

6 Tbsp butter.  Sprinkle over top of cake batter.

This is easy to do and a fun tradition.  I hope you'll try it!