Instructions: In a bowl, beat 1/2 cup butter, 2/3 cup sugar, and cardamom with a mixer until fluffy. Add orange peel, egg, egg yolk, and sour cream. Beat to mix well.

Stir together soda, baking powder, 1 cup flour, and diced apricots. Add to butter mixture and stir until evenly blended.

Butter and flour-dust a 5- to 6-cup baking pan or paper baking mold (5 inches wide, 3 inches deep; 7 inches wide, 2 1/2 inches deep; 4 1/2- by 8 1/2-inch loaf pan; or 8-inch square or round cake pan).

Scrape batter into pan and spread level. If using smaller molds, fill no more than 1/3 full. (Youll have about 1 1/2 cups batter.)

Sprinkle batter evenly (in one or more pans) with 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake on rack slightly below center in a 350 degree oven until bread springs back when lightly pressed in center, and just begins to pull from pan sides, 35 to 40 minutes for the whole loaf, less for smaller portions.

Let cool on a rack. Serve warm or cool, inverted from pan, then turned top side up.

This recipe yields a 4 1/2- by 8 1/2-inch loaf; 6 to 8 servings.

Comments: If you bake just once a year, its probably around the holidays. And most likely, youre going to bake gifts.

I love to give - and serve - this orange-apricot bread, so tender and sweet its just shy of being cake. Its oven-ready in 20 minutes or less, and I can double the recipe with no complications.

But this year, my production is speeding up because Im baking right in the gift package. No more pans to empty, wash, or buy. Im using paper baking molds.

Commercial bakers have long had access to paper molds, which come in many pan sizes and can be used at oven temperatures up to 450 degrees. And now the molds are showing up in cookware stores and catalogs. Best of all, theyre inexpensive (from 25 to 95 cents each).

If making ahead, package bread airtight when cool. Hold at room temperature up to 5 days; freeze to store longer. To reheat, unwrap bread (but leave it in its paper mold) and put in a 350 degree oven for 5 to 7 minutes.

If you would like to email yourself the recipe for later use, or share the recipe with your friends or family, enter the email addresses below and this recipe will be emailed to you and others as well.