Apple Sauce Cake by JR

1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup granulared sugar
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
5/8 cup apple sauce

Cream butter until it is soft and creamy and add vanilla while creaming. Gradually add sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Mix flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and sift 4-5 times. Add sifted ingredients alternately with apple sauce, making 3-4 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Stir gently and quickly until batter is well blended, but do not over-mix. Spread carefully into well greased 8 inch square cake pan and bake in moderate oven (350-375 F) for 35-45 minutes. Allow baked cake to 'set' for 15-20 minutes before removing from pan. Serve plain or with any desired icing.

From the New Purity Cookbook 1960

As I can be an impatient so and so and often need to take short cuts because I have even more impatient kids here's what I did: I mix the butter (it was already quite soft), vanilla and sugar together. In a seperate bowl I mixed the dry ingredients together and sifted them into the butter mixture alterately with the apple sauce. I used a round cake pan (because I'm naughty and only skimmed the directions) and I don't think I waited the full amount of time after taking it out of the oven. It was so moist and soft. Totally delicious! I'm trying to imagine how much fluffier it would have been had I done all that sifting but am having trouble as it was pretty darn perfect as it turned out!