Sift flour carefully if you fold it into a fluffy or egg white-based cake batter like chiffon, angel food cake, or genoise. Many bakers will sift dry ingredients (such as the flour, ...

Sift flour carefully if you fold it into a fluffy or egg white-based cake batter like chiffon, angel food cake, or genoise.

Beyond flour, it’s good to sift ingredients such as confectioners’ sugar and cocoa powder that are almost always clumpy straight out of the package, especially for use in something like a glaze.

If your recipe calls for sifting: "1 cup flour, sifted" means you sift after measuring out 1 cup of flour. "1 cup sifted flour" means you must sift the flour prior to measuring.

Old recipes and cookbooks are time capsules — relics that give you insight into a different era. Sometimes it’s just the type of recipe (so much Jell-O!) or the name of a particular ingredient.

Sift flour carefully if you fold it into a fluffy or egg white-based cake batter like chiffon, angel food cake, or genoise. Many bakers will sift dry ingredients (such as the flour, ...

Beyond flour, it’s good to sift ingredients such as confectioners’ sugar and cocoa powder that are almost always clumpy straight out of the package, especially for use in something like a glaze.