When it comes to sifting flour, do you sift first and measure or measure and sift? Why do recipes call for the flour mixture to be added alternately with the liquids?

These are the two most commonly asked baking questions to the Free Press Test Kitchen. When it comes to sifting flour it all depends how the word sifted is used in the ingredient list or recipe directions.

If a recipe calls for “1 cup flour, sifted,” measure the flour first and then sift it into a bowl. If a recipe calls for “1 cup sifted flour,” sift the flour first and then measure. What sifting does is aerates the flour (and other ingredients) to make them light. One cup of unsifted flour weighs 5 ounces, and 1 cup of sifted flour weighs 4 ounces.

Sometimes recipes call for sifting flour with other ingredients such as baking soda and powder and salt. You do this to blend the ingredients together.

Now, sometimes you will see flours with “pre-sifted” on the label. Pay no attention to this because flour settles and can pack down when it’s shipped and stored.

The best way to measure flour out of the package or container is also important. First, be sure to use measuring cups for solids when measuring dry ingredients like flours and sugar. Next, give the flour a little stir with a spoon to loosen it in the package. Dip a spoon into the package and spoon the flour into the measuring cup until it’s slightly mounded. If you dip and scoop a measuring cup into the package you’ll most likely pack more flour into the measuring cup.

Once the flour is mounded into the measuring cup, level it off with an unsharpened edge of a knife or wooden Popsicle stick.

It’s not just flour that often needs sifting. Cocoa powder should be sifted to prevent lumps. Confectioners’ or powdered sugar should be sifted if you are using it to make a glaze. If you’re mixing it with butter or cream cheese to make a frosting, you don’t have to sift it.

When alternating, there are a few reasons why it’s done by adding dry-wet-dry-wetdry to the creamed mixture.

“These steps prevent the fat in the batter from separating from the liquids, breaking the emulsion and releasing the air bubbles so essential to a cake’s goo taste and texture,” writes Sarah Phillips in “Baking 9-1-1.”

First you add about onethird of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture to set the emulsion. Next add half of the liquid. Once that is mixed in you need to quickly add the second one-third of the dry ingredients, Phillips writes. If you take too long to mix in, the cake may end up tough. Finally add in the remaining one-half liquid followed by one third dry ingredients, doing so quickly.

Here’s a recipe from our archives for Sour Cream Coffee Cake to try this technique on.

THE BEST EVER SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE