I know this is probably a dumb ?? But I see alot off people sift there cake mixes. Is this to make a lighter cake? I know sometimes I can be such a dummy. I was just wondering the answer. The only thing I ever sift is powdered sugar for royal icing. 
I sift my cake mixes religiously! The main reason I do is to get a "ribbony smooth" batter! I can't stand a lumpy batter.....and since I've been sifting, I can honestly say the cakes are much lighter and the texture is so much better, not near a "holey", if that makes sense? I also "tap" the pans on the counter top to remove any air bubbles, but used to encounter them more when I did not sift my mix!
I also do that. But saw a few people sift and thought I was missing something
most mixes are very lumpy....sifting does two things...
1. it gets rid of all the lumps.
2. it airates the mix making for a lighter cake.
when baking frm scratch...flour salt and baking powder/soda and cocoa are sifted for the same reason...
if you dont sift the ingredients you will have a denser cake.
Ditto on what Cambo said. Very, VERY silky batter texture, and not nearly the air bubbles when I 'drop' the filled pans on the counter 4-5 times before baking. Hardly any, actually.
I swore I would never sift. Then someone gave me an antique sifter and I decided to try it just for the heck of it. It made enough of a difference that now I'll never NOT sift.
Why no tapping? I don't actually 'tap' the pans, but do 'drop' them. I put a folded kitchen towel on the counter (for noise control only), then hold the pan about 6-7" above it and let it drop. It makes the air bubbles come to the top of the batter and pop, which gives my cakes a more even texture w/ no holes inside the cake.
I will say that now that I sift though, there aren't but two or three - there used to be lots!
She brought a cake in to class and she said she tried to make it as ugly as possible. With that in mind she was telling us the things not to do when baking a cake, one of which was not to drop pan on counter. She also said you should preheat oven for at least 30 minutes and check oven temp. with thermometer to make sure oven temp is correct. Also do not open oven during baking process. All of these things, I'm sure you all know already. I was surprised about the dropping of the pan also, she didn't specifically say what it does, sorry!!
Being a Quality Assurance Officer for many years, working with dry premixes, both spices and blends of cake mixes and milk flavourings I can not stress enough the need to SIEVE EVERYTHING!
During my quality inspections of these products I found everything from a $5 note to chicken feathers in products that were ment to be sieved by the manufacturers. Even if the Quality systems are of a high standard there is always someone who will break the rules to save time or money allowing foreign objects to potentially contaminate the products!
If you sieve everything then you will catch anything that should not be in your cakes!
I once found a lizard in a bag of castor sugar, needless to say we stopped using that supplier!
ok, I sieved the cake mix along with the sugar and the extra flour.
I saw no difference as a matter of fact I found EXTRA large air bubbles in the cake !!!
IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE??--lol
All I did was add an extra time consuming step to my already busy baking day.
Back to no sifting and just molesting the bags! lol
lol, I didn't know how else to explain why I walk around using the bags of mix like squishy balls..lol
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%