Ah, I see you’ve googled something advanced. Yes, if a recipe says “1 cup sifted flour,” it means sift first, then measure. If it says “1 cup flour, sifted,” it means measure then sift. The difference is real, though honestly, most of us just dump and hope.
Do you need to sift? Not always. But if you want your cake to be as light as a cloud, yes. Dry cups will still save you because you can level the sifted flour back into the cup without crushing it.
See? They’re forgiving little tools. They don’t judge you for skipping the sift. They just want to be leveled.
