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I'm not sure what you mean by "press" the flour through the sieve? I usually lay out a piece of wax paper or flexible cutting board and shake the dry ingredients over it through the sieve... it's about a million times faster then an actual flour sifter. You can sometime get away with whisking everything in a bowl if you're not really worried about lumps, just intermingling the baking soda, salt and flour or whatever.

I ALWAYS sift!!! (some may say it's a sin not too!) However, I do not use the 'hand crank' sifter. I use a regular spoon like sifter. I used to use the hand crank sifter but the risk vs reward just wasn't there. I never could get it quite clean after using it.

~TableBread
http://tablebread.blogspot.com

I always sift if the recipe calls for it (I do use the hand-crank sifter), and I assume it has nothing to do with lumps. It's either to mix the dry ingredients really well (sifting them all together) or to measure the flour correctly (sifting before measuring).

A tip I picked up from watching Martha (and always use now) is to "lazy-sift" by whisking together the dry ingrediets in a bowl. It mixes the dry ingredients together while breaking up lumps and works as well as traditional sifting, in my experience anyway.

By the way, the measuring cups in the picture look exactly like mine (also from C&B), and I got them because they were the only metal ones I could find where the handles were of a piece with the cups, and so most likely won't break off.

I do own a sifter, but it sits in the bin of used-once-a-year kitchen tools at the very back of a cupboard. I just use a fork to mix all the dry stuff togeather and get out lumps. I only use the proper sifter if a recipe calls for the sifting before the measuring, and I do that to get the measurements right, but that is really rare...

I always sift when it's called for, but I usually use a fine mesh sieve rather than a traditional sifter. I own a sifter, but the sieve is more readily accessible and so it gets used.

One of the things I enjoy about baking is that I can usually expect decent results if I follow the directions closely. It's a nice combination of science and art.

I never knew that the measurements for the amount of flour were different depending on the wording. I think I need write that down somewhere so I don't forget!

Another tip I learned from Martha is that you should always measure your flour into the measuring cup by spoonful rather than dipping the cup into the container you keep your flour in. I was surprised to see how different the two amounts were when demonstrated!

Sometimes? No..no...Always. Baking isn't like cooking, it's a precise science. But, if you are not going to follow exact directions, (which I might add...I've been know to do here and there), you must know this- If a recipe calls for 3 cups sifted flour as opposed to 3 cups flour, sifted; there is a great difference in the amount of flour you will end up with. I have weighed it to check. Sifted flour is fluffier than non- sifted so a cup of sifted is much less than a cup of non-sifted. I hope that made sense. The point is never skip the step when the recipe calls for sifted flour, your cakes will end up much denser than they should as a result because of the extra flour.

I can never get the flour to go through the mesh of my seive. And then afterwards I can never wash all the flour out of it. I almost always end up breaking up any clumps with a fork.

Julia Child, in her show about Queen of Sheba cake, puts a measuring cup on a sheet of waxed paper, then sifts the flour right into the cup, and then levels it off. That's one of the French cakes that uses only egg whites for leavening, so I imagine that it's really important not to use too much flour in it.

I don't sift unless it specifically says to. What i do do, though is measure all my ingredients. A cup of sifted flour is way different than a cup of unsifted flour. That's why I chose sometimes. But if I'm measuring the correct weight of flour, should I sift that?