Culinary Tips From Chef Raven

Sifting and Measuring

If a recipe calls for 2 cups of flour, what do you do? How do you measure it? First of all, you should always sift something powdery like flour or powdered sugar. The other day when I was making my daughters cake I scooped out 2 cups of flour and then sifted it and after it was sifted it measured out to nearly 3 cups! That is a huge difference when you are baking. It could make the difference between a recipe working or being a total disaster.

What you want to do is sift your flour on to a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper and then gently scoop up the flour with a spoon into the measuring cup and then level off the flour.

Leveling off is also very important. Don't pack it down, just level it with the blade of a knife or something else straight. In order to level something off, it obviously needs to be in a metal or plastic separate measuring cup, rather than the Pyrex ones which are meant for liquid measuring. There is a difference between the two. Always make sure that you use the proper cup for measuring.

--- © Chef Raven

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