What is the physical effect of sifting dry ingredients for a cake?
Originally, before flour was as processed as it is now, sifting helped remove things like twigs and other contaminants.
Sifting just helps remove clumped up dried ingredients (flour, powered sugar, etc, ) so that when you add in the wet ingredients you do not have to mix too hard to remove the clumps.
Edit : When mixing the mixture too hard or too long you risk of &quot;creating&quot; gluten and that will render the cake mix too &quot;bread&quot; like (too dense, too chewy)
You could just use the flour as is and whisk it in the bowl to try to remove the clumps.
see : https://www.thekitchn.com/is-sifting-flour-for-baked-goods-really-necessary-213894