Monday Musing: Who gives a sift?

The lemon poundcake turned out amazing. The cake was moist, fluffy and above all, very lemony. The only thing I'd change was to put half the frosting on while it was warm and then apply the rest after it was completely cooled. This is because the warmth melted it and didn't allow it to get a nice opaque coating. As an aside, before I applied the frosting I poked a bunch of holes with a fork in the top of the cake to allow the frosting to penetrate the top layer. Notwithstanding the foregoing, it was delicious and mostly dissapeared by the end of the day, with only a small piece remaning which was devoured by my family.

So I have to get something off my chest. I don't sift dry ingredients together. I know the recipe calls for it, and I even include the direction in my modification of the recipe, but I don't do it. I generally mix the dry ingredients with a spatula or a measuring spoon and don't sift it at all. I know that it leads to clumps but I'm ok with that. That is until now. I bought a sifter for the bargain basement price of five dollars. I haven't used it yet because after I washed it I couldn't figure out for the life of my how to dry it, and leaving even a speck of water would render it ineffective. Had I thought about it a little longer, I would have dried it with a hair dryer....Instead I woke up in the middle of the night kicking myself for not drying my flour sifter with a hair dryer. Perhaps I should seek professional help.