Who doesn’t love a soft, airy, but not too-sweet whipped cream frosting? We already know that most of you are eager to read and give it a try to this recipe because decorating a cake can be such a hassle sometimes. So, we decided to share a super easy recipe with all of you in order to take that burden off your shoulders. We hope that this would be helpful to you.
Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting Recipe
What You Need for Making Whipped Cream Frosting
- 3 cups of heavy whipping cream
- 6 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
How to Make the Best Whipped Cream Frosting
- Pour whipping cream into the stand mixer. Add the sugar and vanilla.
- Beat on high speed for 5 minutes. Halfway through scraping down the sides of the bowl and then continue to whip on high.
Note: You may want to cover your stand mixer with a towel or large cloth so that the cream doesn’t fly out of the bowl for you. Once the cream turns into whipped cream you can remove the draped towel.
- After whipping for 5 minutes, check to see if the whipped cream is firm enough for your project. I like to scoop some whipped cream frosting onto a spoon and hold it upside down. When it’s done, it should stay in place and not fall off the spoon.
Prep time: 10 minutes (Do not overdo it as the whipped cream frosting might separate and be irreversibly ruined!)
This recipe will fill and cover two 9-inch round cake pans. Keep whipped cream frosting refrigerated when not in use. If after taking it out of the fridge it has softened up, you may have to re-whip it for a few minutes.
Tips for a Perfect Whipped Cream Frosting
For the perfect whipped cream frosting that will not deflate or weep before landing on your guests’ plates, check out these tips. They will make your life a lot easier!
The Best Whipping Cream
When choosing the whipping cream for a whipped cream frosting, always go for the “heavy” variety. This should have at least 36% fat content (30% to 35% is good enough, too).
- The higher the fat content of your whipping cream, the higher the chances of the whipped cream frosting turning into a sturdy, picture-perfect masterpiece. You can definitely see the difference through the naked eye.
- Heavy cream also goes by the name “double cream” in other parts of the English-speaking world.
- Use table cream or half and a half at your own risk as we cannot guarantee success.
Use Only Powder Sugar for the Best Frosting
Use only powdered sugar in this recipe! The regular, granulated sugar might make the cream runny and give it a grainy texture. You wouldn’t want that to happen to your frosting.
- Don’t assume that the sugar grains should eventually dissolve if you whip the cream long enough! Remember that overdoing it, usually ruins it!
- Whip no more than 5-10 minutes on the medium to high-speed setting or 12-15 on the low-speed setting.
Best Whipping Time and Temperature
The whipping time largely depends on the quality and fat content of the whipping cream. Whip until you see the mixture becoming creamy while visibly increasing its volume; you need your whipped cream frosting to be creamy or soft and stiff but not too stiff. Just the right balance of everything.
Furthermore, for best results, you need everything to be chilled beforehand and that includes the mixer bowl and the beaters, not just the whipping cream;
- We recommend chilling the bowl and beaters for at least 20-30 minutes in the freezer and the whipping cream for at least 6 hours in the fridge.
- This step is incredibly important especially if the room is warm.
- In the old days, people used to make whipped cream frosting outside in the snow (your great-grandma might confirm).
SafetyMeasures
- To stay on the safe side, before you start, clean the beaters and mixing bowl with wine vinegar in order to ensure there are no oily remnants from previous uses that might contaminate the whipped cream; however, we do believe this tip holds true only when it comes to beating egg whites or other things fat-free since whipping cream is already fat packed.
- When piping the whipped cream, work very fast! You need to prevent the cream from getting warm. For this, you can use a chilled piping bag or tool and keep it from getting warm from your hands as the whipped cream may otherwise become runny.
Popular Stabilizing Agents for Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting
For an extra layer of stiffness to your whipped cream frosting, professionals add a bit of cream tartar to the whipping cream if used for piping.
- Cream of tartar is a natural acidic salt that stabilizes the whipped cream and prevents it from oozing out the syrup.
- Add 2/3 tsp cream of tartar to the sugar, mix well and add the resulting mixture to the whipping cream when it begins to thicken.
Other popular stabilizing agents for your whipped cream frosting are cornstarch and unflavored gelatin.
- Add 1 tsp of gelatin (or two tsp of cornstarch) and 4 tsp of water to 1 cup of heavy whipping cream.
- Warm the water and gelatin until fully dissolved in a microwave.
- Let everything cool and add the gelatin to the whipping cream when it starts to form soft peaks while on the low-speed setting.
- A bit of gelatin also helps the whipped cream frosting hold its composure in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.
Some home bakers use cream cheese or instant vanilla pudding powder as stabilizing agents. However, we do not recommend these ingredients as they may slightly change the final product’s taste, if not properly calibrated.
You can leave the whipped cream frosting as it is (without any stabilizing agents) for up to 24 hours in the fridge and a couple of hours outside the fridge. Also, we do recommend piping it on cakes and other pastries as soon as you’ve made it.
Suggested Read: Lemon Frosting
What Goes Perfectly With This Recipe?
You can use this whipped cream frosting as a filling for our delicious red velvet cookie sandwiches, in one of our timeless pumpkin cake recipes, or on top of this old-school Lemon Chiffon Cake.
Another useful tip for lemon-based desserts is to use lemon juice in your whipped cream. Although, keep in mind to add it gradually until the cream thickens. If it curdles, here’s a short clip on how to fix a whipped cream that curdles.
Happy Caking!
This is one of my favorite ways to decorate my cakes and muffins since it is so easy to make. However, I know that when you read a recipe, it may sound a lot more complicated than it actually is. So, do not hesitate to ask anything that could help you with this whipped cream frosting in the comment section. Share your thought as we take delight in checking it.
Also, please share with all of us the satisfactory results for which this article inspired you! We are all so excited to find out more about all your sweet, creative ideas.
Diane
You might also wanna check out other related articles like Petal Frosting Technique, Frosting Recipes, Chocolate Frosting, and more.
