Have you ever wondered how professional bakeries get that amazing, perfectly shaped whipped cream on their fancy desserts? The kind where you think it’s frosting, but then you take one bite into it and realize it’s the most perfectly light, whippy, fresh cream? Chances are it’s just stabilized whipped cream. With the holiday season approaching, this is one little trick you need in your cooking arsenal. This method produces the perfect whipped cream that you love, but with a stabilizing agent, which means that it won’t fall flat or melt or get all goopy if it sits around for a while. If I’m taking dessert somewhere, or I know it’s going to sit in my fridge or on the counter for a bit, I always use this method. I also use this method to frost cakes and cupcakes when I want something lighter than a traditional heavy buttercream.
This is what I used on my Orange-Cranberry Cheesecake last week. There are a few options you can find for stabilizing whipped cream, like adding instant pudding mix, but I don’t recommend those. If you want pure, white, delicious whipped cream that tastes like normal whipped cream, go with this method. It starts with most of the same ingredients as regular whipped cream.
The little secret is a bit of unflavored gelatin. This won’t change the flavor or really the texture either, it simply provides some staying power. Sprinkle a teaspoon of gelatin over some cold water. If you’ve never worked with unflavored gelatin, it might seem weird, but it’s normal! You need to let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes to “bloom”. It will be thick and semi-solid.
Once it’s done blooming, you’ll heat it in the microwave just until melted. It only takes about 5-10 seconds, no need to boil it. Just whisk it until smooth. (Cutest-ever heart whisks from our Shop!)
I recommend you do this in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. If you don’t have a stand mixer, use a hand mixer. Place the heavy cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar in the mixer and beat for about a minute.
Then very slowly add the gelatin in a smooth, steady stream, as the mixer is running. Continue beating as normal until you reach medium-stiff peaks.
At this point, just use the whipped cream as you normally would. It works really well for spreading and piping. Like I said, I love this on cupcakes! As it sits in the fridge, it will set up a little more, and it will last significantly longer than regular whipped cream.
I hope to see this on lots of beautiful pies this holiday season!
Stabilized Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin like Knox, found near Jell-o in the baking aisle
- 4 teaspoons cold water
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar more or less to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place cold water in small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it. Let sit for 5 minutes. While it's sitting, place heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or in a mixing bowl if using an electric beater. Once gelatin is set, place bowl in microwave and heat until gelatin turns to liquid, about 10 seconds.
- Turn mixer on to start beating cream. Let it run for about 1 minute and then with the mixer on high, very slowly pour the melted gelatin in, in a small steady stream.
- Continue beating cream until you reach medium-stiff peaks. Spread or pipe whipped cream as desired.
Questions & Reviews
can i also use this for frosting cakes?
Sure but it would just be like frosting with whipped cream.
Hi From Australia. I have been looking for years for a way to make vanilla slices that I remember from childhood. I remember a thick layer of cream on top of a creamy Vanilla slice. Using this Recipe for the cream, I made them last week and they were perfect. Thank you so much for this information.
Can i use whipping cream powder in this ??
I’m not sure- I’ve never tried that!
For how long can i store the cake after icing by this whipped cream?
I have a recipe for a lemon cake that has a lemony whipped cream topping. Everyone loves the cake, but I find it a little “soft”, so this method of stablizing the whipped cream may be just the answer. I wondered about your opinion of using lemon juice (as the recipe calls for) instead of water to bloom the gelatin. This would give me the lemony flavor without diluting the taste with water. However, I’m not sure what will happen when I heat the bloomed gelatin in lemon juice.
It will be fine. Or did you find that out already? I just did it for a no bake lemon cheesecake and all was well.
Thank you for this recipe, Sara!
Do you think this would be good to layer for a strawberry shortcake??
Yep!
Made this to frost two tres leches cakes requested by a friend for her thesis defense party. I used 4 cups of cream and 4X everything else in the recipe to compensate. Followed the modifications suggested by Christina L. above (on 3/26/17) i.e. added a bit of cream while melting the gelatin to prevent lumps. I put the gelatin/cream/water mix in a measuring cup so that I could easily pour it in very slowly while whipping the cream. The samples I tried (for quality control, obviously) were not granular like some people describe. I needed stabilized whipped cream so that I could pipe decorations on top of the cake. I colored the whipped cream by using Wilton gel colors to color a small amount (1/2 tsp?) of un-whipped cream, then mixed that with the freshly-whipped cream + gelatin. This resulted in lovely colors, and at least a few hours after making the stabilized whipped cream it’s holding up beautifully! I know regular whipped cream would already have deflated a bit.
Thank you, this recipe worked perfectly the first time. I piped it in a big fat swirl on chocolate cupcakes and topped with chocolate sprinkles and a maraschino cherry–delightful. The leftover cupcakes still looked and tasted great (after refrigeration) several days later. I like the flavor and texture so much better than buttercream or canned frosting.
I am so happy I found this I did a wedding cake for yesterday with whipped cream icing that had cream cheese in it. I wasn’t sure if adding gelatin would help or not but it did. The place was hot and some of the decoration I add had melted slightly but nothing that was made with the icing changed. There were a lot of complements on the icing. I had left some back up icing in the car during the wedding because it wasn’t needed and it held up to wish I was surprised over. Overall I was very happy I found this and will be using it again.
Thank you so much for the tips on how to stabilize whipped cream with gelatin. I have a “Raspberry Yogurt Cake” recipe from my friend in Germany and my fist attempt resulted in wobbly cream, so this tip will surely firm up that layer to make a perfect looking cake.
Do you think this would hold up in an air-conditioned car for about an hour? Either piped out on the cake first or in a bag to be piped at the destination?
Ya should be fine!
Can you use this in place of cool whip in a trifle? I’m doing an angel food cake, strawberry and blueberry trifle for July 4th. The recipe calls for cool whip but I’m not a cool whip fan. Could I layer this whipped cream between the layers and have it hold for a day?
I need to know the answer to your question too for the trifle!
Traditional English trifle is made only with real whipped cream (no stabilizer required). It will “hold” for a day 🙂
English whipped double cream is heavier than N American whipping cream so is more stable anyway.
U have been of a great help, always wondered how i could keep my whip cream to last longer. A big thank you. The comments also helped. Am so trying it soon
Can this be used in a no bake cheese cake recipe instead of cool whip?
Ya, I think in most cases that would probably work great!
Cam I Use Fresh Strawberries with this Recipe?
Can you explain what you mean?
i made this just the way you described , i tripled the recipe cause i had mad 3 Easter desserts that all needed whipped cream , it was lumpy looked like rice pudding i kept trying to fix it , even adding Whip it also ……finally i sent my daughter out on a hunt looking for more heavy cream , the store had just enough , so i tossed 1st 1 . it happened again still today i cant imagine what i did wrong?
Oh man, that’s so frustrating, Karen- I’m sorry that happened! Whipped cream can become lumpy if your gelatin is added to quickly (it solidifies in little lumps instead of blending nicely into the cream) You do have to add it in a very slow and steady drizzle.
I don’t own a microwave oven. Could I heat the gelatin/water in a small pot until it liquified? Can’t wait to try it.
Once the whipped cream is firm, can we use sugarpaste on top to cover the cake?
I’m not sure I’ve never tried that. It still is very very light and soft like whipped cream is so it might not work. You’d have to try!
Would this make a good alternative to Cool Whip on Better than Sex cake? (I live in Ireland so I don’t have access to Cool Whip.)
Yes for sure!
Hi there, I was reading a comment about the cream becoming grainy after adding the cooled gelatin to it. I had that happen once and it was awful… what I did was put about 2 TBS of cream into the gelatin while it was melting, once it was melted and the cream was combined, I removed it from the heat. I then allowed it to cool, after my heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract was beaten to a slight thickness, I kept the mixer running and slowly poured the gelatin/cream mixture in. It helped a lot in preventing the gelatin from clumping… I think pouring the gelatin in slowly is really the key.. 🙂 hope this helped a little….. now I have to figure out how to prevent it from destabilizing while on a wedding cake that will be out for maybe 3 hours…….
Did you ever figure the destabilizing out??!! I am doing the exact same thing and wondering how it went!! Thanks!
I haven’t tried it with gelatin yet but I made whipped cream for my cheesecake & used 1 tbsp piping gel to 2 cups heavy cream. 24 hours later it’s still holding strong.
I’ve made this for three sweet potato chz cakes, awesome! Thank You.
I was wanting to make a stabilized cream to pipe into cream horns, but I was wanting to make a flavored cream. Will I be okay to add blueberry pie filling/ other flavorings to this? Perhaps more powdered sugar to make up for the extra liquids? Thank you!
You’d have to experiment! (but sounds delicious!)
I have used banana extract in whipped cream and it works great .any flavor of extract would work
Hi Thanks for this great tip. Would like to make a choc version. How would I incorporate the cocoa? Many thanks in advance Kathy
I would sift your cocoa powder with your powdered sugar and add it to the cream as it’s whipping.
Im using this method for stabilised whipped cream but since i am making a lychee cake im subtituting lychee syrup for watee to bloom the gelatin… Hope thus will work since thw gelatin bloom nicely…
Can this be made and stored in the fridge a day in advance, then piped onto the dessert the following day? How would you suggest storing it? Thanks in advance!!
I have used powdered milk added to the whipping cream to stabilize, worked well for me and so much easier.
I have been told to use skim or non-fat powdered milk but only have full cream milk powder available. Will this work?
I have a birthday party coming up and mother wants whipped icing but it’s going to be outside in 90\100 degrees weather will this hold up? I won’t have a cooler or frig either.
I don’t think anything will hold up for long- but if you eat quick you might be okay!
I’m making a strawberry shortcake, how do I adjust using the gelatin to a quart of heavy whipping cream
A quart is 4 cups. Take this recipe ×4. I do it a lot. My go-to whipped cream recipe. Also works really well blended with instant jello (dissolve first in a bit of hot water and drizzle info to the cream) to make quick fruit pies or fillings for cakes.
I made this recipe recently to ice a cake and it was great. Now, I’d like to do it again but attach an edible image/sugar sheet to the stabilized whipped cream after the whipped cream icing has been applied. Could you give me some parameters for that? Should the cake be freshly frosted or can I frost done hours ahead of applying the image? Should the image be applied immediately before serving or can it be applied a few hours ahead? I have information on applying it to buttercream and to non-stable whipped cream, but none for a stable whipped cream.
I’m sorry but I’ve never used edible images so I don’t have any instructions for you.
Hi, have you used the image/sugar sheet on this icing yet? I was wondering how it worked if you did. Thanks.
I haven’t, sorry!
I tried it, and the sugar sheet got really soggy and gross. I would recommend spreading some buttercream or putting a piece of fondant under it first, or avoiding altogether.