• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Cake Journal

  • Cake Lounge
    • Easy Embossed Cookies Recipe
    • How to Make Heart-Shaped Cake with Buttercream Roses
  • Desserts
    • Best 3 Cookie Scoop Sizes and How to Use Them?
    • Babycakes Cake Pop Maker Review and Tutorial
  • Recipes
    • Traditional Castella Cake Recipe
    • Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting (Easy Recipe)
    • Best Frozen-Themed Cake Ideas with Images
  • Tips & tools
    • What to Do With Cake Scraps? (9 Easy Recipes)
    • Luster Dust: If You Don’t Know About It, You Need To!
    • How To Use Edible Glue and How to Make It
    • How to Use Russian Piping Tips and Tutorial
    • What Is Wafer Paper and How to Use It? (Video Tutorials)
  • Tutorials
    • How To Make Royal Icing (Easy Recipe)
    • How to Flood Cookies with Royal Icing?
    • How To Use Candy Molds Properly
    • How to Make Cake Pops: Easy Step-by-Step Tutorial
    • Fondant On Cookies: Easy Way To Decorate
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact

Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting (Easy Recipe)

November 5, 2022 by Kristen Finley 19 Comments

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.

Whipped Cream frosting in Blue Bowl

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

  1. Pour whipping cream into the stand mixer. Add the sugar and vanilla.
  1. 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.

  1. 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).

Safety Measures

  • 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.

Previous Post: « How To Make A Gum Paste Peony (Part 1)
Next Post: Fall-Themed Birthday Cake Idea »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sharon

    December 8, 2021 at 7:19 AM

    Could ths recipe bemade with non-dairy whipping cream?

    Reply
  2. Floranet

    December 16, 2019 at 1:04 AM

    Worth Appreciating. Great work.

    Reply
  3. Marja Boersma

    November 6, 2019 at 11:27 AM

    You can also use a tablespoon of powdered whole milk. Works fine, every time. To keep the whipped cream stiff much longer. For 3 cups cream I’d try 2 or mayby 2,5 tbspn powdered whole milk.
    Never had problems with it.

    Reply
  4. Tammie Sanders

    June 10, 2019 at 9:15 PM

    How does it hold up to freezing? My dad’s 75th Birthday is coming up and I want to go ahead and make the cake now and freeze it. It will be frozen approximately 20 or so days. Otherwise, I will make the cake now, freeze, and add frosting on his birthday, but I’d rather have it all done so I can concentrate on the rest of his birthday.

    Reply
  5. Linda

    September 21, 2017 at 2:20 AM

    I think powdered sugar is preferable.
    Something even better is to beat the heavy cream to almost stiff peaks, add Hershey’s chocolate syrup until blended. Delicious!

    Reply
  6. Charina Nicolas

    August 28, 2017 at 12:45 AM

    After frosting a cake/cupcake how long does it stand in room temperature? I’m from Philippines & the weather is kinda hot ?

    Reply
  7. Ashlynn Jones

    July 11, 2017 at 12:39 PM

    Me and sis making it now! Cannot decide on cake or cupcakes

    Reply
  8. Okudaye

    March 9, 2017 at 10:49 AM

    Can I use a whisk to whip instead of a mixer

    Reply
    • Sydney Winkler

      April 18, 2017 at 10:06 AM

      As long as the frosting reaches the soft peak stage, a whisk should be okay to use. You will have to be very stern with your stirring as a mixer has a lot more power than a manual whisk. So if you have a hand or stand mixer I would recommend that.

      Reply
  9. celine

    February 27, 2017 at 7:42 PM

    How much powdered egg whites, or egg whites do I need to add into mixture?
    Thank you for reading my question?

    Reply
    • Sydney Winkler

      April 18, 2017 at 10:09 AM

      There are no powdered egg whites or egg whites needed in this recipe!

      Reply
  10. aditi

    January 13, 2015 at 5:26 PM

    This is just awesome would recommend to surely try it

    I would recommend that u upload the process of making whipping cream too

    Reply
  11. Lisa

    December 10, 2013 at 9:34 PM

    Is the cups american measuring cups??

    Reply
  12. jesica jaeger

    November 26, 2013 at 10:07 PM

    Im gonna make a dream pie and try this recipe as my topper thank u

    Reply
  13. Collwyn

    November 18, 2013 at 10:29 AM

    I always mix in a package of unflavored gelatin into my whipped cream frosting. Does a bit better job of stabilizing than egg whites.

    Reply
  14. Geri

    October 22, 2013 at 7:44 AM

    You can also put all ingredients in the mixer, with whip attachment. Beat on #2 on Kitchenaide mixer, for 15 mins. Stop, Detach whip, using whip by hand, whip for 1 minute or so, until proper consistency. Will not deflate, so no ‘re-whipping.

    Reply
  15. Rose

    October 1, 2013 at 9:01 PM

    I’m gonna try this on a coconut cake today! Thanks for the recipe Diane!

    Reply
  16. Ruth

    October 1, 2013 at 7:35 PM

    how much egg whites do you add for this recipe?

    Reply
  17. Wicked Goodies

    September 28, 2013 at 3:12 PM

    Thanks for the post! If you add powdered egg whites or fold in whipped egg whites, it will stabilize the whipped cream so that it does not weep or need to be re-whipped.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Copyright © 2023 · Cake Journal