Stabilized whipped cream can be piped or frosted onto cakes, and it won't lose its shape or melt. Best part? It only takes 5 minutes to make! Yep!
You can make your own amazing whipped cream, right at home, and it tastes wayyyyy better than that stuff that comes in a tub. Trust me.
What's In This Blog Post
- Ingredients For Stabilized Whipped Cream Using Gelatin
- Step-By-Step Instructions
- How to stabilize whipped cream with instant pudding mix
- How to stabilize whipped cream using corn starch
- Stabilized whipped cream using cream of tartar
- How to stabilize whipped cream with powdered milk
- FAQ
- Looking for more recipes? Check these out!
Ingredients For Stabilized Whipped Cream Using Gelatin
This is my favorite way to make stabilized whipped cream. The gelatin sets the whipped cream so that it holds its shape, even in hot weather (as long as you keep it in the shade and for no more than 2 hours). Follow my easy step-by-step instructions below.
Step-By-Step Instructions
- Begin by sprinkling your gelatin over the water and let it sit for 5 minutes to bloom. This is important so that the gelatin has a chance to fully absorb the water. If you don't wait, you can get grainy lumps in your whipped cream.
- Once the gelatin is bloomed, heat in the microwave for 5 seconds. It melts very quickly! If it's not fully melted, go another three seconds until it's melted. Don't overheat! You can tell the gelatin is melted when it's clear and you don't see any grains of gelatin anymore.
- Add the 1 teaspoon of heavy cream to the melted gelatin and stir. This cools down the gelatin and helps it mix into the whipped cream better. If your gelatin starts to get solid then just reheat it for 5 seconds to make it liquid again.
- Begin whipping your cream with the whisk attachment on medium speed.
- After it starts to get foamy, you can add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
- Whip until you start to see lines developing in the whipped cream, but the peaks are still very soft.
- While mixing on low, start drizzling in your melted gelatin mixture. Keep mixing until your peaks are firm enough to hold their shape, but do not over-mix or your whipped cream will start to curdle and turn into butter instead of whipped cream. This can happen VERY quickly after you add the gelatin, so just watch the whipped cream and don't go checking your emails.
- This stabilized whipped cream will hold up at room temperature (up to 90ºF), although I don't recommend leaving it out for more than two hours because of the dairy.
It will be ok in the fridge for up to three days! Cool huh? We used to use this recipe in pastry school on top of all our tarts so we could make them ahead of time and they would still be fresh the next day for service in the restaurant.
Here are some other ways to stabilize whipped cream!
How to stabilize whipped cream with instant pudding mix
This is the other way I generally stabilize whipped cream if I don't want to use gelatin. The only thing I don't like is that it's not quite as smooth as using gelatin.
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon instant vanilla pudding mix
Begin whipping your cream until you reach soft peaks. Then add in your vanilla pudding, sugar and vanilla extract. Continue whipping your cream until you have firm peaks but they are not crumbly.
I love the taste of this stabilized whipped cream. The vanilla pudding mix adds a nice flavor! Fold 1 cup of this stabilized whipped cream into the pastry cream and you have an excellent diplomat filling that's perfect for my cream tart recipe.
How to stabilize whipped cream using corn starch
You can use cornstarch to help thicken and stabilize your whipped cream. This is a very common and easy way of thickening and stabilizing your whipped cream to keep it from turning into a melty mess.
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
The cornstarch can leave a slightly gritty texture to the whipped cream though.
Stabilized whipped cream using cream of tartar
Cream of tartar can be used to stabilize whipped cream according to fine cooking all though I've never tried it. I'm definitely interested to see if this works.
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine the sugar and cream of tarter. Whip your cream to soft peaks and add in your sugar/cream of tartar and vanilla. Continue whisking to firm peaks.
How to stabilize whipped cream with powdered milk
This is another cool way to stabilize whipped cream in a super duper easy way. If you have powdered milk around, you can use it as a stabilizer. The powdered milk adds just enough body to the cream to keep it from losing its shape.
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 teaspoon powdered milk
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
FAQ
The short answer is yes! You can frost a cake with stabilized whipped cream but you cannot cover it in fondant. Whipped cream has too much liquid in it and is not thick enough to support the weight of the fondant. I frosted my pink velvet cake in whipped cream and it was amazing!
But you CAN cover a cake frosted with whipped cream with mirror glaze if you freeze it first in fact, this is exactly what I did for my geode mirror glaze heart!
I hope this answers all your questions about how to stabilize whipped cream! If you have any other issues you can always leave me a comment below.
Looking for more recipes? Check these out!
Pink velvet cake with whipped cream frosting
Copycat Whole Foods berry Chantilly cake
Mirror glaze cake
Chocolate mousse recipe
Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator
Select an option below to calculate how much batter or frosting you need. Adjust the servings slider on the recipe card to change the amounts the recipe makes.
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Note: measurements are estimated based off the vanilla cake recipe using standard US cake pans and sizes. Measurements used are for 2" tall cake pans only. Your results may vary. Do not overfill cake pans above manufacturer's recommended guidelines.
Recipe
Equipment
- Stand mixer with whisk attachment
Ingredients
Stabilized Whipped Cream
- 12 oz heavy whipping cream cold
- 2 ounces powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon gelatin I use KNOX brand
- 1 ½ tablespoon cold water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Sprinkle your gelatin over the water and let bloom for 5 minutes.
- Melt gelatin for 5 seconds in the microwave. If not fully melted do another 3 seconds. You can tell gelatin is melted when there are no granules of unmelted gelatin visible.After dissolving your gelatin, add in 1 teaspoon of heavy cream and mix. If your gelatin is too cold, heat again until it's melted (5 seconds).
- In a cold mixing bowl, whip your heavy for 15 seconds on medium speed until its foamy
- Add in your powdered sugar and vanilla and continue mixing on medium speed until you reach very soft peaks, barely holding their shape.
- Turn your mixer down to low and drizzle in your gelatin. Continue mixing on medium speed until your peaks are firm and holding their shape but don't over-mix to the point when your whipped cream starts to look chunky or begins turning into butter.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nadia says
Hi Liz, thanks so much for all your generous tutorials and recipes, you're an inspiration!
May I check, do all your recipes use US teaspoons and tablespoons i.e. ~4.9mL for a US tsp and ~14.8mL for a US tbsp? I want to get it right, as here in Australia our standard measures are metric i.e. 5mL for a tsp and 20mL for a tbsp!
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes you are correct, all the measurements are for US Tbsp and tsp
Pathma says
Hi are you using non dairy cream for this recipe?
Elizabeth Marek says
No, I'm using heaving whipping cream made from dairy
Angie says
Hey Liz! I hope you and the family are well! I was wondering... In the blog you said the whipped cream recipe lasts for 3 days and in the tutorial video you said a week. A week would be fantastic! Just wanted to make sure I heard it right. Thanks so much in advance!
Elizabeth Marek says
It definitely can last a week, it just depends more on what the whipped cream is piped onto because not all baked goods will last a week 🙂
Nadia C says
Thank you!
Laura Craig says
At what point can you add gel or a powder color to tint your stabilized whipping cream? Would you recommend gel color or powdered color so the consistency is not too soft or stiff? Thank you Liz! You're the BEST!!
Elizabeth Marek says
You can add food coloring with the vanilla extract
Kandace says
Can you use this to fill cupcakes...????
Elizabeth Marek says
Sure can!
Kandace says
Thanks for responding so quickly Liz! I may have missed this, but do you need to keep this in the fridge for any period of time if you're filling cupcakes! I really want to make the orange creamsicle cake and fill them with this stabilized whipped cream and top it with your easy buttercream flavored with orange dream 🙂
Elizabeth Marek says
Whipped cream cannot be out of the fridge for more than 4 hours due to health and safety 🙂
Latanya says
Hi , Liz would you do anything different if you wanted to use whipped frosting on a cake? For the layers can you still use buttercream and the outside part do the whipped frosting?
Elizabeth Marek says
Oh yea, you definitely could.
Immie says
Hi, I was just wondering whether it was necessary to add the sugar or whether it can be left out of these recipes?
Elizabeth Marek says
You can leave the sugar out of whipped cream 🙂
Scott says
This worked very well for my cake which had to travel in the heat. The whipped cream did not sag or split due to the heat like it has before plus I did it ahead of time without freezing my cake! I also used this method for a pot de creme that had to travel 1.5 hrs in 102 degree heat. No problem. I used the gelatin for both. Thank you for sharing your recipes.
Elizabeth Marek says
Yay! That is so great to hear!
Dawn Hakanson says
Hi! I’d like to make a chocolate version of this. Do you have an option for chocolate stabilized whipped cream. Thank you for these great recipes and video!
Elizabeth Marek says
You can add some cocoa powder (sifted) in with the powdered sugar! So yummy!
Amy Royea says
If I iced a cake with this could I freeze it? Or would it all melt as it was defrosting?
Elizabeth Marek says
It will not melt while defrosting 🙂
Melissa Ficker says
OMG! I just made this for the first time because I'm doing a strawberry layered cake so I flavored the cream strawberry. It is out of this world and so easy! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Louise says
I am making my white cake recipe 3 times and baking in 3 10” pans. I’m splitting each cake to have 6 layers with filling. Because I will probably need to make your recipe 6 x’s, do I need to times 6 will all of the ingredients?
Elizabeth Marek says
You can use the frosting calculator to figure out how much you need. Its right above the recipe.
Shakthi says
Hey!
I wish to use pudding powder. Is it stable enough to use for decorations?
And should this also be piped immediately? Thanks 😊
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes it should be piped immediately before the pudding sets the whipped cream
MeAnna says
Hi, thanks for sharing. For the gelatin part, can i use warm water instead of microwave it?
Elizabeth Marek says
The water needs to be cold to absorb the gelatin and then it needs to be melted either by microwave for gentle stovetop heating
Kat says
Hi Liz! Im new here! Youre video is fantastic! May I just ask if this recipe could cover a 3 layer 10 inch wide cake? And 14 cupcakes. Im making a unicorn cake for my daughters birtday next month. If not, can you pls help me about the measurement. Pls and Thank you!
Elizabeth Marek says
You can use the cake batter and frosting calculator right above the recipe card to calculate how much frosting you will need.
Anna says
Hi Liz! I tried this recipe twice and both times there were strikes of gelatin in the cream when I was frosting my cakes. (The gelatin was fully melted when I used it.) What could be the cause of that?
Elizabeth Marek says
did you add the additional tsp of cream to the gelatin before adding it to the whipped cream?
Krysia says
Best Recipe! I used this to assemble my Schwartzwald Torte (black forest cake). Delicious & stable - thanks for the great idea to use gelatin to stabilize the cream.The cake came out awesome!
Thelema Bagabagon says
can we still salvage a butter-turned overwhipped cream??
Elizabeth Marek says
Unfortunately not, unless you want to keep whipping and just make butter 😀
Zee says
Hi Liz! I've tried this recipe twice now and it tasted amazing both times... BUT I keep finding bits of gelatine in the cream. I used the same gelatine as you did and I put the spoon of cream in before I mixed it into the whipped cream. The gelatine looked dissolved when I warmed it up and it looked dissolved when I mixed in the cream, but still bits of chunks resulted. Whyyyyyyyyy???? Any thoughts?
Elizabeth Marek says
The cream could be causing it to firm up too soon. You can make sure its all liquid again by microwaving the gelatin and the cream together for 5 seconds.
Denise says
Hi Liz, I’d like to add 1 TB maple syrup and some cinnamon for flavoring. Is this possible and at which point would you add it? Thanks!
Sugar Geek Show says
Yum! I'd add it once it's at soft peaks, then mix a bit and add the gelatin
kareen says
Hi Liz last week I've been doing this recipe a lot .... but every time I started piping it I realized that the tip of my piping bag kept obstructing with something.... and I figured it was the gelatine. I've been doing exactly what you do and I really don't know what its happening .... today was the fifth time making it and I was crossing my fingers to don't happen again but no, it happened 😥
Help me pleaseeeee
Elizabeth Marek says
Make sure your gelatin is still melted when you add it in. Sometimes when you add the cream it can seize the gelatin.
Maria says
Awesome! Thank you so much for the recipe! What kind of heavy cream do you use? I’ve heard it must have a high percentage of fat but I don’t know if the one I’m using works.
Elizabeth Marek says
I just buy the box that says "whipping cream" 🙂
Ari says
I put the stabilized whipped cream in fridge before frosting the cake . After one hour it was all hard and lumpy , will it melt and get soft if I leave out ?
Elizabeth Marek says
The stabilized whipped cream needs to be used right away as it sets from the gelatin. It will not be smooth again unfortunately. I do say in the recipe that it should be used right away.