How To Make Stabilized Whipped Cream
Learn how simple it is to make stabilized whipped cream with this easy tutorial. This whipped cream is perfectly sweet and holds its shape for days!
If you’ve never made stabilized whipped cream before you may be wondering if it’s really necessary.
The answer: It depends.
Have you ever made whipped cream, piped it on a dessert, and then a couple hours later it just deflated or even worse it started weeping (in other words, it gets a little watery)?
Yeah, no one likes that.
That’s when it’s helpful to know how to make stabilized whipped cream. If you’ve ever needed a whipped cream recipe that held its shape, then this is the perfect recipe. This stabilized whipped cream holds its shape for a few days (without deflating) and is perfect for piping on cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, pies, and so much more.
And I promise it’s easy to make too. If you can stir things together, use a microwave, and use a mixer, then you can easily make this stabilized whipped cream!
How To Make Stabilized Whipped Cream
First things first, make sure to chill your bowl and beaters before getting started with this recipe. Why? The colder your ingredients when you make your whipped cream, the quicker it will thicken and it can even increase the volume of your whipped cream too.
You only need to chill the bowl and beaters for about 5-10 minutes, so you can do this step while you gather your ingredients.
Then, pour a few teaspoons of water in a small microwave-safe bowl, sprinkle a teaspoon of unflavored gelatin on top, and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Any brand of gelatin will work fine, just make sure that it’s unflavored. I typically use Knox unflavored gelatin and can usually find it pretty easy in the baking aisle.
After a couple of minutes, place the bowl with the gelatin in the microwave and warm it up for just a few seconds. This won’t take very long at all, only about 5-10 seconds so just keep a close eye on it. Once you remove it from the microwave, stir it around, and set it aside to cool slightly.
While the gelatin is cooling, you’ll make the whipped cream. My whipped cream recipe is just a simple mixture of heavy whipping cream (make sure it’s at least 36% fat), powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
You’ll mix everything together until it thickens and forms soft peaks, in other words, when you lift the beaters out of the bowl the whipped cream folds over. Once you’ve reached the soft peak stage, you’ll slowly pour the cooled gelatin mixture in as you’re mixing the whipped cream.
Trust me here, I’ve tried just dumping the mixture in and then mixing it all up and I don’t advise it. Just turn your mixer to low speed and slowly pour in the gelatin to avoid any lumps.
Then, continue mixing the whipped cream until you have stiff peaks (when you lift the beaters out of the bowl the whipped cream stands straight up and doesn’t fold over).
And that’s it!
Different Ways to Use Stabilized Whipped Cream
You can use this whipped cream to pipe on just about anything that you like too. Here are a few recipes that you can use with this recipe:
P.S. I’ll be posting the recipe for the mini lemon blueberry cheesecakes (pictured above) on Thursday!
Tips For Stabilized Whipped Cream
- It’s best to chill your bowl and beaters before getting started. This will help your whipped cream thicken up quicker and increase the volume too!
- Make sure to let your gelatin cool slightly before mixing it in, you don’t want it to be too hot when you add it to the bowl.
- Whipped cream will double in volume, so if you use 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (like this recipe) then you will end up with about 2 cups of whipped cream. You can easily half, double, or even triple this recipe to make more or less whipped cream.
- Once you make the whipped cream, you can pipe it on your dessert, then refrigerate the dessert until you’re ready to serve it. This whipped cream will hold up just fine at room temperature for a couple of hours, but it’s best to keep your dessert refrigerated and avoid leaving it anywhere too warm for too long.
Stabilized Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons water
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 1 cup (240 ml) cold heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup (30 grams) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Add the water to a microwave safe bowl and sprinkle the unflavored gelatin on top. Allow to sit for a few minutes.
- Transfer the gelatin mixture to the microwave and microwave until the gelatin is fully dissolved, this will just take a few seconds. Stir the mixture, then set aside to cool.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer, combine the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Whip the mixture until it starts to thicken and soft peaks form, then turn the mixer to low speed. Slowly pour in the gelatin mixture until well combined. Increase the mixer to medium speed and continue mixing until stiff peaks form.
- Pipe the whipped cream on your favorite dessert (or use it to frost it) and refrigerate your dessert until ready to serve.
Hi, I was just wondering I don’t have a microwave so can I use boiling water?
Yes, that’s fine!
Okay, I just bought some Knox unflavored gelatin to make some stabilized whipped cream for my lemon blueberry cheesecakes. The gelatin smells so bad, I want to vomit. There is no way I’m using it in my whipped cream. The date is 2025. Have you ever had this happen?
Hi, Tonya! Unflavored gelatin does have a little bit of a smell to it, but you can’t taste it in the whipped cream. If it’s not expired, it may be okay. You could always try another brand or package though in case the one you have isn’t good.
So this is delicious and takes me right back to my youth – it was how I told my kids what “cool whip used to taste like”. My problem is, no matter how I tweak this, I always end up with some rubbery gelatin bits in my final product. I stir it well in the water to make sure its all wet. It looks well soaked when I microwave it 5 minutes later. It is steamy hot and looks totally dissolved. I stream it in perfectly and every time same thing. Little rubbery bites. Any tips?
Thanks, it’s so good that I really am dedicated to figuring this out.
Oh, I and I do let it cool before I pour it in. Maybe this is not cool enough. I fear if I let it go much lower than I do, that it will solidify.
Hi, Ryan! You could try mixing a few tablespoons of the whipped cream just after it reaches the soft peak stage into the slightly cooled gelatin, then stir that mixture into the whipped cream, and continue mixing until stiff peaks form.
Will this hold up well frozen? I want to use it to frost and decorate an ice cream cake.
I haven’t tried it, but it may be fine if you’re using it to decorate an ice cream cake and immediately serving it once you remove it from the freezer.
Thanks, Danielle! I’ve made this several times, and it’s delicious. However, through trial and error, I’ve found that a whole teaspoon of gelatin is a bit too much. The final product has an unpleasant texture. I’ve gotten better results using only 3/4 teaspoon of gelatin. The whipped cream still remains stable for days, and it’s much softer.
Thank you, I will try this in my next birthday cake, hopefully this will be the one.
I love this recipe. I use it when I make Cream Puffs as the filling . It holds up so we’ll.