Stabilized Whipped Cream is easy to throw together with just three ingredients. This recipe is perfect for topping cakes, piping, or using as a replacement for Cool Whip!
When I first started blogging, I made a ton of recipes using Cool Whip. It was such a fast and easy way to make desserts.
Over time my cooking style has evolved into a more from scratch approach, and my audience has grown to include people overseas. It seemed like a great time to provide a Cool Whip alternative.
This Stabilized Whipped cream is only three ingredients. It makes the exact same amount as an 8 ounce tub of Cool Whip. It will hold up to piping, keeping its shape for literally hours, and it is easy to double the recipe!
How to Stabilize Whipped Cream
- Freeze the bowl and the whisk. It is essential for this recipe to use a metal bowl and a metal whisk. Put them in your freezer for at least 15 minutes, but I prefer a half hour or more.
- Sift the powdered sugar with the gelatin. While you are waiting for the bowl to get cold, sift the powdered sugar and gelatin together twice using a metal sieve.
- Add the cold heavy cream and the powdered sugar mixture to the metal bowl.
- Whip it. Whip it good. With the mixer on medium high, whip the mixture until stiff peaks form.
Update
When this recipe was first published, I instructed to dissolve the gelatin into the whipped cream before combining it with the powdered sugar in the cold metal bowl. This was a method that worked really well for me, but was something readers struggled with. Some waited for the gelatin to bloom because that is necessary in some recipes that call for gelatin, though that isn’t necessary here. Other readers found that the gelatin clumped and as a result they didn’t get a truly stabilized whipped cream.
I have since changed the method. I suggest sifting the gelatin with the powdered sugar. This helps the gelatin distribute well in the final whipped cream. You will get the benefits of it stabilizing without any lumps or clumps.
Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting
This whipped cream works great as a frosting. As mentioned above, it will stay pipped in a perfect swirl for hours on end. To test this, I pipped a bit onto a plate and let it sit at room temperature. It held it’s form perfectly for 24 hours when I decided to toss it.
It will also make a great frosting just spread across a cake. Try it with our Caramel Apple Poke Cake or as a replacement to Cool Whip in our Mandarin Orange Cake.
Using in Pies
I have two great pie recipes that call for Cool Whip, and stabilized whipped cream with gelatin will work great as a replacement for it. I think it actually works better than Cool Whip in my Baileys Chocolate Pie. It is also perfect for my Shamrock Shake Pie.
FAQ
There are several sugar free “powdered sugars” on the market right now. Some recommendations would be Swerve, Monkfruit, and Stevia.
This recipe will last three days in the refrigerator. You can also freeze it and it will keep in the freezer for up to three months.
Yes! Freeze this in an air tight container. Keep it frozen for up to three months. When you are ready to use it, remove it from the freezer and let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
No. As mentioned above, I left this pipped at room temperature for 24 hours and it continued to hold it’s shape.
While this is not made with the same ingredients as Cool Whip, it will behave like Cool Whip in recipes. As a bonus, it tastes better than Cool Whip.
While it is up for debate if the current version of Cool Whip is truly dairy free, it is easy enough to make this version dairy free by using a soy based heavy whipping cream.
Other Uses for Stabilized Whipped Cream
Besides the recipes we have mentioned above, there are some great uses for this recipe. Use it as a replacement for Cool Whip in the following recipes:
If you make this stabilized whipped cream recipe or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
Stabilized Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar sifted twice
- 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream cold
Instructions
- Freeze a metal bowl and the metal attachment for a your hand held mixer (or your stand mixer and metal stand bowl) for at least 15 minutes.
- While you are waiting for the bowl to get cold, use a metal sieve to sift the powdered sugar and the gelatin together twice.1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin, 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- Add the cold heavy whipping cream to the cold bowl with the powdered sugar mixture.1 cup heavy whipping cream
- Whip on high until stiff peaks appear. Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. This recipe will hold up as frosting on a cake, and will stay stiff when pipped for hours.
Roseann McDevitt says
Hi my name is Roseann and was wondering could you use a flavored gelatin in this recipe? So if I wanted strawberry icing or lemon could I use those Jello flavored gelatins in place of the plain one?
I haven’t actually tried this with flavored gelatin, but one of my other readers mentioned today that they did, and it worked well.
Bonnie Lea Wallace says
What type of gelatin is used? I’m not sure that I understand that. Thank you.
I used Knox unflavored gelatin.
Yolanda says
Hi Lisa just want to know if I can use any flavor extract to the stabilized whipped cream. Thank you
Yes! This will handle flavoring very well.
Susan says
I use 2 T white chocolate instant pudding to stabilize whip cream as well as gelatin. Works great.
Ines Cardillo says
In every recipe that I have seen, the unflavored gelatin is disolved in water and heated in a microwave. I love how the dry gelatin in your recipe is dissolved directly in the cold cream. I didn’t know you could do that!
Yes! It is such a great trick!
Lee Ann says
I’m about to make 3 dozen cupcakes, and would like to know how many times do I need to increase the recipe in order to have enough?
That is a hard question to answer, because it all depends on how you frost them. If you are doing minimal frosting (like a simple piped loop), you could probably frost a dozen with the base recipe. You might want to quadruple to be on the safe side.
Julie says
I can’t get the gelatin to dissolve. How long does it usually take? It’s just all clumpy. :(
I’m so sorry to hear that, Julie. I haven’t had that trouble with this recipe. Is it possible that your gelatin is old? My other question is what brand did you use. There are a few products out there that don’t perform as well when you use off brand.
Sharon says
Can you put a little vanilla extract in this recipe? Or would that cause it to be too liquidy? Thsnks
No, that will be fine!
Brooke says
If I double the recipe, do I double the gelatin too or keep gelatin amount the same?
Correct, if you want to double the recipe you will need to double everything.
Alice says
Please have tried this dis before but fails….probably my measurements isn’t correct or something went wrong.
How many Tsp of gelatin can I / should
I use for 500g of powdered whipped cream
Hi Alice, I’ve never made with with powdered whipped cream, so I’m not sure. I would need to test it.