Whipped Cream is always delicious and it looks beautiful swirled on dessert. Today I’m showing you how easy it is to decorate with homemade whipped cream!
Do you ever wonder how a bakery does it? All their stuff looks amazing and it is easy to dismiss decorating with whipped cream as the realm of professional bakers.
It is EASY to Decorate With Whipped Cream
But let’s get real here! YOU can make beautiful baked goods with very little effort. Using real whipped cream is both beautiful and ridiculously good. Do you want people to love your cooking? Do YOU want to love your cooking? Just make good food! It is that easy. There is no big secret here, people.
Whipped cream is one of God’s gifts to cooks. It is this amazing ingredient that makes soup silky, dessert decadent, and hot cocoa magic. If you want to swirl it unto dessert for a elegant presentation you need a cheap plastic decorating bag and cheap metal decorating tip. The set up costs a few dollars and takes no room to store.
The Key to Decorating With Whipped Cream is Stabilizing the Cream
Stabilize the whipped cream with a bit of gelatin and fill the decorating bag. Squeeze and “swirl” out the whipped cream in a circle for beautiful swirls that look like you worked really hard.
Seriously, if you can turn something in a circle you can do this!
You Don’t Need Prior Skills To Decorate With Whipped Cream
One note for type A people like me: The beauty of baked goods is often in the imperfection. Don’t get caught up in making it look perfect. The true beauty will be found in the tiny imperfections of your decoration.
Take a good look at the photos in this post. Do you think the chocolate pie is pretty? Now look closer. Notice how some of the swirls look different than each other? They are different sizes and some are even slightly different shapes.
But the pie looked great, right? And it happens to taste even better than it looks.
So give it a try! I’ve got a easy recipe below and Amazon links for materials (but you can just pick them up at a craft store). Have some fun and get ready to wow your family!
Tools In This Post: I’m using a Wilton 1M piping tip. Get it on Amazon or at a craft store.
I pair my tips with these disposable decorating bags. You can find packs of 12-100 depending on how much you decorate. You can also buy washable bags but since frosting and whipped cream is greasy and hard to wash I have moved mostly to disposables.
This Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwich Cake is gussied up with just a few swirls of whipped cream. It makes the cake stunning!
This Chocolate Cream Pie is another perfect example of decorating with whipped cream.
How to Decorate With Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 2 tsp. unflavored gelatin Knox is the name brand but any brand is fine
- 8 tsp. cold water
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream I recommend getting one labeled 40%
- 1 cup powdered sugar or adjust the sugar to taste
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract or another favorite extract such as lemon orange, or almond
- 1/8 tsp. salt
Instructions
- Measure water into a small microwave safe bowl or measuring cup. Stir the gelatin into it. Set it aside while you make the other preparations.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat with the whisk attachment on high for 1 minute. This is the time to taste and adjust for additional sugar if desired)
- While the mixer is running, microwave the gelatin mixture for 20 seconds or until the chunk of gelatin turns to thick, syrupy liquid.
- Continue beating the cream on high while slowly pouring the gelatin into the cream in a thin stream. Beat until stiff peaks form.
- Fit a decorating bag with a Wilton 1M tip and fill with cream. Apply slow even pressure to squeeze cream out of the tip while swirling to create pastry decoration.
PIN FOR LATER
Linda Moore
You are an honest person, who gives wonderful advice, along with super Recipes. Thank-you.
Linda
Mirlandra
Oh Linda – you made my day! Thank you so much for telling me. I’m so glad what I’m doing is blessing you!
Stephanie
How far in adavance can you make the whip topping and decorate the dessert ? Will it last in the refrigerator decorated?
Mirlandra
In general most desserts are best served within 24-48 hours of when they are made. My rule of thumb is the sooner the better. But the beauty of using this easy method to make whipped cream for decorating is that it will hold up for days! It will look just as good on day four as it did the day you put it on. I hope that helps!
Catherine Pfenninger
Can you add coloring to this and do you know how a sugar edible topper would work on a cake frosted with this cream recipe?
Mirlandra
Hi Catherine, You can certainly add coloring and really it would be beautiful! I think an sugar topper would be fine but I would place it shortly before serving / setting the cake out. Any sugar topper that sits on moist frosting long enough could run into trouble but this is not going to be much wetter than a traditional buttercream. I hope that helps!
Andrea Lunetta
Something went wrong! It was beautiful until I added the gelatin- it all clumped up. The 20 secs of microwaving made it very hot. Could this have been the cause?
Mirlandra
Hi Andrea – I’m sorry you had an issue! There are a few things that might have happened. It is possible that you dumped the hot liquid in all at once? The gelatin needs to go in slowly in a thin stream. I’m afraid it is hard to tell exactly what went wrong without having been there but that is my best guess. I know how frustrating it is when a recipe does not turn out – I’m sorry!
Lynn
Do you happen to have the chocolate pie recipe as well? That looks amazing too!
Mirlandra
Absolutely! Thanks for asking 🙂 You can grab that here! https://www.mirlandraskitchen.com/chocolate-cream-pie/ It is a really easy and very RICH recipe! I haven’t made it in a bit and now I’m thinking I should get that on our dinner plan for next week – YUM! It was nice to “meet” you here Lynn – hope to hear from you again soon 🙂 Let me know how that pie is for you!
Rissa
Hi Mirlandra!
This looks beautiful and exactly what I’m looking for! I’m making a sugar-free cake for a one-year-old. Do you think substituting maple syrup for the powdered sugar would work?
Thanks so much!
Rissa
Mirlandra
Hi Rissa – This is a great question! (And congrats to the little one!!!) I would avoid subbing maple syrup in here. I think it will add a lot of water content and you won’t be able to get it to the right texture. I don’t have a lot of experience with sugar substitutes but I have a friend who does it frequently. I’ve seen her use a bit of stevia in whipped cream and have it work well. You can also leave the sugar out here and have an unsweetened whipped cream. It will be creamy and rich but not sweet. I know there is a Swerve product that can be substituted for powdered sugar that should work here fine. I’m afraid I don’t cook this way very much so I’m not an authority on it but you might try searching for keto whipped cream options to see what people suggest! It would give you some ideas to try. Good luck and let me know if you find a solution that works for you!
Cat
Perfect stabalized whipped cream. I substitute sugar for liquid stevia extract since my youngest is a type 1 diabetic and he loves his whipped cream, lol, but it comes out wonderful either way!
Mirlandra
Hi Cat that is great to know! I haven’t tried that sub before. Thanks for sharing 🙂 My kids adore whipped cream too – one of life’s great treasures!
Vivian
Hi, we don’t do microwaves, and don’t have one. What can we do for this step? Something on the stove, toaster oven or conventional oven? Thanks!
Mirlandra
That’s a great question. I believe you can melt it slowly over a low heat on the stovetop. Some people online seem to be saying you can even do a double boiler setup over hot water. I am not familiar with either but I would expect they both work. Hope that helps!