Whipped Cream Wins

Listen, folks – I grew up eating Cool Whip (or, whipped topping for the non-brand-specific term). You know, would lick the bottom of the tub, eat it off a spoon kind of kid. I didn’t eat an entire tub – I didn’t like it that much – but it was the basis of many desserts, and I honestly can’t recall having real whipped cream, although I’m sure I did on occasion.

Then I became an adult. I’m pretty sure my whipped cream conversion started at Cheesecake Factory, where (forgive me for this confession) I was far more taken by the whipped cream on top of the cheesecake than the cake itself. How do they get it so thick, I ask you? This was around the time my interest in food was becoming more about the knowledge and experimentation and less about the necessity. So one day I looked at a tub of Cool Whip and was shocked at what was inside. High fructose corn syrup? (Ok – that’s in almost everything so I can’t fault it for succumbing to peer pressure) But hydrogenated vegetable oil? Seriously? There’s just no excuse. And where is the milk? The cream? The sugar? Nope. Nowhere to be found.

Now, if you are in a hurry the whipped cream in an aerosol can is ok. But listen, making homemade whipped cream is like the easiest thing ever, particularly if you have a stand mixer. It goes something like this:

Heavy (whipping) cream
Sugar
Vanilla (or your choice of) flavoring

Combine, mix to soft peaks, eat. For every cup of cream, add one teaspoon of flavoring and two tablespoons of sugar. Soft peaks are when you lift up the beater and the cream stays on, but folds over a bit.

My apologies to my sister-in-law Jenny who thinks Cool Whip is the greatest thing ever. We’ll just have to call a truce on this one.