Structural Whipped Cream

I’m not sure if this is the experience of every baker, but I know that if I took a survey today of all my friends and family, the overwhelming majority would tell me that they prefer whipped cream over buttercream. I believe that this preference is driven by two main factors: (1) most people in this category have never had a good buttercream, which is unfortunate and (2) Asian-bakery-style chiffon-and-whipped-cream cakes are pretty close to perfect.

While whipped cream is adored by many, its airy structure (or lack thereof) makes it tricky to work with in certain applications — particularly layering between multiple layers of cake. Whipped cream is not only light and fluffy, but in its “truest” state, it’s nothing more than sugar and cream mixed together, which means it’s prone to weeping, another word for melting.

Over the years I’ve made many a whipped-cream-stuffed cake so I’ve done a lot of hands-on experimentation testing the various solutions out there. To create a whipped cream that can stand up to multiple cake layers, two things need to be addressed: stabilization and structure.

Stabilization

Stabilization can be accomplished in a number of ways, as you can find through a quick Google search. The first and probably most common solution I’ve seen is adding gelatin, or in some cases instant pudding powder (which is really just flavored gelatin) to the mix. In this approach, you first bloom your gelatin with a bit of room temperature water. After it becomes a solid mass, you can heat it gently on the stove or my preference is to pop it into the microwave for about 30-45 seconds until it completely melts. Then you’ll cool the liquid down and slowly stream it into your cream as you whip it.

There’s a reason this solution is popular, and it’s that it works. In fact I used this approach for many, many years and it served me well. But I had a couple issues with this method:

1. It creates a “foamy” texture that I’m not a huge fan of. Gelatin is a strong gelling agent, which means as it sets you end up with a kind of stiffness that’s hard to explain, but the best way I can put it is that it feels a bit like the whipped cream you might find on a grocery store cake. Your whipped cream loses some of its creamy, soft, and fluffy texture, which are some of the main reasons to use whipped cream in the first place.
2. It’s fairly easy to go wrong. When I was using this technique a lot, I’d mess it up about 1 in 10 times. It’s not necessarily hard to do, but if you forget a step or don’t time it right, you can end up with strings of gelatin in your whipped cream — super unappetizing and not a problem you want to be dealing with towards the end of building a cake.
3. It adds a faint gelatin flavor that I don’t love. If you’ve ever made something with plain, unflavored gelatin, you may have caught a whiff of its scent, and personally I’m not a fan. Many might not notice this flavor but as someone who prefers to keep my whipped cream fairly unadulterated and less sweet, it’s definitely present.

So I did some research and found a variety of methods for stabilizing that didn’t involve gelatin, and I’m happy to say there’s a far superior option. Here’s why this is the best method of stabilizing your whipped cream:

1. It’s easy to keep on hand in your pantry.
2. It’s inexpensive.
3. It actually enhances the flavor of the whipped cream rather than needing to be masked.
4. It yields a superior creamy, fluffy texture, even after sitting for a while.
5. It’s really hard to mess up.

In fact this method is so good that I’m kind of confused about why it’s not more popular. So what’s the miracle ingredient that can achieve all these benefits? Dry milk powder. Yup — that’s it — dehydrated milk.

To stabilize whipped cream with dry milk, all you have to do is add about 1.5 Tbsp of dry milk per cup of heavy cream along with your vanilla, powdered sugar, and salt before whipping. Because dry milk naturally has some sweetness you can also get away with using a bit less powdered sugar, which I think accentuates the flavor of the cream better.

Structure

Ok so whipping your cream with dry milk means your whipped cream won’t be as prone to weeping, but there’s still another problem: if your whipped cream is super light and fluffy, it won’t be able to withstand the weight of the layers it’s supporting.

To create a truly stable whipped cream, you’ll need to consider how you make it. Most people reach for a hand mixer or stand mixer when whipping cream. This is a great option if you’re going to eat the whipped cream right away on top of a sundae or atop some French toast, but it’s not going to be very thick or stable. This is because the whisk attachment of both types of mixers incorporates a lot of air. Air is good for whipped cream, right? Well, yes, sort of, but not always.

Think about gelato versus ice cream — the difference is subtle but gelato contains less air than ice cream. The resulting product is much thicker and creamier and if frozen solid would be harder to scoop. The same is true of whipped cream.

So how do you incorporate less air while still yielding whipped cream? You have a few options:

• Use a single whisk attachment on a hand mixer or immersion blender — fewer whisks = less air. This is actually my preferred method for most applications except layered cakes. While this would work, there’s an even better option…
• The food processor. Food processors don’t use a whisk attachment at all (obviously) and using a flat blade means you’ll incorporate less air into the whipped cream. The result is a super thick, rich cream that’s still lighter and “cleaner” tasting than a buttercream, but with much more structural integrity and bite than fluffy whipped cream. You just have to be mindful and not over whip your cream, which can turn into butter in the blink of an eye.

Blenders work similarly to food processors but are a bit harder to control (and it’s difficult to get the finished product out of the canister since it’s so deep).