Whipped Cream

Whipped cream is aerated heavy cream beaten into soft, billowy peaks. It tastes lightly sweet and milky with an airy, cloudlike texture, and it softens quickly near heat. Cooks spoon or pipe it over pies, cakes, fruit, and hot drinks, and it appears as freshly whipped, stabilized versions for pastry work, or in aerosol cans.

European pastry traditions refined it from early modern references in Italy and France, where it's known as crème fouettée. It spread through French patisserie and global café culture, while modern dispensers use nitrous oxide to whip cream on demand.