[Sca-cooks] way OOP-- whipped cream frosting

[Jeff Gedney]

>Here are my questions-- is there a recipe out there
>that one of you have used that is similar to the
>whipped cream frosting that will hold up to the
>decorating? Or-what can I add to the whipped cream
>frosting to make it a little thicker or more stable?

Cooks.com has the following:
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Stabilized Whipped Cream frosting:

1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
4 tsp. cold water
1 c. heavy whipping cream (at least 24 hours old and very cold)
1/4 c. confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp. clear vanilla extract

Combine gelatin and cold water in small saucepan. Let stand until thick. Place over low heat, stirring constantly just until gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Whip cream, sugar and vanilla until slightly thickened. While beating slowly, gradually add gelatin to whipped cream mixture. Whip at high speed until stiff.
Yield: 2 cups

Cakes iced with whipped cream must be kept refrigerated. (This is the commercial recipe used by bakeries).
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Basically 
Dissolve the geletin in a little water, heat until it just dissolves. 
Whip your cream as normal, and then drizzle in the dissolved gelatin as you whip it (in a fine stream). 
Whip until stiff.
It should hold shpaes but it will never hold the kind of fine shapes that cooked royal icing or fondant will. 

And it is still prone to heat and moisture ( keep it cool and dry ) the worst cake meltdown I ever saw was a wedding cake with Whipped cream frosting (request of the bride) on a hot and very moist summer day. 
The Caterer apparently kept the cake for several days in the walk-in fridge and took it out as the guests arrived. 
By the time the bride and grooom were ready to cut the cake, the cold cake had condensed enough water from the air to render itslef into an amorphous sugary mass of running cream and peppered with sliding candied violets. 
Everybody laughed about it, even the bride, but I felt sorry for her. They should have brought the cake up to room temp first in an dry, air conditioned room. Let that be a clue for ya.

( I have seen the same sort of thing with a cake where the fondant flowers were assembeled to the cake on site, but had been "kept" in the freezer. Serious droopage ensued )


Capt Elias
Dragonship Haven, East
(Stratford, CT, USA)
Apprentice in the House of Silverwing

-Renaissance Geek of the Cyber Seas
- Help! I am being pecked to death by the Ducks of Dilletanteism! 
There are SO damn many more things I want to try in 
the SCA than I can possibly have time for. 
It's killing me!!!

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Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give
To sounds confused; behold the threaden sails,
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,
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Breasting the lofty surge: O, do but think
You stand upon the ravage and behold
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