How To Make Homemade Cool Whip
Learn how to make homemade Cool Whip with this easy method for making stabilized whipped cream. You only need a handful of ingredients and about 15 minutes and you’ll have a fluffy dessert topping on the way!
Cool Whip versus whipped cream.
It’s a whole thing.
While the two taste pretty similarly, have you noticed the difference in texture?
Cool Whip is thicker and keeps its shape, making it a good ingredient for fluffy mousse like dessert and a yummy topping on cakes and pies.
While the stuff in the freezer section is delicious, it’s nothing compared to learning how to make homemade Cool Whip.
What is the difference between Cool Whip and whipped cream?
Cool Whip, including my homemade Cool Whip, is a stabilized version of whipped cream.
That means it includes a couple extra ingredients to help it hold its shape.
Whipped cream will loose its shape pretty quickly, which makes it a yummy topping for things like ice cream or individual slices of pie, but less ideal for topping a whole pie or cake.
Ingredients
To make this you’ll need:
- Water
- Corn syrup– Light corn syrup
- Gelatin– A packet of unflavored gelatin
- Heavy cream– Don’t substitute lower fat dairy
- Sugar– Powdered not granulated for the best texture
- Vanilla extract– Real is best
How to Make Homemade Cool Whip
Making homemade Cool Whip is pretty easy.
Start by melting corn syrup into water in a medium sized pot over medium heat until the mixture is smooth and steaming.
Whisk in the gelatin to combine.
Set the mixture aside to cool until it’s lukewarm.
Once the gelatin mixture is cool enough, whip together the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until soft peaks form.
Then add the gelatin mixture and whip it until stiff peaks form.
Let it chill for an hour in the fridge.
Serve and enjoy!
Storing
Store homemade Cool Whip in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 to 3 days.
You could also freeze homemade Cool Whip in a freezer safe container for up to 2 months.
Can you make homemade Cool Whip out of milk?
Nope.
Even though milk in an ingredient in commercially available Cool Whip, for homemade you need the fat content of heavy cream.
Whole milk only has a fraction of the fat of heavy cream, which means the milk won’t set properly when it’s whipped.
Tips and Tricks
- Make sure to whisk the gelatin until smooth so the Cool Whip has the best texture
- Don’t skip letting the gelatin mixture cool to around room temperature. If it’s too hot it won’t properly incorporate into the heavy cream.
- This is best within 2 to 3 days and is a yummy topping on ice cream, pies, and cakes. It’s also a good substitute for commercially available Cool Whip in recipes that call for it.
Recipes to Use Homemade Cool Whip With
Learning how to make homemade Cool Whip will definitely up your kitchen game with a tastier version of the fluffy topping.
Make it and enjoy!
Looking for recipes to use homemade Cool Whip with?
Try these:
If you’ve learned HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE COOL WHIP, or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and whatever else we’ve got going on!
How To Make Homemade Cool Whip
Ingredients
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- 1 1 oz pkt gelatin
- 2 ½ cups heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a medium pot over medium heat melt the corn syrup into the water until smooth and steaming. Sprinkle with the gelatin and whisk to combine. Set aside to cool until lukewarm¼ cup water, ¼ cup light corn syrup, 1 1 oz pkt gelatin
- In a large mixing bowl whip together the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Add the gelatin mixture and whip until stiff peaks form2 ½ cups heavy cream, 3 tablespoons powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Chill in the fridge for 1 hour before serving.
Notes
- Make sure to whisk the gelatin until smooth so the Cool Whip has the best texture
- Don't skip letting the gelatin mixture cool to around room temperature. If it's too hot it won't properly incorporate into the heavy cream.
- This is best within 2 to 3 days and is a yummy topping on ice cream, pies, and cakes. It's also a good substitute for commercially available Cool Whip in recipes that call for it.
Nutrition
I can’t have gelatin, is there a substitute that would work?
You could skip the gelatin and water, but then you would have stabilized whipped cream. It will taste a little different since the gelatin is really what (oddly) gives cool whip it’s unique flavor- but it will work. What it won’t do is hold it’s shape for long, so plan accordingly.
with the price of heavy cream these days I’ll buy cool whip on sale!🤣
I mean that’s also a valid choice, but I like to make it from scratch to avoid all the extra and unnecessary ingredients. To each their own!
It should be called Stabilized Whipped Cream. Although Cool Whip started adding some light dairy products in 2018, it doesn’t contain heavy cream so while this is a fantastic Stablized Whipped Cream, it’s not the same. It’s like calling ice milk or a frozen dairy dessert ice cream. Similar but not the same. Your recipe deserves a better name.
Cool Whip and real whipped cream taste NOTHING alike…
Cool Whip ingredients:hydrogenated vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, skim milk, light cream, sodium caseinate, natural and artificial flavor, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostearate, sodium polyphosphate, and beta carotene.
REAL whipped cream: heavy cream, 10x sugar and vanilla if desired…
NOT EVEN CLOSE
There is no milk or cream in Cool Whip. It is a “non dairy whipped topping.” Cool Whip is made from sweetened hydrogenated vegetable oil. So if you serve this recipe, you might have to warn people who have dairy intolerance.
Not sure why you wouldn’t just make homemade whipped cream without all of the other stuff? I make mine with sugar, vanilla and cream and beat the heck out of it and it is the one item I know I can never make enough.
The syrup in this recipe is not necessary. I’ve been making stabilized whip cream for years with four simple ingredients and have used the resulted cream interchangeably with all the recipes I’ve tried, requiring “Cool Whip” as an ingredient. This includes the famous cool whip cake mix cookies. Although I don’t use box mixes much anymore.
Simply whip a cup of heavy cream along with 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar (or sweetener of choice), to the desired consistency. While you’re doing this, bloom a tsp of gelatin atop a tbs of water. Once your cream is where you want it, warm the gelatin in microwave (or double boiler) for about 10 seconds. While your mixer is mixing, drizzle the gelatin water into the cream, dispersing it throughout. Make sure you continue whipping until you’re sure it’s all mixed in. Voila whip cream that tastes better and will survive 3-5 days.
Watch how gelatin is extracted from an animal then think about it every time you eat gelatin.
I made this and it was a great substitute for cool whip! Had a similar flavor and texture to cool whip and kept its shape much longer than traditional whipped cream. Used ingredients that I commonly keep stocked and so I will definitely be making this again!
Made this today for a dessert for an outdoor potluck, and it held up plus tasted great. I’m sold! I even made my husband taste test it before using it in the recipe, and he agreed it tasted just like cool whip.