every crank. Especially when put the whipped cream on freshly baked gingerbread.

Haven't thought of making gingerbread in ages and you are right, it is best when freshly baked with a big dollop of whipped cream on top. And the house smell so good when the gingerbread is baking!

Redi-Whip is heavy cream with a nitrous oxide propellant to give it that light texture. It really shouldn't taste terrible, although the fresh stuff where you control the vanilla and sweetening is always going to be better.

From the Wikipedia article on Cool Whip

Cool Whip Original is made of water, hydrogenated vegetable oil (including coconut and palm oils), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, skimmed milk, light cream, and less than 2% sodium caseinate (a milk derivative), natural and artificial flavor, xanthan and guar gums, polysorbate 60, sorbitan monostearate, and beta carotene (as a coloring).

It's whipped fat and sugar with a little milk it it, basically, sort of like whipped heavy cream but without butterfat. Beta carotene is especially nice since it's a precursor to vitamin A, present in green and yellow veg. It's actually not that awful as processed foods go, it's just not whipped cream and tastes that way.

It's good to stay away from because trans fats (the hydrogenated vegetable oil) are worse for you than butterfat is.

You want convenience, get Redi Whip and hope some kid hasn't huffed all the propellant out of it.

plastic tub it comes in.

Used to make mine with a splash of Amaretto or even Frangelico instead of vanilla way back when.

My body does not like dairy, but it is tasty to forget that once in a while!

Mmmmm.

we hope you'll never buy another tub of Cool-Whip.

Have fun experimenting with almond extract, cinnamon, cocoa powder, and all sorts of things you might have lying around.

Whipped cream with sugar and vanilla.

Second, to me at least, ultrapasteurized cream has a slightly burnt taste. Ultrapasteurization has one benefit, and that is solely for the grocery store -- the shelf life is longer. Trader Joe has regular whipping cream, as does Whole Foods (but, of course, it's more expensive at Whole Foods).

UHT cream will last a long time in the fridge. I agree that it has a cooked taste to it, more so than other pasteurization methods. I used to be able to buy low-temp pasteurized milk and cream using the kettle method here locally under the Schepps brand name, but they were bought out and now everything I've been able to find is UHT.

My previous attempts at homemade whipped cream tasted great but ended up as "unwhipped cream" (didn't stay stiff) in fairly short order. The powdered sugar must add some stabilizing. It's local strawberry season too!

Look for creme fraiche at your market. You may need to go to a more upscale market to find it. Alternatively you can make your own very easily.

You can whip creme fraiche into a topping using a bowl chilled in the fridge for 15 mins or so. Sometimes it's a bit too thick to beat so you might need to thin it down a bit with a little milk. If you like it sweet you can add about 2 tsp of sugar per cup of creme fraiche. It has a slightly sour taste which is simply awesome with fruit. I like it much better than regular whipped cream.

Yeah, there are chemical stabilizers you can add (the starch in powdered sugar, cream of tartar, gelatin, etc), but it's entirely possible to do without as long as you keep everything absolutely frigid the entire time.

It's a hallmark of a classically trained cook to make their whipped cream in a metal bowl set in a larger bowl of ice water. Bit unwieldy, but more or less foolproof.