On January 5, add a little extra something special to desserts to celebrate National Whipped Cream Day. Add whipped cream! Not only does it add creaminess and bit of pizzaz, it can be the difference between an everyday or a celebration day beverage or dessert.
This holiday falls on the birthday of Reddi-wip founder Aaron “Bunny” Lapin. Aaron who invented Reddi-wip in 1948, was born on January 5, 1914, and died on July 10, 1999.
National Whipped Cream Day celebrates whipped cream’s contribution to the dessert world.
Often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, coffee, chocolate, orange and other flavors, whipped cream is also sometimes called Chantilly cream or creme Chantilly.
Recipes from the 16th century included whipped cream that was sweetened and aromatised. The names milk snow and snow cream were used. In these recipes, naturally separated cream is whipped, typically with willow or rush branches, then the resulting foam on the surface would from time to time be skimmed off and drained, which was a process taking an hour or more.
The English name whipped cream found its beginning in 1673. The name snow cream continued to be used throughout the 17th century.
- Cream must be below 50 degrees to whip, at 50 or above it churns into butter rather than whips.
- Whipped cream has been around since the 16th century. It was included in recipes that date back to 1549 in Italy and 1604 in France.
- Until the 19th century, recipes for whipped cream called for whipping the cream with a willow or rush branch in place of the modern whisk.
- The world record for the tallest dollop of whipped cream on a mug of hot chocolate is 7 1/4 inches set by Melissa Arkin and Casey McLaughlin in 2011.
- Imitations of whipped cream, often sold under the name whipped topping. Whipped topping normally contains some mixture of partially hydrogenated oil, sweeteners, water, and stabilizers and emulsifiers added to prevent syneresis, similar to margarine instead of the butter fat in the cream used in whipped cream.
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