The One Ingredient That Turns Cool Whip Into Quick And Tasty Frosting

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Whipped frosting is one of our favorite sweet spreads, but straight Cool Whip isn't always the best choice when it comes to icing a cake or other frosting applications. Heat tends to make it deflate and run, which ruins our pretty desserts. While the best way to thicken store-bought frosting is powdered sugar, you need to look in a different direction when it comes to whipped frosting: cream of tartar.

Cream of tartar, alias "potassium bitartrate" or "tartaric acid," is an acidic powder that's created via the grape fermentation process that produces wine. In culinary use, it's a stabilizer, as when you use it to make your egg whites stand tall when whipping them in a meringue. With Cool Whip, cream of tartar provides structure that the whipped topping doesn't have on its own, transforming it into a product that tastes just about the same but is much more fit for adorning your sweet stuff without collapsing. Some social media denizens use pudding mix to stabilize whipped topping, but this adds flavor you might not want. Cream of tartar is a cheap, practically effortless addition that can save the day!

Just thaw your eight-ounce tub of Cool Whip slightly before using. When it's close to room temperature, spoon it into the bowl of your stand mixer or put it in a big bowl and use a hand mixer. Beat it for about a minute, then add a generous pinch of cream of tartar and whip it some more. Just like that, you have frosting that even warm weather can't conquer!

There are a number of ways to upgrade canned frosting, but you need not feel limited by your whipped frosting made with cream of tartar. We can see using this stable frosting in a parfait, between two cookies, or atop a two-ingredient fruit angel food cake. If you don't have Cool Whip on hand but do have heavy cream, you can make your own whipped cream and use cream of tartar the same way — go ahead and add it to the liquid in the bowl before whipping. You can also stabilize dairy-free whipped topping with cream of tartar if you are avoiding lactose.

Whipped frosting with cream of tartar has been compared favorably to Bavarian cream. To really play up that association, use some vanilla extract or high-quality vanilla bean paste to infuse your cream with the floral, sweet taste of vanilla. Extracts are, in general, a great way to flavor your frosting, provided you use a light hand. Almond extract will give you a sugar cookie essence that is great around the holidays, but you can also spike your frosting with peppermint, raspberry, orange, or any other extracts that serve your purposes. Got cocoa powder? Voilà ... you've got cocoa-flavored whipped topping. You'll find that this is a versatile preparation that enhances your baking and allows you to flex your creative muscles, which is a great combination in our book.