Whip cream stabilized with milk powder

[antonia]

My daughter attended a birthday party last weekend and I made her our typical party treat, sugar free muffin topped with whipped cream. We've had problems with the whip cream melting by the time it's cake time, especially when it's warm out, so this time I stirred instant milk powder into the cream before whipping and the cream was much more stable. I was able to pipe it onto the muffin with a frosting bag and tip and it held its shape after sitting out at room temperature for a couple hours.

I used about a 1/4 cup milk powder to one cup whipping cream, you might be able to use more powder than that, this was my first attempt and that's what a decided to try. I also whipped it slowly-start on a low speed and gradually increase the speed, rather than starting at high speed, and your cream will be more stable too.  Adding milk powder really does the trick though. Use the instant milk powder, it should be puffier and lighter than non instant, or else it might be gritty. Whip it as thick as you can without turning it to butter and "frost" away. It will have more of a cooked milk flavor to it, but my daughter didn't seem to mind. I think all she cares about is that her treat LOOKS like the other kids' treats do, so she was all smiles.

[ukbill]

Make her trifels with sugar (and artificial sweetener free) blancmanges.
Or use a plain white sauce and add artificial colours and flavourings. Stack them up in a glass one colour on top of another top off with whipped cream and sprinkle poppy seeds (instead of 100's and 10000's) on top!

[antonia]

I had to look up blancmange but this is a good idea! Do you find safe artificial flavors in the U.K.? Because here I find that Koolaid is as safe as it gets. The ingredients I see in flavor extracts I find more questionable. Off the top of my head, alcohol, glycerin, caramel color and of course, natural flavors-hard to find flavors that are solely artificial anymore-I see all the time. I've tried to research but my chemistry is not strong enough to come to any kind of conclusion.

In the sugar free colors there is propylene glycol. Which is disturbing as it's apparently antifreeze, but also it's described as sweet, as is glycerin too.

[antonia]

Also I'm assuming you meant *without sugar,