Homemade with Hannah!

Confession Time:

I'm obsessed with watching Martha Stewart OnDemand.

Weird, I know. But I aboslutely love to bake, and the little segments that are up are always relevent to whatever holiday or season is coming up. Plus, the segments are from as early as the 90's, so there's always TONS of different types of videos to watch and get ideas from!

My favorite Martha segments to watch almost always have something to do with dessert. I have a major sweet tooth, and love to make little treats for people.

When serving baked goods, I always try to do as much as I possibly can from scratch. I almost feel like using a mix or something pre-made would be like cheating, since I know how to do so many things myself! One thing you'll see Martha make from scratch in a lot of her dessert segments is whipped cream. I love the idea of doing this! Martha always makes making her whipped cream seem so simple, so I picked up what I needed and decided to try it on my own!

The ingredients are simple:

heavy cream, white sugar, and vanilla extract

The serving size for the cream is listed as 1 tablespoon at 16 servings per container, but I found that about 1/2 of the 8 fl. oz. carton (4 fl. oz.) made enough whipped cream for 2 people.

The sugar and vanilla have no specific measurements and can be added to your preferences.

To make the whipped cream:

1. Pour your desired amount of cream into an appropriately sized mixing bowl. Remember, the cream will become lighter as it is whipped, so don't worry if it looks like there's a little too much at first.

2. Whip as much air as possible into the cream. This is what will give it its consistency. You can use a whisk for this, but the process takes a while, so I recommend using either a hand mixer or stand mixer to save yourself both time and effort.

After beating for several minutes, the cream should begin to look like this:

3. Continue beating until the cream is at soft peaks (meaning it is soft, light, and does not run, similiar to the texture of eggs whites for merangue cookies).

4. The cream itself is not expecially sweet, so add white sugar and vanilla extract to taste.

5. Transfer the whipped cream to a covered bowl or sealable container, chill, and enjoy!

 Have a fabulous weekend!