All it takes to upgrade a store-bought cake or zhuzh up a homemade pie is three ingredients: Heavy cream, powdered sugar, and a dash of vanilla extract. What we mean is, to give your baked goods (fresh or store-bought) a visually impressive finishing touch, pipe a continuous border with homemade whipped cream.
This decorative tip can be as visually appealing as it is functionally forgiving. Broken lattice top crust on your pie? No worries -- cover it with lush whipped cream. Overbaked that chocolate cake and now it's a little dry? Slather on some whipped cream for a moisture element in every bite and fuggedaboudit. Just circle the circumference of a store-bought layer cake or homemade sweet potato pie in a lush border of whipped cream.
To pipe, swirl the piping bag in a tight curly-cue motion, like tracing the corkscrew coils of a Slinky toy. Move your wrist in tiny circles, slowly working around the entire perimeter of the dessert without ever stopping the flow of the whipped cream. Gently squeeze the piping bag to ensure a controlled, consistent flow. If you don't have any piping tips on hand, no worries. You can transfer that thick whipped cream into a plastic sandwich bag, cut off a small piece of the corner of the bag using kitchen scissors, and pipe neat dots of whipped cream in a connecting chain around the pie, like a pearl necklace.
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This whipped cream finish is ideal for elevating a last-minute dish to share. It still brings homemade flair to store-bought treats, and it takes way less time (just 10 minutes or less) to throw together a stiff whipped cream than to whip up a batch of baked goods from scratch. You could also use this tip to upgrade sliced bar desserts like brownies, blondies, or blueberry crumble bars. Just pipe a generous dollop of whipped cream into the center of every piece using a decorative star piping bag tip, like this variety from Wilson for less than $2.
To "whip up" a knockout whipped cream, beat the heavy cream using an electric mixer until it begins to froth, then add in the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat until stiff. Despite the name, heavy whipping cream has a lighter fat content compared to heavy cream and subsequently doesn't hold stiff peaks as firmly. The peaks are "stiff" when they stand up straight after you lift the electric mixer out of the bowl.
To help facilitate extra stiff, pipable peaks, whip that cream in a chilled glass or metal mixing bowl. For optimal results, make sure your heavy whipping cream is chilled below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and don't prepare the whipped cream until the moment you're ready to pipe it onto your dessert; the structure is liable to break down and thin out if it sits for a while.