I tried to make this cake for a going away lunch for a friend at work. This is the Chocolate Praline Layer Cake receipe on the back of a cake box. The receipe for the topping is whipping cream, powered sugar, and vanilla. Pretty simple, or so I thought. The only direction it said was to 'beat until stiff.' I beat it for ~10-12 min. and thought it was stiff, until I was putting on the last of the chocolate curls on top. Then the top layer just slide off and broke into several diff. peices.

My husband and I went ahead and tried it and it was VERY good. I would like to make it again next week for another work function. But how long do you need to mix this stuff? here is the exact receipe:

1 3/4 c. whipping cream
1/4 c. powered sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla

1. beat whipping cream until soft peaks form
2. add powered sugar and vanilla, beat until stiff peaks form.

How stiff is stiff enough?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Christine

The photo looks like maybe the cake broke apart instead of the icing sliding off. The icing is holding up the pecans and chocolate on the left side just fine! Did you level the cake top before you iced it?

It does look delicious, even though it broke up! Janice

Thanks, I didn't think about that, but it makes sense. I'll def. level it next time.

If you beat "whipping cream" for 10mins or more, and did not produce butter, then the fat content of the cream was not high enough.

The product selected must have 33% fat or higher to whip successfully.

Also, I have noticed that certain vanillas interfer with the "setting" quality of the whipped cream. It looks whipped, but it starts to break down after a time.