I have to make a cake for sunday morning, and the lady asked for a frosting that isn't so sweet. me without trying first, said I could do a stabilized whipped cream icing. well, i tried a tester batch of cupcakes with the whipped cream icing, and there is NO way that it is going to hold its shape for piping stars. I used the wiltons stabilized whipped cream icing recipe. is there something I can do to this recipe so it is able to hold up? is there any other whipped cream icing that will work for piping? I was thinking there might be a recipe that calls for cream cheese...but doesn't have that strong cream cheese flavor? or a less sweet buttercream (which is probably not likely since sugar is sugar, and sugar is sweet. I need some help!

Have you tried making either an Italian Merginue buttercream or Swiss Meringue buttercream?  I make IMBC all the time and everyone loves it, it's not overly sweet at all.

I make frosting with egg whites, powdered sugar and add flavor.. vanilla, lemon, etc. It is not too sweet. The texture is good for decorations.

Thank you for your ideas. I actually was reading a bunch of different things i found on google and decided to try adding salt, cream cheese, and vinegar. they were all pretty sweet still so i mixed them all together and it cut down the sweetness a lot.

Whipped cream is firm enaugh if you make it right. Tha ratio is 3 leaves of gelatin to 250 ml cream. It stays firm for days. So try again, you must have done sth wrong.

7 minute icing.

AWhip your cream stiffer. It should hold a star shape just fine.

oh! I used 2 tbsp for 1 cup cream. maybe thats what i did wrong. I'm assuming leaves is tbsp?

I really don't know, we use metric sistem. 6 leaves of gelatin is the same as 10 g of powdered gelatin.

Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water until they are completely soft. In the mean time take 1/3 of cream and heat it, but it musn't boil. Put the softened gelatine into heated cream and mix by hand till dissolved. Whip the rest of the cream with sugar till it starts to thicken. Slowly add the dissolved gelatin. Whip until very stiff. Et voila, you have stabilised whipped cream.

Not sure where you are located but in California you can buy Pastry Pride at any Smart and Final store. It is a non dairy whipped topping which needs no stabilization and whips up stiff enough to make roses and stars. At Sams club or Costco you can buy Bettercreme or Rich's which is pretty much the same as Pastry Pride. Ask for it at the bakery. Take a look at my gallery, Pastry Pride is all I use, no buttercream or fondant.