Transform Cool Whip Into Frosting With Just One Extra Ingredient

Autumn is quite possibly the most exciting season of the year in terms of baking. Although technically a subjective opinion, autumn baked goods are just superior. Pumpkin pie, apple crumb cake, cinnamon rolls, chai spiced cakes, pumpkin cream cheese loaf, cardamom buns, bread pudding (which you can make with pumpkin puree) ... the list goes on and on. If you're someone who not only gets excited about eating these treats but is also anticipating all of the baking that goes into it, then you may want to be let in on a little secret in terms of making the easiest homemade frosting ever. If you're looking for a delicious frosting to top some of your fall treats with this season, you can have a winning recipe with just two ingredients: Cool Whip and cream of tartar.

Most people have had Cool Whip, whether with some berries, as a topping on pie, or as a simple ingredient in things like cookies or no-bake pie. On its own, it already resembles frosting in some ways. It's slightly sweet, has a decent stability to its texture, and it's mild enough to hold flavors that are added to it. However, if you were to try using Cool Whip as a frosting for cake or cookies, it wouldn't be able to hold up on its own and may fall too flat. That's where the cream of tartar comes in, because it can help stabilize the Cool Whip and give you a frosting that actually holds up.

But what is cream of tartar, and how does it mix with Cool Whip to make frosting? Well, despite the name, cream of tartar is not actually cream, contains no dairy, and has nothing to do with tartar sauce. It comes in a powder form, and you can buy it at most grocery stores and supermarkets, usually in the spice aisle. Its technical name is potassium bitartrate, and it's an acid that can be found inside wine barrels during the fermentation process. 

Cream of tartar has multiple culinary uses, like helping to prevent sugar crystallization in candy and enhancing flavor in snickerdoodle cookies. But one of its most common uses is acting as a stabilizer in baked good recipes, including things like frosting! Adding cream of tartar to Cool Whip will make a frosting that tastes just like the original Cool Whip, but it will have much more hold and stability to allow you to pipe and decorate your frosting onto your baked treats. 

To make this frosting, all you need to do is beat the two ingredients together until you achieve the texture you want. For the best results, you can let the Cool Whip defrost for about an hour in your fridge, and then start out with very small amounts of cream of tartar, around ¼ teaspoon and add more if needed.