The Great Whipped Cream Debate

If I had to choose a favorite food group, it would be the dairy group. Growing up in Wisconsin and not enjoying meat much, I ate a lot of dairy along with my sauerkraut, apples, and cherries. I especially loved whipped cream, and I still do. I like it better than bacon. *GASP* When I was a kid, I used to stare at Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and Other Delights album cover in countless thrift shops and envy the gal buried in whipped cream.

The Birchwood Café is one of my favorite stops in the Twin Cities. It offers quality food at decent prices. They source local, sustainable, organic, and fair trade ingredients whenever possible and prepare them with care. They even serve local, organic baby food.

To make eating there even more appealing, Birchwood always has a dynamite selection of desserts nestled in a gleaming glass case, and they’re impossible to ignore. While you order your turkey burger or vegan bean soup, you’re standing directly in front of the dessert case, eyeing up the mixed berry crisp and thick slices of carrot cake.

If you can’t resist, you can have said desserts topped with fresh whipped cream. On one of our visits years ago, my husband scraped his whipped cream off of his dessert. I was shocked—practically fell off my chair.

“It’s too creamy,” he explained. “It’s almost whipped butter.”

“You’re insane,” I explained. “I like it thick and creamy.”

Whipped cream is to be whipped for sure. I like mine to be a little thicker than your average store-bought varieties. I wrote about this a few years ago, but the debate continues at our house. Birchwood’s whipped cream falls on the side of creamier than Cool Whip. But is the Birchwood Café’s whipped cream TOO creamy?

I say no. My husband says yes.