Dream Whip
© Denzil Green
Dream Whip is a whipped, non-dairy topping sold in North America for desserts that is made at home by the consumer from a white powder. [1]
There are 2 packets of the powder in a small box of Dream Whip; 4 in the large box.
Each packet has 1.3 oz / 36 g (approximately 2.5 tablespoons) of powder in it in America; 1.5 oz / 42g (approximately 2.5 tablespoons) of powder in it in Canada as of 2009.
You empty the powder from one of the packets into a bowl, and add to it 125 ml ( ½ cup / 4 oz ) of cold milk, and ½ teaspoon vanilla, and beat with rotary mixers or an electric beater for about 4 minutes. Each envelope makes 2 cups (500 ml / 16 oz) in volume.
Dream Whip can be also used as an ingredient in recipes. Some recipes will want you to make up the Dream Whip first, others will call for the envelope’s contents to be added as a powder.
Some people swear by adding Dream Whip to cake mixes; they say it makes cakes really moist.
The proportions to adding it to a cake are:
1 box dry cake mix (just the powder itself)
4 large eggs
1 cup water
1 package dream whip (approximately 2.5 tablespoons)
You omit any oil or fat called for by the directions for the cake mix, but bake the cake as directed on the cake mix package. Some say that while the cake is lighter and fluffier, that they miss the oil or fat in it, and will add 2 tablespoons of oil.
Dream Whip is owned by Kraft, who also owns its ready-made competitor, Cool Whip.
Dream Whip’s equivalent powdered mix product in the UK is called Dream Topping. It, too, was a Kraft family product, until Kraft sold it off in 2005.
Storage Hints
Dream Whip will store indefinitely as long as packets are unopened.
Store prepared Dream Whip covered in the fridge; use up within a few days.
History Notes
Dream Whip was developed in house at General Foods, Birdseye Division. It was released to the market in 1957.
Sources
[1] Though the powder is generally classed as non-dairy, it contains sodium caseinate (from milk), and whey. And of course to prepare it, you have to add milk, making the prepared product decidedly dairy.