You can buy the aerosol can of whipped cream or the tub of “non-dairy whipped topping” but I’m totally going to make fun of you and turn up my nose at either of those offerings. I reject the canned and tubbed dessert toppings not because I’m a food snob (well, not just because I’m a food snob) but because it’s so easy to make homemade whipped cream and it tastes so much better.

“Beat egg whites for three minutes” is a lot easier to understand than “beat egg whites until soft peaks form.” Too bad so many recipes use the latter. Both in cooking and baking the terms soft and firm or stiff peaks come up on a regular basis. They’re loose terms that can be intimidating to novice cooks and bakers so we thought an explanation of the terms was in order.