question about whipped cream decoration on pie

I am going to pipe whipped cream on top of a key lime pie. I think that it would go flat after some time. If it is going to sit in a refrigerator for around 5 hours, do I need to add gelatin to stabilize the whipped cream? I would like to avoid decorating the pie at someone else's house (if possible).

Besides going flat I'd be afraid it would pick up the dreaded refrigerator flavor. What I did with my key lime pie is to put it into the refrigeration without whipped cream and put plastic wrap on the top. I had whipped the cream separately and then frosted it not piped it on the pie later.

toria wrote:Besides going flat I'd be afraid it would pick up the dreaded refrigerator flavor. What I did with my key lime pie is to put it into the refrigeration without whipped cream and put plastic wrap on the top. I had whipped the cream separately and then frosted it not piped it on the pie later.

If you whip up a nice batch of cream (NON ultra-pasteurized will give you better results and more staying power) it will easily hold up in the fridge for about 24 hours with no additional stabilizers. The dicey part is that you said you're transporting it ELSEWHERE, since it will go flat fairly quickly at room temperature and you didn't mention how far/long you were traveling.

If it does need some stabilizing, gelatin works fine (about 3T per cup of cream), though you could use agar agar or even powdered sugar (this will be less strong than the gelatin or agar agar) which has cornstarch in it and will give it a little bit of a boost.

Thanks for the tips. I am not going to put any whipped cream on the pie until just prior to serving.