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Niels Hoven

What’s up with the structural integrity of whipped cream on hot chocolate?

I was sitting here, enjoying my hot chocolate with whipped cream, when I happened to look over it. I expected the whipped cream to melt, but I presumed it would happen slowly, from the bottom up. Instead, I saw the whipped cream rapidly collapsing on itself after several minutes of maintaining its structural integrity.

I think what happened is that the whipped cream was melting at the whipped cream/hot chocolate interface, but the ceiling of the whipped cream layer stayed intact, leading to a large air bubble (composed of the air originally whipped into the cream) growing just above my chocolate milk. I looked over at just the right time to see the escape of the bubble and the demise of my whipped cream mountain.

Clearly a topic for further research.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Jeremy

    You can’t get away from your geeky roots…can you?

    It’s okay, neither can I :)

  • Amazing. Simply amazing.

  • I think it has to do with the temperature-dependent elasticity of sugar.

    — robert1

  • Michelle

    Okayyy you have way too much time on your hands ;)