Making your coffee at home probably won’t make you suddenly afford to buy a house, but it could help you buy more groceries every week especially when Starbucks is charging $1.25 just to add sweet cream cold foam on top of your drink. 🤨 I’m going to show you just how fast and easy it is to make sweet cream cold foam so you can make yourself a special drink at home and save that $5 for groceries. It adds up fast!
What is Sweet Cream Cold Foam?
Sweet cream cold foam is a lot like whipped cream, except not as stiff. It’s smooth and pourable, but still light, airy, and sweet. You can use it to top both hot and iced coffee drinks and it stirs into the drinks easily to make every sip extra creamy.
Ingredients for Sweet Cream Cold Foam
Making sweet cream cold foam only takes a few ingredients and about 30 seconds. Here’s what you’ll need to make sweet cream cold foam:
- Milk: Make sure to use whole milk to keep the cold foam rich and thick. The milk helps thin the heavy cream just enough to make it pourable once whipped.
- Heavy Cream: Heavy cream whips up into a light and airy foam while staying super creamy.
- Vanilla Extract: A splash of vanilla extract adds to the extra creamy flavor.
- Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar dissolves quickly and easily into the thick dairy so you aren’t left with a grainy foam.
What Kind of Frother is Best?
If you make a lot of beverages at home, I highly suggest getting one of these little handheld frothers because it will pay for itself in no time. I find myself using it all the time. It whips up this sweet cream cold foam in seconds. You can also whisk by hand or vigorously shake the mixture in a tightly closed mason jar. Make sure the mason jar is at least double the volume of the liquid ingredients to give it room to aerate.
Can you Store the Leftovers?
This sweet cream cold foam is best when used immediately after making, so it’s best to make it in small batches like the recipe below. If the cold foam sits for a while before you pour it onto the drink, it will begin to separate into a stiffer foam layer on top and a fluid milk layer below. If it does separate, you can easily whisk it back together before pouring.
My Favorite Iced Coffee Recipe:
Here’s my favorite way to use the sweet cream cold foam at home. It makes the most delicious fall-flavored iced coffee drink!
- Stir 1 Tbsp maple syrup and a pinch of cinnamon into 8oz. strong hot coffee.
- Pour the coffee over ice.
- Top with the sweet cream cold foam and enjoy!
Sweet Cream Cold Foam
Servings 2 (about ⅓ cup each)Ingredients
- 1/4 cup whole milk ($0.05)
- 2 Tbsp heavy cream ($0.19)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract ($0.06)
- 1 Tbsp powdered sugar ($0.02)
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a glass or 8oz. jar. Use a milk frother or close the jar tightly and shake the mixture vigorously until it turns into a smooth foam.
- Pour the sweet cream cold foam over a hot or cold beverage immediately, and enjoy.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Video
How to Make Sweet Cream Cold Foam – Step by Step Photos
Add ¼ cup whole milk, 2 Tbsp heavy cream, ¼ tsp vanilla extract, and 1 Tbsp powdered sugar to a glass or an 8oz. jar.
Use a handheld frother to whip the mixture into a smooth foam, or close the jar and shake vigorously until it’s a thick, foamy consistency.
Pour the sweet cream cold foam over your favorite coffee drink (hot or cold) and enjoy immediately! If the cold foam sits a few minutes before you’re ready to pour, make sure to whisk it up again briefly before pouring.
Too sweet with the powdered sugar for me and took a few minutes to actually froth. I’ll keep looking for a good recipe.
Followed the recipe nearly exactly. I swapped vanilla for peppermint extract. Turned out delicious but took nearly 5 min to become frothy and thick. I’ve heard skim milk froths faster. I may try it next time and report back
I was really happy with this! My bad for not realizing it made two servings (I was shocked by the recipe yield at first). Been looking for an excuse to get one of those frothers and this was very worth it. Looking forward to an indulgent summer!
Didn’t work well for me
good recipe thank you
This was delicious to add on top of my hot coffee in the morning – thank you!
Thanks for this! I have had success using a french press to create the foam but I will add a frother to my kitchen arsenal.
I love this recipe except I only use 3 tbsp heavy cream 1 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract or 2 tsp
5 tsp regular sugar
1 tbsp maple syrup
A pinch of salt to make it salted sweet cream foam and a little cinnamon for more flavor and I also use a small Manson jar that I shake like 7 times/ shakes and it works just as great! As a brother if not even better
…so you DON’T like recipe. “I liked it after I changed everything about it!”
Sb barista here. We use 2%. Ratio of 2:1. Heavy cream being 2.
Thanks for sharing! That is very helpful!
No problem Beth :) thanks for sharing your recipes all these years.
What is the 1? Milk?
I would love to see a dairy-free version of this recipe!
This recipe came out wonderfully! I tried it with fat free milk because that’s all I had and added in 1 more tablespoon of heavy cream and that made the perfect consistency. 2 tablespoons was a bit thick for me and I added in 1/4 tsp salt to it and sprinkled salt on top for a “salted” cream foam for my jasmine tea. Thank you so much for this recipe!
I can’t wait to try this recipe. I usually don’t have whole milk in the house, I have half and half all the time can this be a substitution for either whole milk or heavy cream? This can save me a lot of money, since I buy “Starbucks vanilla sweet cream” in the refrigerator section which costs $6.00 for 40 oz at the supermarket.
Half and half is 50% whole milk and 50% heavy cream, so the ratio is a little different than what I used here (66% whole milk, 33% heavy cream). So you can use it, but the foam may be a little more stiff than if you were to use more milk. It’s definitely worth a shot, though!
About how long should it take for the cream foam to form? I’ve been frothing for about 10 minutes and it is still pretty liquidity, so I’m trying to figure out if it needs more time, or perhaps I did something else wrong along the way.
It should foam within seconds. Did you make any ingredient substitutions?
Can you change the ratio of heavy cream:milk to make up for using a lower fat milk? I didn’t read your note about the importance of whole milk until I got home from the store.
Probably, although I haven’t tested that to know the exact ratios.
Thank you for this treat, Beth.
I am wondering if anyone tried this with half and half to replace the milk and cream or would the milk to cream be off? I have a bottle, that’s open.
It’s definitely worth a shot! Although the ratio of milk to cream is different, so it may end up being more stiff. In this recipe the milk to cream ratio is 2:1, in half and half its 1:1. It would be easy to tweak if you also have some milk on hand.
I make my cold foam with whole milk, a little pure maple syrup and cinnamon. It’s delicious!
Maple sounds like an excellent bonus flavor.
I was a little aggressive with my frother and ended up closer to whipped cream. Complete user error. Still drank every drop without complaint.
Can’t wait to make this!!
How far in advance can you make this? I’d like to leave it in my fridge at work.
It’s best used right when you make it as the foam will start to separate as it sits.
You could potentially batch the base (at starbucks iirc it was 2:1 heavy cream to 2% milk and then vanilla syrup) and then keep a handheld frother with you. It might look a bit extra, but if you kept an extra jar of water around you could clean the whisk pretty efficiently.