Place your metal bowl into freezer for 10 minutes to chill.

After the bowl has chilled, remove from freezer.

Add heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract into chilled bowl.

Using an electric mixer, beat the ingredients well. Begin on low speed, gradually increasing the speed as the cream thickens.

Continue whipping cream until you reach desired consistency. For this recipe, we continued beating until the “stiff peak” stage, but if you want your whipped cream to be soft peak (like if you are folding this into a dessert recipe), you can stop when it has reached a thick and billowy consistency (similar to Cool Whip).

Note of caution: Overbeating can cause the fat to separate from the buttermilk, and you've made butter! There's no turning back from that, so keep an eye on your beaters or whisk to make sure you stop beating once you have real fluffy whipped cream.

Use immediately, or store in the fridge in an airtight container.