All Purpose Cream Substitutes
The best of the all purpose cream substitutes is 2/3 cup heavy cream plus 1/3 cup whole milk for every 1 cup called for. All purpose cream sits between American half-and-half and heavy cream in fat, roughly in the low twenties percent, and that blend lands you right in the same band.
Working the other direction, from lighter dairy, use 1 cup half-and-half plus 3 tablespoons of melted butter. Both blends behave the same way in batters, custards and ganache, and both do the same thing all purpose cream does when you try to whip it, which is give you a soft billow rather than a stiff peak.
Need a different quantity? Our free baking substitutions finder scales any of these ratios to 1/2 cup, 1 1/4 cups, or straight grams.
Updated September 2026
What all purpose cream actually is
All purpose cream is a shelf-stable ultra-heat-treated cream sold in cartons and cans, very common across the Philippines and much of Asia, and it's the default cream in an enormous number of recipes written there. The name is a marketing description rather than a dairy grade, and that's exactly why substituting it confuses people.
It's a middle-fat cream. It's rich enough to thicken a custard, enrich a batter and make a ganache, and it's not rich enough to whip into a piping-stable frosting the way 36 percent heavy cream does. It's also usually homogenized and stabilized for shelf life, which makes it more forgiving of heat than fresh cream but less willing to build a foam.
Here's where it sits against the creams sold under other names:
| Cream | Typical milk fat | Whips to a stiff peak? | Common name elsewhere |
|---|---|---|---|
| Half-and-half | 10 to 12% | No | Single cream, coffee cream |
| Table cream | 18% | No | Light cream |
| All purpose cream | low 20s% | Soft peaks only | Cooking cream, UHT cream |
| Whipping cream | 30 to 35% | Yes | Pouring cream |
| Heavy cream | 36% and up | Yes, easily | Double cream is higher still, near 48% |
Two rules fall out of that table.
Fat decides whipping. Cream builds a foam because chilled fat globules partially crystallize, collide while you beat, and link into a scaffold around the air bubbles. Below roughly 30 percent fat there aren't enough globules in the liquid to reach each other, so the foam collapses as fast as you make it. All purpose cream sits under that line. Our heavy cream substitute guide explains the mechanism in full, because it's the same physics behind every failed whipped topping.
Fat also decides how a ganache sets. Cream is fat plus water. Lower fat means more water going into the chocolate, so the ganache comes out looser at the same ratio. A looser ganache runs straight down the side of a cake, which is why drip consistency is worth setting deliberately.
All purpose cream substitutes chart, per 1 cup
Every row below replaces 1 cup of all purpose cream.
| Substitute | Amount per 1 cup | How close it gets | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy cream + whole milk | 2/3 cup heavy cream + 1/3 cup milk | 10 out of 10 | Nothing. This is the answer |
| Whipping cream + whole milk | 3/4 cup whipping cream + 1/4 cup milk | 9 out of 10 | Very slightly lighter |
| Half-and-half + melted butter | 1 cup half-and-half + 3 tbsp melted butter | 8 out of 10 | Fine hot, can look speckled cold. Whisk the butter in slowly |
| Table cream or light cream | 1 cup, straight | 8 out of 10 | A little thinner. Reduce sauces a minute longer |
| Heavy cream, straight | 1 cup | 7 out of 10 | Richer and heavier. Ganache sets firmer, custard sets denser |
| Evaporated milk + melted butter | 1 cup evaporated milk + 4 tbsp melted butter | 7 out of 10 | Faint cooked-milk note. Good in fudge and pie fillings |
| Coconut cream, the thick part | 1 cup, spooned from a chilled can | 7 out of 10 | Coconut flavor arrives. Dairy free, and it whips |
| Cream cheese + milk | 1/2 cup cream cheese blended with 1/2 cup milk | 6 out of 10 | Tangy and much thicker. Best in frostings and cheesecake bases |
| Crème fraîche or sour cream + milk | 3/4 cup + 1/4 cup milk | 6 out of 10 | Sour note, thickens more. Don't boil it |
| Full-fat yogurt + melted butter | 3/4 cup yogurt + 2 tbsp melted butter | 5 out of 10 | Tangy, splits at high heat, fine in batters |
| Evaporated milk, straight | 1 cup | 5 out of 10 | Too thin on its own. Works in custards, fails in ganache |
| Whole milk + melted butter | 3/4 cup milk + 3 tbsp melted butter | 5 out of 10 | Emergency only. The butter is free fat, not globules |
| Cashew cream | 1 cup raw cashews soaked and blended with 3/4 cup water | 6 out of 10 | Neutral, thickens well, dairy free, will not whip |
| Silken tofu blended smooth | 1 cup, thinned with 2 tbsp milk or water | 4 out of 10 | Flat flavor, good body, only for baked applications |
The bottom rows aren't there as filler. They're there because they're the swaps people reach for in an emergency, and it helps to know in advance which ones will let you down.
Why 2/3 and 1/3 is the number, worked out
The whole substitution is one line of arithmetic, and doing it once means you can hit any fat target you ever need.
The goal: roughly 24 percent milk fat.
Your ingredients: heavy cream at 36 percent, whole milk at 3.5 percent.
The equation: if x is the share of heavy cream, then 36x + 3.5(1 minus x) = 24. That solves to x = 0.63, so call it two thirds.
The check, by weight. A US cup of heavy cream is 238 g and a cup of whole milk is 240 g, the same figures our converters use.
| Component | Amount | Weight | Fat in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy cream | 2/3 cup | 159 g | 57 g |
| Whole milk | 1/3 cup | 80 g | 3 g |
| Blend total | 1 cup | 239 g | 60 g |
60 g of fat in 239 g of liquid is 25 percent, which is exactly the band all purpose cream lives in. Our grams to cups converter has the density for every dairy ingredient in that table if you'd rather weigh than measure.
The same math in reverse. If a recipe calls for heavy cream and all purpose cream is what you have, you're short on fat. Add butter: 1 cup all purpose cream plus 2 tablespoons of melted butter lands close to 36 percent. It won't whip, because melted butter is free fat rather than intact globules, but for anything baked or cooked it's a genuine match.
Worked example: ganache made with all purpose cream
Ganache is where the substitution shows up most, because ganache is nothing but chocolate and cream and there's nowhere for an error to hide.
The recipe: a spreadable dark chocolate frosting at the standard 1:1 ratio, 200 g of 70 percent dark chocolate to 200 g of heavy cream.
The problem: all purpose cream at 24 percent fat carries more water than heavy cream at 36 percent. Per 200 g, that's about 48 g of fat and 152 g of other liquid, against heavy cream's 72 g of fat and 128 g of liquid. Twenty-four extra grams of water going into the same chocolate.
What happens if you ignore it: the ganache sets soft and slumps off the sides of the cake. It tastes fine, it just won't hold an edge.
Fix one, more chocolate. Take the ratio from 1:1 to 1.25:1, so 250 g of chocolate to 200 g of all purpose cream. That restores the set and deepens the flavor slightly.
Fix two, add butter. Keep 200 g of chocolate and 200 g of cream, and stir in 25 g of soft butter once the ganache has cooled to body temperature. Twenty-five grams of butter carries about 20 g of fat, which closes almost the whole gap, and it adds shine.
Fix three, less cream. Use 165 g of all purpose cream to 200 g of chocolate. Simplest of the three, and the result is a touch stiffer than the original.
Our ganache ratio guide has the full chart for dark, milk and white chocolate, and every ratio there assumes a 36 percent cream, so apply one of these three corrections when you're working from a lighter one.
Can you whip all purpose cream, and what to do when it won't
Sort of, and that "sort of" is worth being precise about.
Chilled hard, all purpose cream will thicken and hold a soft, spoonable billow. It's enough for folding into a chilled layered dessert, enough to spoon over fruit, and enough to lighten a mousse base. It is not enough to pipe a rosette that stands up, and it will weep within an hour or two at room temperature.
Three things make it whip as well as it possibly can:
- Chill the unopened carton or can overnight, not for an hour. Cold matters more here than anywhere else, because you're right at the edge of what the fat can do.
- Chill the bowl and the beaters in the freezer for 15 minutes. Warm equipment loses you the whole margin.
- Whip on medium, not high. High speed on a low-fat cream drives air in faster than the fat can build a structure around it, and the foam falls the moment you stop.
If you need it to hold, add structure from outside. A tablespoon of powdered sugar per cup helps a little, because cornstarch in the powdered sugar absorbs free water. Sweetened condensed milk helps more, which is why so many chilled cream desserts across Asia pair the two. Bloomed gelatin, about 1/2 teaspoon per cup dissolved in a splash of warm cream and whisked back in, holds it for a full day.
For the cases where none of that is enough, our guide to whipped cream without heavy cream walks through what genuinely whips and what never will, and our dairy-free cream options cover the plant-based side.
Choosing the substitute by what you're making
The right swap depends less on the cream and more on the job.
| What you're making | Best substitute | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Ganache and chocolate glaze | Heavy cream + milk, or straight heavy cream with the ratio adjusted | Yogurt, sour cream, silken tofu |
| Custard, flan, pastry cream | Heavy cream + milk, or evaporated milk + butter | Anything acidic, it will curdle |
| Cake and quick bread batter | Almost anything on the chart | Nothing really fails here |
| Chilled layered desserts | Heavy cream + milk, or coconut cream | Milk + butter, it separates cold |
| Frosting and fillings | Cream cheese + milk, or heavy cream | Evaporated milk, too thin |
| Ice cream base | Heavy cream + milk | Low-fat swaps, they turn icy |
| Fudge and caramel-style fillings | Evaporated milk + butter | Yogurt, it splits at candy temperatures |
| Enriched bread dough | Whole milk + melted butter is fine here | None |
Two notes on the trickier rows.
Anything cold and set needs real fat globules, not melted butter. Butter stirred into cold milk firms back up into visible specks and gives a slightly greasy mouthfeel. It's invisible in a hot batter and obvious in a chilled dessert.
Anything acidic and hot curdles. Sour cream, crème fraîche and yogurt all have a low pH, and their proteins clump when they hit a boil. Keep them under a simmer, or temper them by stirring a ladle of the hot mixture into the dairy first and then returning it to the pan.
The names that get confused with all purpose cream
Half the substitution errors start with buying the wrong carton.
Table cream is around 18 percent fat. It's the closest single product on a Western shelf and works straight across in most baking, running slightly thin.
Cooking cream is usually all purpose cream under a different label, often with added stabilizers so it resists splitting in heat. Straight swap.
Whipping cream is 30 to 35 percent. Richer than all purpose cream and it whips properly, so use 3/4 cup of it plus 1/4 cup of milk to match.
Thickened cream, the Australian carton, is around 35 percent with gelatin or vegetable gum added. Treat it like whipping cream and dilute the same way.
Double cream is British and runs near 48 percent, which is far richer than anything on this list. Cut it hard: 1/2 cup double cream plus 1/2 cup milk gets you close.
Sweetened condensed milk is not cream at all. It's milk with most of the water removed and a large amount of sugar added, so swapping it in changes the sweetness of the whole recipe. Never use it as a one-for-one.
Evaporated milk is also not cream. It's milk with water removed and no sugar added, around 8 percent fat, so it needs butter to stand in. Our evaporated milk guide has the dilution math for going the other way.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best substitute for all purpose cream?
2/3 cup heavy cream plus 1/3 cup whole milk per 1 cup. That blend lands at about 25 percent milk fat, which is where all purpose cream sits, so it behaves identically in batters, custards and ganache. If heavy cream isn't available, 1 cup of half-and-half with 3 tablespoons of melted butter whisked in slowly is the next best thing.
Is all purpose cream the same as heavy cream?
No. Heavy cream is 36 percent milk fat or more and whips into stiff peaks. All purpose cream sits in the low twenties, which is rich enough for cooking and baking but under the roughly 30 percent threshold that whipping needs. Using heavy cream where a recipe wants all purpose cream gives you a richer, firmer result, which is usually fine and occasionally too heavy.
Can I use all purpose cream instead of heavy cream?
For anything baked, cooked or stirred, yes. Expect a slightly thinner sauce and a softer ganache, and correct the ganache by adding about 25 percent more chocolate or a spoonful of butter. For whipped cream, frosting or a mousse that needs to hold its shape, no. Add 2 tablespoons of melted butter per cup if the recipe is going into an oven or a pan, and pick a different cream if it isn't.
Can all purpose cream be whipped?
It thickens to a soft, spoonable stage, and it stops there. Chill the carton overnight, chill the bowl and beaters, and whip on medium rather than high. To make it hold, fold in sweetened condensed milk, add a tablespoon of powdered sugar per cup, or stabilize with about 1/2 teaspoon of bloomed gelatin per cup dissolved in a little warm cream first.
What can I use instead of all purpose cream for a dairy-free recipe?
The thick layer spooned off a chilled can of full-fat coconut cream is the closest, at a similar fat level, and it whips better than the dairy original does. Cashew cream, made by blending soaked raw cashews with about three quarters of their volume in water, is the neutral-tasting option and thickens beautifully, though it will never foam. Both work in ganache and both need a slightly stiffer ratio.
Does all purpose cream curdle when heated?
Much less than fresh cream does, because it's ultra-heat-treated and usually carries stabilizers. It can still break if you boil it hard alongside something acidic. Keep it at a simmer, add acid off the heat, and temper it by stirring a little of the hot mixture into the cream before returning everything to the pan.
How much butter do I add to make all purpose cream act like heavy cream?
About 2 tablespoons of melted butter per 1 cup, whisked in slowly while the cream is at room temperature so it emulsifies instead of seizing into flecks. That takes you from the low twenties into the mid thirties by fat. It works for anything heated or baked, and it does not restore the ability to whip, because melted butter is free fat rather than the intact globules a foam needs.
Why does my ganache stay runny with all purpose cream?
Because there's more water in the cream and the same amount of chocolate to absorb it. A 1:1 dark ganache built on 36 percent cream sets firm, and the same ratio on a 24 percent cream sets soft. Push the ratio to 1.25:1, or keep 1:1 and stir 25 g of soft butter into every 200 g of chocolate once the mixture has cooled to body temperature.
