The trouble with making whipped cream is that it can go from a soft, pillowy cloud to a ball of butter in no time. “If you start to see granules while you’re whipping, stop or you’ll go too far,” says Abigail Johnson Dodge, author of The Weekend Baker (W.W. Norton, $30, www.amazon.com). To avoid this, test the cream as you whip it: Lift the whisk out of the bowl in a vertical position. The cream should rise up in a little peak, and the tip should flip over. The same technique works when you’re beating egg whites. “A standing peak can be excessive,” explains Dodge. “Meringues may call for stiff peaks (in which case you’d whip them longer), but stiff peaks are usually not appropriate when you’re making whipped cream or folding cream or egg whites into a recipe.”