I've heard it said by a few people that they dislike using real cream for pies because of the lingering smell afterwards. I don't always find it to be such a problem, but I know what they mean. I understand its caused by particular bacteria in the cream.

Therefore I'd guess that UHT squirty cream (yes Americans, we really do call it that in the UK...) i.e. the stuff that isn't sold refrigerated, wouldn't have that problem. In my limited experience with it its seemed fine, but I wonder how other people on here have found it?

NB. We use a lot of real cream of all kinds, but mainly double (or 'heavy') cream from cartons whipped up for pies.

Squirty cream is crap for pies and best utilised for its 'sqirtiness' as a quick visual effect as it has no substance and quickly melts into a disproportionately miserable (invisible) grease.

But yes, the UHT or long life versions smell a lot less as 'turning' is not an issue

Used it once, stunk like mad and quickly dissolved. Not recommended

I use shaving cream for pies for the following reasons:

doesn't expire
not too cold on the face as not been in fridge
skin-friendly (it's designed to go on the face)
pleasant smell
washes off very easily
makes thick pies

The only advantage i see with cream is that it is edible. But is it really that important to be able to eat it?

The advantage with cream is that it's messy and can be a bit tricky to clean up.

Thanks for the replies.

I agree real whipped cream makes for a better effect. However, I still think squirty cream serves a purpose, especially when used on top of custard..

There is always an initial smell with cream that some people really don't like, but I'm referring more to lingering smells. I think that when I do use the squirty stuff I'll try and stick to UHT. I'm still interested to hear about other peoples' experiences.

Shaving foam just doesn't do it for me- it just doesn't seem properly messy when its based on soap!