Whipping cream is the product used to make whipped cream; it's got a lot of milk fat in it and so is sometimes called heavy cream. Most whipping cream is 30-35% fat. You have to vigourously beat the cream for several minutes with an electric beater to get whipped cream. Perfectly whipped cream should be thick and stiff, but be careful: if you beat too long you'll end up with butter, which is something else again. It's easiest to whip cream well if the bowl, cream, and beaters are all cold. With a whisk, it takes upwards of ten minutes and a tired arm to transform whipping cream to whipped cream, but DejaMorgana reports that it makes a great party trick: s/he amazed a group of New Yorkers by hand-whipping cream for pies last Christmas.

You could use a fake or partially-fake product in a can, too, if you don't care about ingesting chemicals with your food.

Whipping cream doesn't have to be whipped, of course. It makes delightfully creamy dishes with more of a rich flavour than plain milk can impart.