Add sugar and salt to a tall bowl. I use my 8-cup measuring cup. Pour cream into the bowl. Whip with an electric mixer (or stand mixer), with the whisk attachment. Beat mixture, beginning on low speed and increasing slowly to prevent any cream from splashing.

Increase speed as much as you can without splashing out of the bowl. As the cream is whipped, you will start to notice a trail from the mixer through the cream. If I am adding any extracts, I like to add them at this point.

Continue to beat, lower the speed as it thickens. Once you have soft peaks (when you lift the mixer out of the whipped cream, some cream stays on the whisk and barely holds it shape). If you want less fluffy whipped cream, reduce speed to low so you can watch the stages carefully. Otherwise, you may go too far too fast and end up with butter.

For medium peaks continue beating until the cream is firm enough to hold its shape, but the tip flops over. If you are looking for whipped cream thick enough to pipe, you will want to go to firm peaks. At this stage, when you lift the beaters out of the whipped cream the cream will hold its shape and stand up on the end of the beater when flipped upside down.