12 oz of Cool Whip = ?

[Emiliana]

I'm hoping very much to re-create a family recipe for Thanksgiving. It's one of those cherry/whipped cream/fruit concoctions, and it calls for 12 oz of Cool Whip. That's all very well and good, but I have to make my own whipped cream and I don't know how much to use. I suspect my whipped cream isn't going to be as dense as Cool Whip. So my options are:

1. Borrow a kitchen scale from my British neighbors and measure 12 oz, which will probably be a greater volume
2. Find out approximately how many cups 12 oz of Cool Whip is, and use that much, which will probably be a smaller weight

Any thoughts on which would be better? And does anyone know how many cups are in 12 oz of Cool Whip?

I'm not normally this OCD about measurements in cooking (in fact I often don't measure anything at all), but the holidays are making me homesick and I would really like for this to turn out as close as possible to what my family will be making.

[NerdGirl]

I actually was trying to figure out a similar thing not too long ago to make something that I don't even know if I ended up making, but I still have this page bookmarked:

http://community.cookinglight.com/showt ... hp?t=25047

Which says that 12 oz of cool whip = 4 1/2 cups.

[Emiliana]

Thanks, NerdGirl!