Marshmallow Moon Cake – Inspired by the new Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor by Jimmy Fallon, my new Marshmallow Moon Cake will make you think you’re biting into the classic junk food treat, a Moon Pie.
Cake Inspiration
I’ve had this cake on my mind for the last few weeks – as soon as I saw Ben and Jerry’s made a new ice cream flavor with Jimmy Fallon. After making The Tonight Show Cake last year, based off Ben and Jerry’s Tonight Dough ice cream, I’ve been eager to make another cake inspired by another one of their ice cream flavors. It was so fun for me to take all the flavors in The Tonight Dough ice cream and figure out how to put them into a cake. It turned out to be one of my favorite cakes yet!
When I saw the new Marshmallow Moon flavor that Jimmy Fallon helped create, I knew this had to be my next cake. The ice cream flavor, which is inspired by a Moon Pie, is made up of vanilla ice cream, marshmallow and graham cracker swirls, and chocolate chunks.
Cake Brainstorming
When I started thinking about how I would turn these flavors into a cake, I couldn’t help but feel concerned that it was too similar to my Ultimate S’mores Cake, which is made of chocolate cake baked on top of a graham cracker crust, filled with toasted marshmallow filling and chocolate ganache, and covered with chocolate buttercream.
But the more I thought about it, the more I knew I could make this unique and it would have to start with the cake layers. In my S’mores Cake, the cake was chocolate. For this cake, I wanted the cake layers to represent the vanilla ice cream. They needed to be tender and fluffy and have a strong vanilla flavor. To get the right vanilla flavor, I decided to use vanilla bean paste.
I also wanted more texture with the graham crackers than I had in my S’mores Cake. Instead of baking a graham cracker crust, I toasted graham cracker pieces tossed in a butter and brown sugar mixture. Good luck trying not to snack on them before you actually put the cake together.
For the marshmallow aspect, using the toasted marshmallow filling from my S’mores Cake was a no brainer. It’s just too good. There’s no reason to reinvent it.
And like a traditional Moon Pie, which is covered with a thin layer of chocolate, I spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache between each layer of cake and on top.
Taking a bite of all these flavors and textures together will hopefully remind you of biting into a Moon Pie.
Take a look at how to put this cake together in my recent KUTV Fresh Living appearance:
Can’t wait to hear what you think!
Happy baking!
If I don’t have a cake ring, can these cake layers be made in a straight-walled cake pan?
You actually need something that doesn’t have a bottom, so you can slip the cake ring or cake form pan off the cake when it’s chilled. You could use a cheesecake pan, and stack the cake inside of it. The cheesecake pan doesn’t do a good job at cutting the cake from the quarter sheet pan, but you can use a knife to do that and just trace the cake pan to make your circles.
I used a plastic sugar canister! I outlined the cake and cut the circles out. Then I lined it with Saran Wrap and layered everything in it. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked!
As long as it worked and as long as it tasted amazing – that’s all that matters!
Hi Courtney! This cake is gorgeous! Have you made the vanilla bean layers in 6″ or 8″ pans before? Just curious as to how many layers it would make. It is similar to a white almond sour cream cake recipe that I use so of course I need to try your version!
Thanks!
Ashley
Yes, you could make this in three 6-inch pans or double the recipe and use three 8-inch pans. Hope you love it!
What size cake ring? What brand? And….. how/where do you get the acetate?
Can’t wait to make this one!!
Thank you!
It’s a 6″ cake ring from Ateco. You can get the ring and the acetate paper on Amazon.
Wow! I made this cake today and although there are a lot of steps, it’s actually pretty easy. This is the best white cake base I have ever tasted. I will post pics tomorrow and tag you on my Instagram.
Thanks for the recipe,
Vanessa
I’m so glad you liked it!!!
This cake looks outta of this world and I bet it tastes even better!!! Excellent work my dear!
Thank you!
This looks delicious. One question, what size is the quarter sheet pan you are using?
Thanks!
It’s about 8×11″ – half of a normal jelly roll pan.
I need a larger cake than 6″ and was thinking of making an 8″ version. I’m trying to scale the cake recipe for a half sheet pan but I’m a little confused on pan sizes. The recipe says quarter sheet, which would be 9×13, but in the comments you said you use an 8×11. And I know that even though the original Milk Bar recipes say to use a quarter sheet, Christina Tosi actually uses a 10×15. Argh!!
I can’t wait to try this one! Question, can I use regular round cake pans? If so, do I need to adjust the ratios at all? Thanks!!!
If you only have regular round I suggest making this cake in my other form. Search Marshmallown moon pie cake!
Hi Courtney! I am going to be making a cake this week using toasted marshmallow frosting. I have looked over this recipe and the recipes for your Ultimate Smores Cake and PB Smores Cake. The ingredients for the fillings are the same, but the amount of a few of them (marshmallows, powdered sugar) are different. Is there a reason for this? If so, which one do you prefer?
Thanks!
Use this recipe.