Moon Pie Cake

My MIL saw a moon pie cake at the grocery store, and I thought it would be cute to make for this Mardi Gras season. Chocolate moon pies are my second favorite Mardi Gras treats.... second to the king cake. I searched for a graham cracker cake recipe, and I used marshmallow cream for the filling and ganache for the topping. The cake was amazing, but the marshmallow cream oozed out even in the fridge. I'll probably make this recipe again, but I'll turn it into cupcakes or mini moon pies and do the filling right before serving.
Please excuse my elementary piping. It looks like "Noon Pie."

Graham Cracker Cake

Ingredients:
1½ cups graham cracker crumbs (I used 24 squares)
½ cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-inch round cake pans.
Stir together the cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla. Alternately add crumb mixture and milk, beating after each addition.
Divide the batter between the pans. Bake 25 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool in pans 15 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely before filling and/or frosting as desired.

Ganache

Ingredients:
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions:
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized heat proof bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.

Cake Assembly

Ingredients:
2 round Graham Cracker Cakes, cooled
1 jar Marshmallow Cream
1 recipe Ganache
White Icing (I used Wilton's icing in a tube)

Directions:
Spread the jar of Marshmallow Cream on top of one cake. Place the other cake on top. Pour the ganache over the cake in the following way:

To Cover a Torte or Cake (joyofbaking.com):
Note: If covering a cake that is to be refrigerated, make sure the cake is cold before covering with the ganache. This will ensure that the ganache does not dull when stored in the refrigerator.
Brush any loose crumbs from the cake and place cake on a wire rack. Put the wire rack on a baking sheet. In this way if the ganache drips it will end up on the baking sheet, which makes clean up easier. Using a cake spatula, cover the sides and top of the cake with about 2 tablespoons ganache. This is called a crumb coat and seals in any cake crumbs so that your cake will have a smooth finish. Refrigerate cake for 5 minutes to set the crumb coat. If you have any air bubbles or crumbs in your ganache, pour through a strainer. To cover cake, pour the remaining ganache into the center of the cake. Working quickly, spread with a spatula, using big strokes to push the ganache over the sides of the cake, to create an even coating of ganache.
I didn't cover the sides with the ganache.... I just let it drip down so the marshmallow cream could be seen.

With the white icing, write "Moon Pie" on the top of the cake. Keep in the fridge.

If you want to read about the history of Moon Pies, check out this site.
If you want to read about the history of Moon Pies and Mardi Gras, check out this site.