Jacob Moffat’s four young children are living the dream. Not many kids can say that their mom is Cinderella’s singing voice for dolls, toys, and Disney attractions, while their dad writes cartoons and makes ice cream. “It sounds fake,” Moffat says, but it’s the truth. The animation writer is also a partner in an ice cream shop in Corona southeast of L.A.
Moffat’s path to writing for animation was not a direct one, and he wishes he’d gotten into it sooner. The first part of his career was spent bouncing around in post-production for animation, scripted and reality TV, and feature films. At the same time, he was writing and pitching TV dramas. When his good friend, Tony Hale, wrote a kids book that Moffat and writing partner Drew Champion thought would make a great animated show, they took a crack at a pilot. Archibald’s Next Big Thing was sold to DreamWorks, and Moffat served as Head Writer and then Co-Executive Producer for later seasons. Kids animation is where he’s been ever since.
Although he may have stumbled into animation writing, making ice cream is a family tradition that goes back generations. Both his grandpa and dad made ice cream—it was the way their family celebrated. When Moffat got to college he started experimenting with his own flavors and ice cream base, and it became a fun pastime for him. Now that he has kids, he and his wife have created their own tradition: they make ice cream every Sunday and eat it while watching a slide show of the week’s photos.
After making ice cream as a hobby for many years, Moffat was approached in 2022 by two friends who wanted to create a destination ice cream shop for families in Corona. Christian White and Justin Lyon asked Moffat to be the flavor guy and run the production of the ice cream. Moffat jumped at the opportunity. His focus is on making the best quality ice cream and training employees to follow his recipes and processes. He also helps with marketing and filming funny videos for social media, often appearing in them to explain the flavors. “It’s a lot of fun,” he says, “and you can tell we’re not taking it too seriously.” Their mission is to provide a welcoming space where people are encouraged to enjoy themselves.
“I really try to approach ice cream like an art form,” Moffat says. This includes using the best ingredients and thinking up ways to elevate the flavors. “Kind of like what you would do with creating [animation] characters.” He believes the end goal is the same for both of his passions, explaining: “You’re trying to bring a little bit of joy into someone’s life, whether that’s through a scoop of ice cream or a fun character.”
At the soft launch before the official opening of WHITE LYON Handcrafted Ice Cream & Cookies in 2024, he found himself getting emotional seeing people eat his ice cream. “That is really what making art is about—being able to create something, work on it, and share it,” he says, noting that with ice cream there’s instant gratification as you get to share your creation almost immediately, whereas with animation it can take years for someone to see your work and for your characters to finally come to life on a screen.
Where does he find his inspiration for his flavors? “Like animation, I’m drawn to flavors that have an element of the unexpected. Something that starts one way and then kind of surprises you.” For example, he created a flavor for the crew party for Archibald’s Next Big Thing, arriving at a corn-based recipe for Archibald, who is a chicken. “My first attempt had creamed corn, and spoiler, it was not great,” he says. He eventually landed on soaking buttered popcorn in the ice cream and adding chocolate-covered corn chips to create something magical that Archibald would be proud of. Moffat is hard-pressed to pick a favorite flavor, but he’s recently been partial to Biscoff the Charts, as well as a recent collaboration using a local business’s Dubai chocolate bar blended with a pistachio base.
“That’s the fun part about having an ice cream shop: you get to do whatever you want,” he says. This even includes taking flavor suggestions from customers. As a small business, he explains that you can take risks and listen to your audience. He likes to view the shop as an extension of the community, hosting events, supporting local schools and teachers, and creating a gathering space.
A highlight came earlier this year when his company was asked to supply ice cream for DreamWorks’ in-house release party for Dog Man, serving more than a thousand people. After having spent so many good years at DreamWorks, Moffat was delighted to help celebrate this accomplishment. He created flavors for the characters that included Evil Kitty Caramel, a salted caramel ice cream with a fudge ribbon. It was fun to think about what ice cream these characters would be into, he says: “It’s an extension of the storytelling, really.”
Moffat says that future plans include opening a secondary location close to the first. And he jokes that anyone who hires him to do development work these days can expect abundant free ice cream samples as part of the package.
Check out the latest WHITE LYON flavors at instagram.com/whitelyonhq.
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