Getting Tom Cruise‘s famous holiday gift cake is such a celebration that his Top Gun: Maverick co-star Glen Powell throws a party when it arrives.
Yes, the celebrity-hyped and Yahoo taste-tasted white chocolate coconut bundt cake — made by Doan’s Bakery in Woodland Hills, Calif., and shipped to Cruise’s VIP list — is back as a talking point for the stars as the holiday season commences. Powell, a breakout star from the blockbuster movie, was a guest on Wednesday’s Jennifer Hudson Show, and endorsed the culinary concoction as “the most delicious cake you’ve ever had.”
“Tom Cruise has this amazing tradition every holiday — he sends the ‘Tom Cruise Cake,'” Powell, 34, explained. “The ‘Cruise Cake’ is a very famous thing. If you worked with Tom Cruise or [have] done a Tom Cruise movie, you get this Tom Cruise cake. Over the course of time, it’s turned into this global operation where every Christmas he’ll send out I don’t know how many — it could be thousands [of cakes]…”
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As for his review, “It is the most delicious cake you’ve ever had,” the Austin, Texas, native said. “My friends who have tried it, they love it so much that they hit me up right around December 1. ‘Hey, has it arrived yet?’ So now I have a party at my house where I’ll have the Cruise cake. It’s my ‘Cruise Cake Party.’ And I’ll invite people over to try a bite or two.”
Hudson was curious, asking, “It’s a party for the cake?” Powell replied yes, but added that there is only one cake so guests “can’t get greedy. I really have to limit people. I can’t let them come back for seconds.” He said it’s “demolished” by the end of the night. Hudson, who isn’t yet on the list apparently, asked Powell to send her a piece, clearly intrigued by the whole thing.
Celebrities have been raving about this cake for years. Rosie O’Donnell has posted photos of it on Instagram. Kirsten Dunst has said she invites her family over to devour it. Jimmy Fallon called it “unbelievable,” Henry Cavill called it “decadent” while Renée Zellweger, Angela Bassett, James Corden, Cobie Smulders and Graham Norton have also all raved about it. Barbara Walters and The View co-hosts once ate it on-air. Last year, there was a report that Cruise, 60, shipped 300 of the coconut cakes from the L.A. bakery to London for Mission: Impossible crew members.
Cruise — who was introduced to the cake by then-wife Katie Holmes who learned about it from Diane Keaton (it’s a good story) — said in 2018 that he sends the cakes to everyone “and I wait for the calls,” from recipients contacting him to say how good it is.
Yahoo previously spoke to Eric Doan, who runs the small, family-owned bakery started by his 80-year-old mother Karen, for the scoop on the cake, which a coconut bundt cake base with sweet white chocolate chunks, layers of cheese frosting and toasted coconut flakes. He was casual discussing the celebrity-touted treat, saying, “It’s just a unique cake that we dreamt up 25 years ago.” Though he did add that it’s “made with a lot of love.”
Each year, Cruise’s Odin Productions company places a huge order. Doan gets boxes from Cruise’s team and when the cakes are ready they are taken to a secondary location where they are spruced up extra special with pretty holiday wrapping for Cruise’s gift list. Cruise’s team then ships them to his VIPs around the world.
Rosie O’Donnell has shared photos of cake box, grandly decorated by Cruise’s team and flown around the globe:
“There were years they kept us in business,” Doan said of Cruise’s annual order.
On the bakery website, you’d have no idea that they are the home of the Cruise cake — it’s merely listed as White Chocolate Coconut Cake on the cake page. However, they do ship through GoldBelly, which has been known to drop Cruise’s name in promoting the cake. If you want to have the experience but save some money, a Yahoo writer also came up with a DIY Cruise cake option.
Powell worked with Cruise in megahit Top Gun: Maverick, which came out in May and became one of the highest-grossing film ever at the domestic box office. Fellow star Miles Teller has said Cruise reached out to him about a possible Top Gun 3.
