It’s the most delicious time of year for everyone on Tom Cruise’s gift list.
The Mission: Impossible star is known for his gift-giving of a very specific item — a white chocolate coconut bundt cake from Doan’s Bakery in Woodland Hills, Calif. — and the delicacy has developed its own lore.
Each December, the cakes get delivered and A-list recipients don’t mind it being known that they’re on Cruise’s nice list. Glen Powell tipped off people to his delivery this year, sharing a photo of his Dec. 13 on Instagram, writing, “The Cruise cake has arrived.” Powell, who appeared in Top Gun: Maverick with Cruise, has said he throws a “party” each year when the cake comes, inviting friends over to indulge.
Spanish American singer-songwriter Victoria Canal, who denied a report that she was dating Cruise over the summer, happily accepted her special delivery this year too.
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“Let it be known: The Tom Cruise Cake is a 10 out of 10,” Canal said in an Instagram video posted Dec. 9.
Around the same time, the Today show stars cut into what they dubbed “Cruise’s iconic coconut cake,” courtesy of Carson Daly, who had it delivered through Goldbelly. The entire segment, on Dec. 13, was the gang — including Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Al Roker — eating cake for breakfast.
While Cruise himself doesn’t eat the cake (“I love sugar, but I can’t eat it because when I’m training…,” the action star said in 2018), recipients include Kirsten Dunst, Tom Hanks, Angela Bassett, Rosie O’Donnell, Renée Zellweger, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, James Corden and Jimmy Fallon, to name a few.
Yahoo Entertainment has long been tracking the Cruise cake phenomenon. We’ve reported on who gets it and who’s dropped off the list. We’ve tried it. We’ve tried to replicate it. But it’s always fun to go to the source — bakery owner Eric Doan — for a little sweet talk about the famous confection.
‘We’re just this tiny place’
“There’s a curious fascination around it,” Doan told Yahoo Entertainment on Dec. 17.
To be clear: Doan is not seeking press about the “Cruise Cake,” though he gets requests from all over including Germany. He’s protective of his longtime customer, not wanting to say too much. On the bakery website, there’s zero mention of a “Cruise Cake” or acknowledgement of Cruise’s endorsement. Doan didn’t know 2024 breakthrough star Powell got his cake delivery or Regram the Twisters actor’s social media post about it. He didn’t watch the Today show segment — or even know it aired.
“We don’t really ever advertise the celebrity side of it, but we’re super blessed to have the endorsements,” Doan said.
It’s not that Doan isn’t appreciative of it all. He certainly is, acknowledging that Cruise’s annual order of “hundreds” of cakes annually have kept his small family owned and operated business afloat at times over “the last decade,” especially during the COVID pandemic, and Cruise’s stamp of approval has led to a great demand for the cake. It’s just that Doan is really, really busy baking.
The day we talk, he himself had baked and frosted 50 coconut bundt cakes for shipping. That’s the daily production this time of year — with backorders into February. That’s in addition to his regular bakery duties, which he’s assisted in by his wife, Carrie, and a small staff. Not to mention big orders like Cruise’s and custom cakes. He’s working 12 to 14 hour days, seven days a week — a pace he’s kept up since Thanksgiving.
“Honestly, I’m just exhausted,” Doan said, but also “incredibly grateful.” He’ll keep up the pace until January where he takes a brief, but well-deserved break.
A few factoids about the “Cruise Cake”: The order is managed by Cruise’s production company’s team. It’s for between 200 and 300 cakes, which the bakery fulfills over several weeks. Doan’s is given special boxes for the cakes, which his team gussies up with bows, ornaments (the past few years it’s been a blingy reindeer) and the custom notes. Cruise’s team delivers the cakes, near and far. Doan’s isn’t privy to the list of recipients.
While it’s a VIP experience, anyone in the U.S. can order the cake through Goldbelly. However, overnight delivery comes at a cost: $129.95. That’s led to some criticism Doan has heard about the price. But if you go to his bakery, the 10-inch cake that feeds 12 to 16 retails for $50. There are also smaller sizes, including one that feeds six to eight ($39) and a mini for ($9).
“People have these expectations,” Doan said, “and, you know, we’re just this tiny place.”
And while the cake makes headlines each December, it’s not a holiday cake per se. It’s a popular seller throughout the year — especially as a birthday cake — so those unable to order in December should try in, say, June.
The history of the Cruise cake
The bundt cake was concocted by Doan’s mother, Karen, who started her business in 1983. It’s a coconut bundt cake with chunks of sweet white chocolate and layers of cream cheese frosting, and it’s dusted with toasted coconut flakes.
Its path to stardom is as follows: Diane Keaton tried the cake and fell in love. In 2008, she co-starred in the film Mad Money with Cruise’s then-wife, Katie Holmes. Both women claimed to know the best place to get a cake, so each one flew in their selection to the Shreveport, La., set — Keaton’s from Doan’s — and Cruise did a taste test to pick the winner. Now, years after Cruise’s marriage to Holmes ended, his love of gifting the cake has continued.
Doan’s mother died from cancer in 2023, which has been “extremely difficult” on the baker, he said. He’s trying to protect her legacy and everything she created.
“She’s definitely smiling down,” Doan said. “She got to see a little bit of [the fruits of her labor] … I know she’s got to just be thrilled” by the runaway success..
Doan shared that in his mom’s final months, she was in the hospital watching a daytime talk show “and they happened to be talking about her cake,” he said, noting that she was tickled by it. “I mean, [the timing] was kind of weird. It’s like … coincidence?” (Kelly Clarkson did a story around that time.)
In Karen’s final days, her most famous customer reached out to her, which was very special to the family.
“About a week before my mom passed, Tom actually called her and talked to her for a good long 20 minutes or something,” Doan said. “I don’t know exactly how it happened, but that was pretty cool” of him.
Cruise also sent a big flower arrangement for Karen’s memorial.
“I know it meant the world to her,” Doan said.
