Could you imagine getting a Christmas cake in the mail from Tom Cruise every year?
Cruise has a lot of strange ticks, but one of the most surprising things about him is that he sends holiday cakes to a select group of celebrity friends annually, and he's been doing it for a couple of decades. No wonder he has so many close friends and his co-stars love working with him.
Sending these luxurious cakes every year, to a group of people no less, doesn't just remind everyone that Cruise is caring. It reminds everyone, recipient or not, that Cruise is absolutely minted. It turns out he doesn't just spend his millions (he's worth a whopping $600 million) on Scientology, child support for Suri, really huge compounds, and movies filmed in space.
With his Mission Impossible salary alone, we don't think a couple of cakes would break Cruise's bank. He's the highest-paid actor per word and the biggest confectionary buyer in the world. But who's a part of the lucky group that gets these little sugary wonders?
The Cake In Question
The reasoning behind the cakes stems from Cruise's own sugar-ban. Since he doesn't consume sugar, even though he loves it, while training for big blockbusters like Mission Impossible, he figured he'd send all of his friends a sugary treat instead.
In 2018, Cruise told James Corden (who's also a recipient), "I send [cakes] to everyone... and I wait for the calls. I’m like: Tell me about it."
Corden got a chocolate cake delivered the morning before he hosted the Grammys. The card wished him luck. "I was like, 'This is how you look so good. You make everyone else around you fat!"
The "Cruise Cake," as Kirsten Dunst dubbed it, is a White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake (even though Corden got chocolate) from Doan’s Bakery, a family-run business in Woodland Hills, California. They've been making the cake, which is frosted in cream cheese frosting and dusted with toasted coconut flakes, for a quarter of a century.
The matriarch of the bakery, the owner, Eric Doan's mother, started making them when they opened in 1984. "It’s just a unique cake that we dreamt up 25 years ago and we’ve always done it for different cafes, restaurants, and caterers." The bakery is largely a wholesale business that ships through Goldbelly for $99, but you can get it at the bakery for $50.
Cruise wasn't the first celebrity to gift Doan's bakery goods. Diane Keaton was first. When Keaton and Cruise's then-wife Katie Holmes wanted a cake on the set of Mad Money, they ordered from each of their favorite bakeries to see which cake was best. Cruise was the judge and liked Keaton's, which turned out to be the bundt cake.
Strangely enough, Cruise's never even met the Doan's. They're ordered, packaged in the fancy wrappings at another site, and sent out. That's it.
Even though Cruise hasn't met the Doan's, they still send him thank yous for his continued support. They didn't know how they were going to survive through the pandemic, but Cruise "kept us in business," Doan said.
Billy Bush even went to the bakery to see what the fascination was with the cake. He tried it and loved it of course.
There Have Been Murmurings Of The Cakes For Years
The few who are privileged enough to receive the cakes have let slip of their nature over the years. They ask each other in hushed tones, "Are you on the cake list?" The way they talked about them, it's like this cake alone came down from confectionary heaven.
Forget becoming an EGOT, all celebrities care about is getting on the coveted cake list. Whenever Christmas rolls near, the recipients hope and pray they're still on the list to receive one. You obviously have to have such a profound effect on Cruise to make him put you on the list. Let's just say that Leah Remini is definitely not on there.
One thing that's clear across the board though: the cakes are delicious, and have become a Christmas tradition that is loved by all.
Rosie O'Donnell says that the official start to Christmas is when she receives her cake in the mail from "Tommy."
Kirsten Dunst started getting one every year after she co-starred with Cruise in Interview with the Vampire when she was eleven. She told Graham Norton that "it's the best coconut cake I've ever had in my life," and that her family goes crazy when it's delivered. "It's a major thing."
When Renee Zellweger went on the Graham Norton Show, he asked her if she was still "on the cake list." She was Cruise's co-star on Jerry Maguire. Funny enough, Norton is also on the list, but he didn't know because his staff had been eating it every year without telling him. Apparently, Cruise also sent Louis Theroux’s grandmother 100 cupcakes when she turned 100 as well.
Jimmy Fallon calls the cake "unbelievable," while Henry Cavill describes it as "the most decadent, the most amazing." Barbara Walters ate hers on love television while hosting The View, and her co-hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Sherri Shepherd, and Jenny McCarthy, all revealed they're also on the list of recipients.
Cobie Smulders, his Jack Reacher co-star, calls it "Tom Cruise deliciousness." She keeps hers frozen and slowly eats the cake throughout the year. She told Fallon it'll be a dark day if she ever falls off Cruise’s cake list.
Other recipients include Angela Bassett, also a co-star, and Dakota and Elle Fanning. But there are probably hundreds more.
The Guardian wrote that by sending these cakes, Cruise is sending a message to the world, and if we could all use our infinite wealth to package cakes to send to people, then "the world would undoubtedly be a better place." Say what you will about Cruise, he's one of the most generous celebrities in Hollywood, spreading joy one cake at a time.
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