We tried Tom Cruise’s viral coconut cake – and it’s so good, ‘you can really only have it once a year’

Never mind being naughty or nice: celebrities are more interested in getting on Tom Cruise’s good side, with one of the world’s biggest movies stars curating a list of his closest friends who receive a special gift from him once a year.

Rosie O’Donnell and Tom Hanks are among those who get sent Tom Cruise’s coconut cake over Christmas.

The mythical cake, promising all that’s good in the world (white chocolate and coconut – name a better duo, we’ll wait), went viral when Hanks revealed on YouTube series Last Meals that he’d go out with that very cake.

“I don’t want you to go berserk, but I’m going to drop a name now,” the star said, before sharing it’s indeed “a Christmas gift we get every year from Tom Cruise”. 

Hanks said the cake is a hit at his production company’s office.

“As time goes by we realise the days are numbered on this cake.”

“Everybody starts slicing thinner and thinner slices,” Hanks shared of the team’s dedication to getting the last slice on the plate. “It’s mathematical proof that if you just keep cutting everything in half, you will never run out of Tom Cruise cake.” 

Does Tom Cruise bake his own cake?

We hate to break it to you, but Tom Cruise doesn’t actually personally bake the famous cake he gifts to celebs once a year.

The actor seems to order it from Doan’s Bakery, a small family-owned bakery in California, that ships the cake frozen through US site Goldbelly.

On the site, the bakery founded in 1984 and now run by a mother-and-son duo, is described as “a favourite among Hollywood’s A-listers”, while the cake has been reviewed by Cobie Smulders. 

“Unbelievable,” she called it. 

“The white chocolate coconut cake is Doan’s most famous creation and for good reason. They start with a ring of moist, luxurious coconut bundt cake, mix in chunks of sweet white chocolate, layer on rich cream cheese frosting, and then dust it all over with toasted coconut flakes. The result is a delicious, pillowy cake good enough to derail the strictest Hollywood diets,” Goldbelly describes.

We tried Tom Cruise’s cake of choice – here’s what we thought

There are several versions of the famous white chocolate coconut cake online. We tried the most popular of the lot – a version shared by allrecipes.

Begin by preheating your oven to 175°C. However, if you have an oven that you know tends to bake things a little faster, lower the temperature as this bundt cake bakes for over an hour in the oven and you wouldn’t want it to burn.

For the cake, you’ll start by beating your butter and sugar, making this more of a dense butter cake. This recipe uses about half a brick of butter and three cups of sugar, so it’s also a rich and sweet cake (one that can even be enjoyed without topping).

You’ll add in your eggs, six of them, one by one, creating an airiness in the cake, before adding sour cream to give it a little more moisture and richness, as well as coconut extract.

Finally, you’ll add in your dry ingredients, which includes baking powder to make sure your cake rises, as well as fresh flaked coconut and finely chopped white chocolate.

We ended up baking the cake for a full hour-and-a-half, and let it cool down completely before adding the topping.

The frosting of this cake is made from cream cheese – the much-needed tartness cuts through the sweetness – that coats the cake completely, before fresh coconut shavings are gently pressed around the cake. 

Our thoughts? This cake isn’t light and fluffy, but has a fine crumb, as a lot of butter and coconut cakes do. It’s perfect with a cup of tea. As for the flavour: it’s a sweet cake, but not overly so, and carries that coconut flavour through.

In a word? Unbelievable.