While there are a number of ways to distinguish if a celebrity is an A-lister, such as net worth or number of awards, one of the most coveted is who makes Tom Cruise’s holiday gift list.
Each year, Cruise sends a $126 coconut Bundt cake to a list of Hollywood celebrities who he has worked with.
Some stars have been on the list for decades, while others come and go
For instance, Brooke Shields just revealed that this past holiday season was the first time she hadn’t received one of his famously delicious cakes in 10 years.
‘I was on the list for a while – I had a good 10-year run, and I got the coconut cake every year,’ the actress told People.
‘It was from them and Suri, so it was the three of them, and then soon it was no Suri and no Katie and just Tom,’ Shields said.
‘Then it went from just Tom for a while, but not every holiday. And then the cake stopped.’
She begged: ‘I want to get back on that cake list. It’s the best cake. Tom, I need to be back on the cake list.’
Blacklisted: Brooke Shields (pictured with ex-boyfriend Dean Cain in 1995) just revealed that this past holiday season was the first time she hadn’t received one in 10 years
As per Goldbelly, the cake consists of ‘a ring of moist, luxurious coconut Bundt cake,’ ‘chunks of sweet white chocolate,’ a layer of cream cheese frosting, and toasted coconut flakes on top.
Karen and Eric Doan – the mother-and-son duo who own the bakery that makes the cake – were equally grateful for Cruise’s generous annual contributions.
‘This year has been a really rough ride,’ Eric told Yahoo back in December 2020.
‘In March and April, we wondered if we were even going to be able to stay open.’
‘Now, I’m spun like a top,’ he said of the holiday season, adding that Cruise’s order is ‘honestly is one of the things that kept us alive’ during the pandemic.
‘There were years they kept us in business,’ he added.
Yummy! As per Goldbelly, the cake consists of ‘a ring of moist, luxurious coconut Bundt cake,’ ‘chunks of sweet white chocolate,’ a layer of cream cheese frosting, and coconut flakes on top
Tom to the rescue: ‘There were years they kept us in business,’ Eric Doan – co-owner of the bakery – said of Cruise’s cake orders
While it has been said that Cruise has never tried the cake himself, Karen can confirm that he has tried it at least once.
Diane Keaton introduced Cruise to the cake. Karen told ET that Keaton and Katie Holmes had a contest on who knew of the best cake.
They decided Cruise would be the judge and each sent him a cake. He picked Keaton’s, which was the coconut Bundt cake from Doan Bakery.
Even though the correspondent reminded her that Cruise famously ‘doesn’t have sugar,’ she has objected, stating: ‘He eats it. He eats it.’
Not all of Cruise’s cake recipients are Hollywood stars; he also sends cakes to producers, journalists, and executives.
Cruise allegedly arranged for 300 Christmas cakes to be shipped over from LA to the UK on his private jet as a gift for Mission: Impossible 7 crew members.
A source told The Sun: ‘Tom wanted to give the team on Mission: Impossible a treat for Christmas and decided that only cakes from his favorite bakery in LA would do.’
Famous or not, everyone seems to love his cakes, with Kirsten Dunst calling it ‘the best coconut cake I’ve ever had in my life,’ while James Corden has called it ‘unbelievable.’
Here are all the celebrities who have spoken out about having the honor of making Cruise’s cake list.
Kirsten Dunst was the first one to reveal Cruise’s annual cake gifting tradition
Kirsten Dunst met Cruise while filming the 1994 film Interview With a Vampire
Dunst was the first celebrity to speak out about the cakes – revealing Cruise’s annual tradition to the world.
In a 2015 interview with Stylist magazine, she said: ‘[Tom] sends me a cake every Christmas.
‘It’s so good – a coconut cake with white chocolate chips. It gets eaten within a day in my house.’
She also appeared on The Graham Norton Show in 2016 to dish on what she dubbed ‘the Cruise cake.’
‘He gives me this cake every Christmas,’ she explained.
‘We call it the Cruise cake. It’s just this coconut cake. It’s the best coconut cake I’ve ever had in my life.’
She first met Cruise during a screen test for their 1994 film Interview With A Vampire. In fact, she credits him for helping her land the role.
‘I auditioned many, many times for this role. This was also a huge deal for me. This was my breakout role,’ Dunst said during Netflix’s Playback.
‘And then I had another screen test after that with Tom Cruise, and I remember I was the tallest of all the young girls.
‘He had to pick each one of us up and carry us around just to see how we looked against Tom and who looked the most childlike.
‘I remember Tom whispering to me, “Tuck your legs under,” so I’d look as tiny as possible ’cause I was the tallest girl.’
‘So I knew he was kind of like rooting for me. We were both from New Jersey, and I think, he was like, “Let this Jersey girl have it,”‘ shared Dunst.
Tom Hanks has said that the coconut Bundt cake would be part of his last meal
Tom Hanks has revealed that Cruise’s coconut Bundt cake would be his last meal if he was on death row
Tom Hanks has raved about what a treat it is to receive Cruise’s annual Christmas gift.
In fact, Hanks claimed he would include it in his last meal if he was on death row.
While on the Mythical Kitchen series Last Meal, he claimed he’d end with the Bundt cake as dessert while also enjoying challah bread French toast, an In-N-Out Double-Double, Greek salad with avocado, calamari and the Taste Of History platter from El Cholo restaurant with a diet Dr. Pepper.
Hanks lit up when Cruise’s cake was brought out during the interview.
‘Look at it! Look at it. Isn’t it gorgeous?’ he exclaimed.
‘This cake is so great, you can really only have it once a year, which works out perfectly because I don’t order it. It arrives as a gift at Christmas.’
Later on, Hanks boasted that he was part of the annual list and explained how he shares the gift with his television company, Playtone.
‘This is a Christmas gift that we get every year from Tom Cruise,’ Hanks stated.
‘Now what’s interesting is the folks down at the office, the Playtone world headquarters, starting about Thanksgiving they start eyeing what mail has come in today.
‘”Are we getting what has essentially been called the Tom Cruise cake?” Because this is off-the-scale fantastic.
‘Everybody starts slicing thinner and thinner slices. It’s a mathematical proof that if you just keep cutting everything in half, you will never run out of Tom Cruise cake.’
Hanks and Cruise worked on America: A Tribute To Heroes together so they may have gotten closer, but it’s likely the Forrest Gump actor got on the list because of his sheer stardom.
Jon Hamm doesn’t know how he ended up on Cruise’s cake list before Top Gun: Maverick
Jon Hamm worked with Cruise on Top Gun: Maverick, but had been on the list long before that
Jon Hamm has been getting the renowned Cruise cakes for some time now.
Hamm spoke of the cake during a 2022 interview with THR calling it ‘the best cake I’ve ever had in my life’ while adding that he likes to ‘savor’ it for as long as possible.
When asked if he was on the list, he said, ‘Yes, I am. It’s a very anticipated cake, that’s for sure.
‘I don’t know when that particular piece of information got out, but I had been on it even before I worked on this film.’
He continued: ‘I don’t know how, but I remember getting it at one point and thinking, “This might be the best cake I’ve ever had in my life.” And it still delivers, even over the pandemic.
‘It does keep, I’ll say that. It keeps for a while, and like a lot of cakes, it’s good a little stale, too. So we savor it. We do not descend upon it.’
Hamm worked with Cruise on Top Gun: Maverick and has raved about the warm welcome he received from The Mummy star.
‘I’ll never forget my first day on set. There’s Tom Cruise, and he says, “Hey,” comes up, gives me a big hug and says, “It’s so good to have you here,”‘ Hamm shared during an interview with TODAY.
‘It’s a rare thing to be in the presence of a guy like that,’ he said of Cruise.
However, he had actually had met Cruise 10 years prior to Top Gun: Maverick at Jimmy Kimmel’s house.
Hamm said Kimmel was known for throwing all-day football viewing parties with big groups of people.
‘They’d have a keg and he’d make pizzas,’ he said on the Howard Stern Show.
‘It was LA so it’s sunny and games start at 10 in the morning.’
At first, when he had heard that Cruise was at the party, Hamm thought he was being pranked in classic Kimmel fashion.
However, he realized that ‘it’s not a Tom Cruise impersonator, it is Tom Cruise — with his mom.’
On top of it, Cruise turned out to be a big fan of Hamm’s work in Mad Men, which ran from 2007 to 2015.
‘He was like — in a very Tom Cruise way, very direct and intense — “I love that show. I love that show,”‘ he recalled.
‘”Thanks man.” Holy cow. That was a good day.’
