Unfortunately, I was not on Tom Cruise’s holiday gifting list this year. So, unless I want to fork over $130 for delivery, or buy a plane ticket to California, then drive to Doan’s Bakery, I can’t experience the now-famous, Tom Hanks-loved White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake.
If you’re confused about why two of Hollywood’s most beloved Toms are talking about a cake, here’s the lowdown. Every year, Cruise gifts his closest friends the same White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake for the holidays. And, by the way, his friends are some of the best of the best in Hollywood, including Angela Bassett, Jimmy Fallon, Glenn Powell, and, of course, Tom Hanks.
On an episode of Mythical Kitchen’s YouTube series, “Last Meals,” Hanks gushed about the “Tom Cruise Cake,” naming it as one of the foods he’d like to eat for his (hypothetical) final meal. “This cake is so great, you can really only have it once a year. This is just off-the-scale fantastic,” Hanks raved.
If it’s so good that Tom Hanks wants to eat it at his last meal on Earth, it has to be pretty darn good, right?!
The Woodland Hills-based bakery behind the Bundt cake sells it on Goldbelly year-round for a whopping $130. However, after Hanks sang the praises of this celeb-loved cake, it sold out pretty quickly. You can still order it, it just won’t be delivered to you for about two months.
After hearing Hanks describe the decadent cake, I knew I needed to try it immediately, and that I couldn’t wait for a February delivery or dole out $130. So, I did what any sweet tooth does, and tried to make it myself—for less than $20, too!
The Copycat Tom Cruise Cake features a pound cake base, flavored with coconut and vanilla extracts, and packed with coconut flakes and white chocolate chips. The cake is finished off with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut flakes.
As with most pound cakes, this cake is almost too easy to make. The trickiest part is just ensuring you grease your Bundt pan enough so that the baked cake slides out easily. But even if you are missing a chunk of your cake, I’m a firm believer that you can fix everything with frosting—and who wouldn’t want extra cream cheese frosting, anyway?
Bailey Fink
I know that Hanks has very strong opinions about food—yes, I am talking about his Diet Cokagne cocktail—but I wasn’t sure if he was exaggerating just how good this cake is. He explained that everyone at his production company starts checking the mail a little bit more around the holidays, anxiously awaiting the cake’s arrival.
Hanks’ family even has a nickname for the cake—”The Tom Coo Cay”—named as such because they always talk about how good it is with their mouths already full of cake.
Needless to say, my expectations were high and, boy, does this cake live up to them. The pound cake is moist and loaded with buttery, coconutty, white chocolatey flavor. You really can never go wrong with a cream cheese frosting, and the toasted coconut on the outside provides more depth of flavor than the coconut inside. Altogether, this cake is divine.
It is a pretty traditional pound cake, so it’s dense—a little slice goes a long way. I definitely understand why Hanks says this is a once-a-year kind of cake. I think I’ll be taking a page from some of the celebrity recipients’ books and freezing half of the cake to enjoy later. That way I can enjoy my “Tom Coo Cay” for as long as possible.
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