{"id":465188,"date":"2025-12-22T21:38:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/465188\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T21:38:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:38:37","slug":"the-white-chocolate-coconut-bundt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/465188\/","title":{"rendered":"The White Chocolate Coconut Bundt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt is a holiday season tradition that Tom Cruise<\/a> sends what is assumed to be his favorite cake<\/a> to an untold number of luminaries in his Rolodex. It is also a tradition that we, the denizens of entertainment media, are compelled to discuss this cake and its lore.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the uninitiated: Cruise annually gifts his friends, associates and past co-stars<\/a> the White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake from Doan\u2019s bakery<\/a> in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills. This cake reportedly first came to the Mission Impossible star in 2008 via then-wife Katie Holmes while she working with the late Diane Keaton, a Doan\u2019s fan, on the film Mad Money. He served it at a party or two and, at some point, started gifting it each December.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe confection is commonly referred to as the \u201cTom Cruise Christmas Cake\u201d or just the \u201cTom Cruise Cake,\u201d and googling either string of words will indeed direct you to Doan\u2019s page on luxe food delivery service GoldBelly<\/a>. There, the bundt goes for a whopping $139.95, though as of the hour of this story\u2019s publishing it is sold out. But there is an easier (and less expensive) way to get your paws on this fat ring of simple carbohydrates: driving to the bakery, where the price tag is a more reasonable $66, and buying one from a member of Doan\u2019s very friendly staff. So that is exactly what I did. In the name of journalism.<\/p>\n

\n\tJoining me in this taste test were three colleagues, senior entertainment reporter Mia Galuppo, senior writer Gary Baum and vp video production & development Jason Rovou. If you\u2019d like to hear our full debate \u2014 sans chewing sounds, promise! \u2014\u00a0it is on the most recent episode of the podcast I\u2019m Having an Episode (Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon Music<\/a>,\u00a0Apple<\/a>). For the broad strokes, read our reactions below.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut first, we should note some existing prejudices. I do not understand white chocolate, Mia dislikes coconut, and Jason previously tried the cake in the past. Gary is only burdened by his own high standards.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for the controls of our experiment: The cake was served as fresh as possible, procured first thing in the morning from Doan\u2019s and couriered to the THR offices in my Chevy. It was still cold, presumably from spending the night in the refrigerator, and was served in a barren recording studio without beverages. My bad.<\/p>\n

\n\tOur initial reactions\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMIKEY<\/strong> \u201cThere\u2019s more texture than I was expecting. It is a poundy Bundt cake, clearly a lot of butter. There\u2019s frosting around the whole thing. There\u2019s sweetened coconut on top and, on the bottom, chunks of \u2018white chocolate\u2019 and toasted coconut. You want to know what? It tastes like sugar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGARY<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m impressed by the complexity of texture that they get across here, particularly with the toasted coconut on one end and the nibs. I do think that you\u2019re basically just getting a pure sugar blast, which is what I think most people want out of a holiday cake. This is not about subtlety. It\u2019s just hitting you hard. It\u2019s interesting. It\u2019s more coconutty than I was expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIKEY<\/strong><\/strong> \u201c\u2018It\u2019s just hitting you hard\u2019 would be a real great tagline for this cake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIA<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m having great time with it. I think it\u2019s a really delicious cake. It does not taste like coconut, as a self-professed hater of coconut. Granted, I did not eat the desiccated coconut around the side of it. It isn\u2019t overwhelmingly a coconut flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJASON<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s a very festive cake. It\u2019s like one of those Hostess snowballs \u2026 the big white coconut ball. And I will say the slice I previously had was at room temperature, so it felt a little lighter. I don\u2019t remember the white chocolate nibs being at the bottom of the cake, which threw me a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd after a few more bites\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGARY<\/strong> \u201cI do think that we\u2019re not doing this cake the full service by not complimenting it with a cup of coffee or something to kind of balance it. I think that by just having it essentially raw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIKEY<\/strong> \u201cSorry for not bringing coffee, Gary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIA<\/strong> \u201cYou\u2019re right that this would be really good with coffee. It reminds me of the type of cake and your grandmother is sitting there with a thing of black coffee and she\u2019s spooning this in like it\u2019s a breakfast cake almost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIKEY<\/strong> \u201cCoconut is a very grandmotherly flavor profile.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGARY<\/strong><\/strong> \u201cHow much better is this cake either, A, knowing you got it from Tom Cruise and therefore you\u2019re judging it on a curve and or, B, knowing that you\u2019re experiencing it with others who think that you got it from Tom Cruise? I feel like that adds this whole meta element to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIA<\/strong> \u201cOh, this would be a good re-gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf this cake were a Tom Cruise movie, which would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGARY<\/strong> \u201cProbably The Firm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIKEY<\/strong> \u201cIt is firm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGARY<\/strong> \u201cAnd the Caribbean element.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWould we drive to Woodland Hills, spend $66, and bring it to a holiday party?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tALL<\/strong> \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIA<\/strong> \u201cI think that\u2019s a really solid price point for a holiday festive cake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGARY<\/strong> \u201cYes, in part because you\u2019re getting a conversation out of it. But is it a $66 cake? No, it\u2019s really not. There are plenty of other exciting cakes or pies or different things you could get. We could name 20 other places. But being able to talk about the sort of socioanthropological element of the Tom Cruise of it all, that adds a lot to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWould we spend $139.95 to send one to a friend on Goldbelly?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMIA<\/strong> \u201cIf they\u2019re a big Tom Cruise fan, if they\u2019re watching Days of Thunder every year, sure, that is a fantastic, thoughtful gift. I think it just depends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJASON<\/strong> \u201cI have a friend that I was actually thinking of sending this to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMIKEY<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019d consider it, but only to prank someone into thinking it might have actually come from Tom Cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tImmediately after the tasting, the leftover cake was put on display in the bullpen of THR\u2019s Los Angeles office. Many ate. Only four shared their thoughts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cUpon first bite, I appreciate the moist, fluffy texture with nice coconut flavor and lovely cream cheese frosting. A solid Bundt cake. But what sets it apart: the little morsels of brown-sugary, almost butterscotchy crunchy goodness. I guess this is the white chocolate? I\u2019d be happy to eat this once a year if someone gifted it to me.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Jennifer H. Levin, managing editor <\/strong>(Note: Jen went to pastry school, so I\u2019d trust her above the rest of us.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would have this cake again! And I\u2019m saying that as someone who normally wouldn\u2019t pick cake off a menu because it\u2019s usually too dry, and wouldn\u2019t pick coconut when I could have chocolate. It wasn\u2019t my favorite dessert of all time, but it was fresh, moist and I liked the flavors.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Lisa de los Reyes, senior copy editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a good cake, though nothing good enough to justify the lore Hollywood has placed behind this thing. There\u2019s nothing wrong with it, the cake\u2019s moist and sweet and the frosting\u2019s good. (The coconut dries it out too much though.) But nothing about eating this has helped me understand why this is the pastry Tom Cruise wheels out to the big wigs year after year.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Ethan Millman, music editor <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was fine but not as good as the cake slices at El Super. Have you ever had a $3 slice of cake from el super? Incredible.\u201d \u2014\u00a0Nicole Fell, assistant editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMikey O\u2019Connell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a holiday season tradition that Tom Cruise sends what is assumed to be his favorite cake…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":465189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[82619,171,211734,147903,211735,11683,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-465188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cake","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-im-having-an-episode","11":"tag-is-it-cake","12":"tag-thrs-original-podcasts","13":"tag-tom-cruise","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115765387119899426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}