For most individuals, vacation traditions contain household dinners, festive sweaters, and possibly a home made dessert. Nevertheless, in Hollywood, few rituals command as a lot fascination, or envy, as Tom Cruise’s legendary Christmas cake supply.
Each December, his unique record of recipients waits to see whether or not they have remained within the actor’s inside circle.
A coconut Bundt cake price $130 has change into the leisure world’s most coveted seasonal standing image, and never everybody makes the lower.
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How Tom Cruise’s Vacation Cake Custom Started
Lengthy earlier than the custom went viral, Tom Cruise quietly started sending his signature white chocolate coconut Bundt muffins to mates and collaborators.
The muffins come courtesy of Doan’s Bakery in Woodland Hills, California.
Cruise has relied on the household bakery since 2008, after Diane Keaton launched their dessert to his then-wife, Katie Holmes. From that second, the cake grew to become the middle of an annual mission.
Yearly, Cruise’s manufacturing firm, Cruise/Wagner Productions, compiles the record of recipients.
In accordance with bakery proprietor Eric Doan, the names are “just about the identical” yearly, totaling “a pair lots of muffins… a pair weeks forward [of Christmas].”
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Eric defined to the Day by day Mail, “I field them particularly in a present field for them, after which they [Cruise’s company] costume them up.”
Cruise orders muffins in a number of sizes, bigger ones for big-name mates and smaller variations “for workers, or who is aware of?”
Every cake is wrapped in luxurious paper, adorned with an decoration, and accompanied by a be aware from “Santa.”
Earlier messages famously learn, “Warmest needs to you this Vacation Season. Tom Cruise.”
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Tom Cruise’s Record Arrives In Hollywood Each December
The cake drop has change into such a significant occasion that some recipients announce their pleasure publicly.
Matthew Belloni, founding father of Puck Information, was fast to verify this 12 months’s deliveries.
Posting a photograph of the creamy coconut dessert on December 2, he wrote, “Information: I can affirm the annual Tom Cruise vacation reward cake has begun to reach in places of work and residences all through Hollywood.”
Through the years, the cake has reached a star-studded lineup, together with Glen Powell, Tom Hanks, Renee Zellweger, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Dakota Fanning, Whoopi Goldberg, Cobie Smulders, and Sherri Shepherd.
Even Spanish singer Victoria Canal shared her delight after receiving one final 12 months, writing, “Let or not it’s identified: The Tom Cruise Cake is a ten out of 10.”
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Nevertheless, whereas the custom sounds joyful, not each Hollywood title stays on the record perpetually, and shedding a spot can sting.
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When Cruise’s Cake Record Turns Mysterious
As Eric Doan revealed, not making the record typically leaves former recipients disillusioned.
“I do get lots of people who at one time obtained a cake as a result of they’d labored on a film or in some capability [with Cruise], after which they do not get one anymore,” he stated. “Individuals are available in and say, ‘Oh, we used to get it yearly. Now we do not as a result of we’re not doing the [movie] anymore.'”
One of the vital notable names to fall off the record is Brooke Shields.
Reflecting in 2023, she defined to PEOPLE, “I used to be on the record for some time. I had a superb ten-year run, and I bought the coconut cake yearly, which I used to be very blissful [about].”
She added that the cake initially got here from Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and their daughter, Suri, however over time, “it was no Suri and no Katie, and simply Tom [after their 2012 divorce]. Then it went from simply Tom for some time, however not each vacation. After which the cake stopped.”
Shields’ expertise solely deepened the thriller surrounding how Cruise decides who stays and who goes.
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Cruise’s Co-Stars Reveal Cake Record Guidelines
Whereas Tom Cruise himself has by no means publicly defined the standards, these near him have supplied intriguing clues.
Monica Barbaro, who starred in “Prime Gun: Maverick,” shared her understanding in a 2022 interview with The Wrap.
“I’ve heard that they will expire,” she stated. “As a result of he’s at all times working with so many new individuals, that I’ve heard that you do not get the cake for all times until you retain working with him.”
She added, “I do not know if we’ll discover out—that might break my coronary heart. That will be a very unhappy Christmas, the 12 months I do not get that cake.”
Her feedback added gasoline to hypothesis that Cruise’s cake record operates like a Hollywood loyalty program, standing maintained by means of continued collaboration.
The Coronary heart Behind Tom Cruise’s Longstanding Custom
Whereas a lot of the ritual is shrouded in playful secrecy, one story exhibits the heat behind the custom.
Eric Doan, who has by no means met Cruise regardless of years of baking for him, recalled a deeply significant second.
When his mom, Karen Doan, the bakery’s founder, was dying of most cancers in April 2023, Cruise reached out.
“I might love to fulfill him sometime,” he shared. “I imply, when my mother was dying with most cancers a pair years in the past, he truly known as her, like every week earlier than she handed. Actually, what a mensch. It was simply fairly cool.”
Behind the superstar mystique, the cake record is not only a fame-based ritual.
As a substitute, it’s a gesture of connection, gratitude, and consistency in a chaotic business.
