Tom Hanks Talks Getting That Infamous Tom Cruise Christmas Cake In The Mail Every Year

Tom Hanks holds a fluffy grey cat in A Man Called Otto.
(Image credit: Niko Tavernise / CTMG, Inc.)

The Christmas season may be over but there are some Christmas traditions that are simply eternal. One of these is the famous Tom Cruise cake. The Mission: Impossible star famously sends out hundreds, if not thousands, of a specific cake to numerous people during the holiday season and Tom Hanks discusses just how popular the cake is among those that get a chance to eat it. 

In a recent appearance on Mythical Kitchen, Tom Hanks went through what his “last meal” would be if he could eat anything he wanted, and it turns out that dessert for that last meal would, in fact, be the famous Tom Cruise cake. Hanks is very happy he is one of the few that gets this special dessert once a year, saying…

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…Not everybody gets this white chocolate coconut bundt cake.

A lot has been made of this cake that is apparently so good that Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick co-star Glen Powell holds a party so that all his friends and family can have a taste of the cake. The people who attend the party reportedly look forward to it every year, and it turns out the same thing happens at Hanks' Playtone offices. He continues… 

Now what’s interesting is the folks down at the office, the Playtone World Headquarters, starting around Thanksgiving they start eyeing what mail has come in today. Is the big box coming in? Are we getting what has essentially been called the Tom Cruise cake? Because this is just off the scale fantastic.

The cake is so good that those that get one really do look forward to it. Michael Bay made a whole thing on Instagram out of receiving his. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that well as the Tom Cruise cake was apparently destroyed in transit. This is a cake worth savoring, and Tom Hanks says the people in his office do their best to share and make the cake last as long as possible, Apparently, the worst thing you can do is eat the last piece. Hanks says… 

Now what happens at the office is, the first couple of days people take that size of slice. But as time goes by we realize the days are numbered on the survival of this cake. So everybody starts slicing thinner and thinner slices. It's a mathematical proof that if you would just keep cutting everything in half, you will never run out of Tom Cruise cake. ‘Cause if you eat the last piece of Tom Cruise cake at Playtone, you’re gonna pay the piper. You’re gonna get a horrible work assignment or a pink notice.

With a cake that is apparently so good, it’s perhaps not a shock that is taken so seriously. Being in a movie with Tom Cruise is a big way to get added to the list. So maybe make a plan to get to know somebody in 2023 that knows Tom Cruise, and maybe next Christmas you can find out just how good the Tom Cruise cake really is.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.