About The Tom Cruise Coconut Bundt Cake
Every holiday season, actor Tom Cruise sends his friends and favorite coworkers from the year the “famous Tom Cruise coconut cake.” The cake is a white chocolate coconut bundt cake from Doan’s Bakery in Los Angeles, CA. This homemade white chocolate coconut bundt cake recipe is inspired by the famous Tom Cruise coconut cake!
The bundt cake is moist and tangy because of sour cream in the batter. It’s studded with white chocolate and flavored with both coconut and vanilla, and frosted with a creamy cream cheese frosting and covered with lightly toasted coconut flakes.
For more fun and unique bundt cake recipes, check out Hummingbird High‘s bundt cake recipe collection!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to make the famous Tom Cruise coconut cake, let’s talk about some key ingredients:
Sources, Recommendations, and Substitutions
- Nonstick Baking Spray: I like Bak-Klene ZT All Purpose Release Spray. Avoid using a baking spray made with butter, coconut oil, or shortening. While recipe testing, I found that these sprays don’t release bundt cakes as easily!
- Kosher Salt: I know from years of recipe testing that kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes. But you can replace the kosher salt in the recipe with table salt. Just use half the amount listed in the recipe when you do!
- Coconut Extract: I used McCormick Coconut Extract that I found at my local grocery store. If you want to buy something online, I’ve used LorAnn Coconut Bakery Emulsion and Watson Coconut Extract for past recipes and liked the results! If you don’t want to source coconut extract, you can skip it completely or replace it with pure vanilla extract. Your cake will taste less coconutty though.
- Shredded Coconut: I found in recipe testing that both sweetened or unsweetened shredded works in this recipe. Use unsweetened coconut if you prefer a less sweet dessert.
- White Chocolate: For this recipe, I recommend using chopped white chocolate from a baking bar like Ghirardelli Classic White Baking Bar. I don’t recommend using white chocolate chips—they tend to melt into the pan, making it hard to turn out the bundt cake!
Key Steps In The Recipe (With Photos!)
How To Store Tom Cruise Coconut Cake
Store the bundt cake, under a cake dome or a large bowl turned upside down, for up to 3 days at room temperature. After that, tightly wrap any leftover slices in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 more days.
How To Freeze This Cake Properly
Yes, with reservations. You can freeze the cake after it’s been baked, but before glazing it. Tightly wrap the entire cake in two layers of plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. To serve, thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and then for 1 to 2 hours at room temperature before glazing and serving.
Tips To Know For This Recipe
- The most time consuming part about ingredient prep is chopping the white chocolate. You need to finely chop the chocolate into small ⅛- and ¼-inch pieces. Any larger, and you’ll risk the chocolate sinking to the bottom of the cake while baking and sticking to the pan!
- Speaking of which, most cake recipes instruct you to prep their baking pans first. However, it’s better to grease a bundt pan right before filling with batter. That’s because bundt pans require a LOT more grease than traditional cake pans. And all that grease has a tendency to slide down the sides of the pan and pool at the bottom. But by greasing the bundt pan immediately before filling it, you avoid that issue entirely!
- Make sure to turn cake out while it’s still warm. Several legit sources recommend cooling the your bundt cake for only 10 minutes before turning it out. And it’s true—a warm cake is easier to turn out than one that’s cooled completely.
Get the Recipe:
Tom Cruise Coconut Bundt Cake (Copycat Doan’s Bakery Recipe)
This is the famous Tom Cruise coconut bundt cake that he gifts every holiday season! The bundt cake is made with a moist sour cream cake base studded with white chocolate and topped with cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut.
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For The White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake
For The Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
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First, make the coconut bundt cake. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.
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Mix the dry ingredients, then the wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a liquid measuring cup, whisk together the sour cream and the coconut and vanilla extracts.
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Cream the sugar and butter, then add the eggs. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar and butter. Beat on medium until light, fluffy, and doubled in volume, 3 to 4 minutes, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl as necessary. Reduce the mixer to low and add the eggs one at a time, adding the next egg only after the previous one has been fully incorporated, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl after each addition.
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Add the dry and wet ingredients, then the white chocolate. With the mixer still on low, add the the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the wet ingredients in two parts, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat until just combined, then scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, then beat on low for an additional 30 seconds. Add the white chocolate and distributed evenly throughout the batter, about 1 minute. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, and beat on low for an additional 30 seconds.
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Prep and fill the bundt pan. Generously spray a 12-cup capacity bundt pan with nonstick baking spray. Immediately pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Set the filled bundt pan on the sheet pan.
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Bake the bundt cake. Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
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Cool the bundt cake. After 10 minutes, place a serving plate or second wire rack over the bundt cake and flip the cake to turn it out of its pan. Cool completely before frosting.
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Toast the shredded coconut. Spread the shredded coconut in a large nonstick frying pan over low heat. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes, using a spatula to toss the flakes occasionally, until fragrant but still pale. Remove from heat and scrape the coconut flakes onto a plate to stop them from cooking further.
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Make the cream cheese frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese, butter, and extracts. Beat on medium-high for 5 minutes, until very soft and creamy.Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. With the mixer on low, gradually add the confectioners’ sugar and salt and beat until just combined.Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with the rubber spatula once more. Then, beat on medium-high for 5 minutes, until completely smooth.
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Frost and decorate the bundt cake. Use an offset spatula to cover the top of the cake with the frosting completely. Garnish with the shredded coconut, pressing the coconut gently into the frosting to adhere.
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Serve and store. Serve at room temperature. The assembled bundt cake can be stored at room temperature, under a cake dome or a large bowl turned upside down, for up to 3 days. Press a sheet of plastic wrap against any cut surfaces to prevent the cake from drying out.
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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
