Copycat Tom Cruise White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake

Published on May 3, 2023

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My new Copycat Tom Cruise White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake is an incredibly delicious, moist, and flavorful copycat recipe of the famous Doan’s Bakery White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake Tom sends to all of his friends at Christmas. The catch? My version doesn’t cost $130 and, according to my kids, it’s better than the original! I can’t argue with that!

The Tom Cruise Cake

Have you heard about the viral Tom Cruise cake? It’s a white chocolate coconut cake from Doan’s Bakery – a cake so delicious, Tom apparently gifts it to all of his friends at Christmas. In fact, several of those said friends have talked about it on social media and talk shows. The world of foodies hasn’t stopped talking about it, but many people aren’t trying it. Why? Because ordering the real deal has a hefty price tag on it: nearly $130.

Lucky for me, I got my hands on a few slices thanks for a friend who had it delivered for her birthday!

Doan’s Bakery White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake

The original Doan’s Bakery version of this cake is described on the Goldbelly website as:

“The White Chocolate Coconut Cake is Doan’s most famous creation and for good reason. They start with a ring of moist, luxurious coconut bundt cake, mix in chunks of sweet white chocolate, layer on rich cream cheese frosting, and then dust it all over with toasted coconut flakes. The result is a delicious, pillowy cake good enough to derail the strictest Hollywood diets.”

I was eager to try this famous cake, but was unfortunately left underwhelmed. (Granted, I know the cake had been shipped, but I still had high hopes.)

My Review of the Doan’s White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake

Okay, real talk – I taste tested the Doan’s cake on Instagram stories last week and had a hard time hiding my lack of excitement for this cake. Here’s why:

The cake itself lacked coconut flavor. To me, it tasted more like a dense yellow cake.
The description says the cake has white chocolate chunks, but I never tasted one.
I did think the cake was fairly moist, which won it some points. (After reading the description, we can thank the sour cream for that.)
The buttercream was super duper sweet and had a strong cream cheese flavor. I felt like it overpowered the cake.

After tasting the real deal, I wondered if I could make a more flavorful, more moist cake – one that resembles the original version, but takes it up a notch.

Two cake slices next to each other on parchment paper. — Left: my version / Right: Doan’s Bakery

White Chocolate Coconut Bundt Cake

It took me a few rounds of experiment to get the texture and flavor I wanted. In the first round, the cake was too fluffy and airy. In the second round, the cake was too dense. In the third round the texture was just right and the flavor was perfectly on point.

Here’s a look at what I did:

For fat and flavor in the cake, I used half part coconut milk and half part buttermilk.
I also added coconut emulsion to the cake to enhance the coconut flavor (feel free to substitute with coconut extract).
Instead of chunks of white chocolate, I used melted chocolate, which gives the cake added richness.
After pouring the batter into the pan, I topped the bottom of the cake with toasted coconut and then toffee pieces (instead of white chocolate chunks like the original – I liked the more caramelized flavor the toffee offers).
In the buttercream, I used a mix of butter and cream cheese, but not too much cream cheese that it would overpower the other flavors.
I also added coconut emulsion to the buttercream.

I’m so excited for you to try the recipe! Enjoy and let me know what you think!