Deborah has a coconut cake from Tom Cruise in the Hacks season 3 premiere. Does the Top Gun star really send out cakes to all of his friends?

Collage of Jean Smart in Hacks season 3 and Tom Cruise in Top Gun Maverick

Deborah has a coconut cake delivered by Tom Cruise in the Hacks season 3 premiere, but does the Top Gun star really send out cakes to all of his friends? Hacks season 3, episode 1, “Just for Laughs,” picks up a year after Deborah fired Ava in the season 2 finale. Deborah is more famous than ever after the release of her hit special and Ava is working on a Peabody Award-winning comedy series. The two are forced to reconnect when they bump into each other at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.

After an awkward catch-up in the elevator, Ava comes to Deborah’s hotel room to hang out. In her hotel room, there’s a coconut cake sent by Tom Cruise. Deborah hasn’t touched it, because she’s off sugar, so the cake is just sitting there. Although she finds leading-man culture to be toxic, Ava is intrigued to try this Cruise cake, because he famously sends it to everyone in his contacts over the holiday season. Is this true or is it just a bizarre celebrity tidbit made up for Hacks?

Yes, Tom Cruise Has A Famous Coconut Cake That He Sends To Friends Each Year

Tom Cruise as Maverick rides a motorcycle in Top Gun: Maverick.

It is, indeed, true that Cruise sends a coconut cake to all his friends every year at Christmastime. It’s a white chocolate coconut bundt cake from Doan’s Bakery in Woodland Hills, California. There’s a long list of celebrities who have spoken about receiving this cake (via People): Tom Hanks, Angela Bassett, Kirsten Dunst, Dakota Fanning, Rosie O’Donnell, Cary Elwes, Brooke Shields, Cobie Smulders, Graham Norton, Hayley Atwell – the list goes on. Cruise sends this cake to pretty much the entire cast of Top Gun: Maverick: Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jon Hamm, Jay Ellis.

No one has said a bad word about this cake. All of these celebrities have mentioned that it’s one of the best cakes they’ve ever eaten. This is such a huge and disparate list of celebrities, ranging from actors to comedians to talk-show hosts, that it’s totally believable that the endlessly quotable Deborah Vance would make the cut in the Hacks universe.

Could Tom Cruise Make A Cameo In Hacks Season 3?

Deborah Vance sits on a sofa, looking disdainfully in Hacks season 3 trailerImage via Max

Is this just a throwaway gag about some well-known celebrity gossip or is it setting up a Tom Cruise cameo for Hacks season 3? Cruise is clearly good friends with Deborah in the Hacks universe, so maybe he’d see her at a party or visit her backstage after a gig or appear as a guest on her late-night show. Honestly, it’s highly unlikely that Cruise will make an appearance in Hacks season 3 – he quite literally has never done TV before – but it would be great if he did.