Everyone has their holiday traditions. For Tom Cruise, it’s sending a ton of other celebrities a cake. It’s apparently really, really good, too. For some years, at least, it’s been a coconut cake, the recipe of which allegedly made it online. But this year, the cake did not make it to one of its famous recipients in one piece.
That person is Michael Bay, who says he’s been on Cruise’s cake list the last 20 years. Maybe he’s just a big fan of The Rock or Pain & Gain. But this year went amiss: The cake did not survive the trip.
It began promisingly. On Tuesday, Bay posted a video to Instagram of him excitedly opening a mysterious FedEx package. Bay was pretty sure what it was. He teased that it was from a “Famous Actor,” and after cutting it open with a knife, he revealed that said name thespian was no less than the guy who will risk his life even for some CinemaCon intro that won’t even ever play theaters. Bay thought it might be carrot cake, not the esteemed coconut cake.
A few hours later, though, Bay had a tragic update. For one thing, it didn’t look like he sent another the famous cake. It almost looked like donuts or something. Whatever it was, it was destroyed en route, leaving a giant mess that in no way resembled a cake. Bay wondered if it had melted under examination or at some other point during the delivery process.
So bad news for both Cruise and for Bay, though it’s not as though both of them didn’t have a great year. Cruise enjoyed his biggest ever hit this year, over four decades into his career. Bay, meanwhile, didn’t have a theatrical hit with his latest, Ambulance, but the thriller did give him the best reviews of his career, and it has undoubtedly had a sparkling second life on streaming. Still, it’s not a good start to the holidays to have one’s Tom Cruise Holiday Cake turn up looking like it was blown up in one of Bay’s movies.