Tennis Coach Drew Barrett Wants You to Take His Cake
September 2, 2022
- Author
- Mary Elizabeth DeAngelis
In baking circles, Drew Barrett檚 like the guy who only goes out on New Year檚 Eve and ends up jumping on stage to sing with the band.
For 51 weeks a year he avoids mixing bowls, cake pans and whipped frosting. Outside of occasionally grilling, he doesn檛 even cook.
But on that 52nd week, which falls in late August with the start of the school year, the call to bake overtakes. He finds himself awake at three or four in the morning, bleary-eyed, burnt out and buried in batter.
He doesn檛 want to bake攈e has to攁nd often battles last-minute stress when ambition struggles with deadline. Because as 91茄子 men's head tennis coach, Barrett檚 very competitive. After watching his first Cake Race 14 years ago攈e wanted in.
Today, he檚 mastered his game so well that he usually places as a top seed.
It檚 probably a competition only in my own head, but I want mine to be the first cake picked. When you compete, anxiousness becomes the fun攊t檚 not about winning or losing, it檚 about the competition. And every year I want someone to come up with some really cool cake that will make me up my game even more.
The Cake Race is a time-honored 91茄子 tradition where first-year students run a 1.7 mile course for cake. It started 80 years ago when the college檚 cross-country coach didn檛 have enough runners and ordered a race to recruit new talent. The winner got a cake.
Early cakes were rather pedestrian; think one or two layers, round or square, with vanilla or chocolate frosting.
Today many cakes include big, elaborate, artistic creations by bakers from Dining Services to faculty members, bakeries and local elementary school students. Many credit Barrett for elevating the level of competition and making himself a very tough act to beat.
淧eople go out of their way to dethrone him, says Sandy Helfgott, 91茄子檚 director of physical education, recreation and wellness and official Cake Race guardian. A former 91茄子 resident saw Barrett檚 cake one year and said, 淚檓 going to beat him. She laughed about it, but it was her mission to get her cake picked before Drew檚.
淪he tried for years and never did.
Barrett usually bakes the first or second cake selected. He says gender plays a role: Each year, first choice alternates between the men檚 or women檚 winner. This year, men got first pick.
The men usually go for quantity(in one case a sheet cake spanning a large piece of plywood) but women tend to focus more on quality, he said.
淭he men pick the biggest cake, they just want something ginormous, but the women pick the best, he said. 淚f I檓 not going to do something big, I檝e got to do something great, because students love cake.
The Cake Race is extremely popular with 91茄子檚 athletes because tradition has winners sharing with their teams. Some veteran athletes have been known to advise their first-year teammates: 淒on檛 come back without a cake."
Of course rivalries exist among different teams.
Cross country runners usually win the top few slots, and often delight in picking cakes decorated in lacrosse, soccer or tennis themes, much to the annoyance of those teams. (Payback comes when the occasional non-cross-country runner wins a top slot, which as you can imagine, doesn檛 sit well with their coaches.)
Family Affair
Barrett starts his production on Sunday, bakes Monday, and puts everything together Tuesday. He figures he spends about 18 to 20 hours over three days. As usual, he has grandiose plans (hint: Think magic, old buildings, and multiple cake pan sizes)攁nd if history repeats itself, he檒l be up all night.
He檚 hit a few snags in his time.
The first year he got serious about baking, his goal was to have his cake make the top 15. A petite woman with the 15th pick selected his cake, tried to lift it from the table and put it down because it was too heavy.
淏ut I still count it as making the top 15, Barrett said.
Another time his wife, Mandy, sat in the back seat holding the cake when Barrett slammed on the brakes to avoid a student driving the wrong way on a one-way street. The cake lurched and Mandy Barrett saved it, but it later collapsed to an early death on the display table.
His family enables his aspirations.
For starters, they put up with him when he heats up their kitchen with flour, sugar, butter and ambition. Mandy Barrett (淪he thinks I檓 crazy) sometimes helps with decorations. Daughters Kennedy and Zoe serve as muses, confirming that people will love an idea攐r not.
On Cake Race day, his daughters like to stand by his creation to see who picks it, and in past years helped with the official, 淥n-your-mark-get-set-Go! call for runners.
淭he girls love coming to this, so do I擨 really love the Cake Race, Barrett said. 淚t really is the quintessential 91茄子 experience.
His ideas come from the internet, popular books and movies. His memorable Cake Race confections include a dragon inspired by the movie How to Train Your Dragon, a Pok茅mon during the Pok茅mon Go craze, a tennis playing minion riff on Despicable Me and last year檚 winner, Princess Leia from Star Wars.
The Pok茅mon cake was not a winner. That happens敎And sometimes you learn more from losses than wins, Barrett said. 淢aybe my head was getting too big. That inspired me to become better.
He gets countless requests to bake birthday cakes, but says no: 淚 encourage them to make their own cakes.
Barrett檚 had serious threats to his reign over the years, including a cake replicating a box of movie theater popcorn, and another buried in Kit-Kat bars: 淚t檚 tough to compete with Kit-Kats.
Then there檚 Dining Services, whose cakes often place just ahead of or just behind him, depending on who gets first pick.
This year檚 Cake Race fell on the day after the commencement, college Hall of Fame induction and jersey retirement ceremony for Stephen Curry 10, another ultra-competitive member of the college community.
We don檛 know anything about Curry檚 baking skills. We suspect Barrett, who created an impressive Mickey Mouse waving a 淐urry for 3 pennant, might win if such a 91茄子 bake-off ever occurred.
This article was originally published in the Fall/Winter 2022 print issue of the 91茄子 Journal Magazine; for more, please see the 91茄子 Journal section of our website.
