Seattle resident and amateur baker Alicia Comstock has submitted three recipes to the Washington State Fair in Puyallup - and each has won first prize.  Last year her cucumber cake (which she entered in the Vegetable Cakes category) not only won first place in its category, it also took Best Cake in the entire fair.

As the Seattle Times points out, although Comstock is not a professional baker, she is a professional foodie.  Comstock is "Washington editor of the Zagat Survey and regional editor for Northwest Palate magazine."  Clearly the woman knows her food!

I had honestly never heard of cucumber cake until I read about Comstock's huge win at the Puyallup Fair.  Categorically, cucumber cake is a cousin to carrot cake, which helps to put it into perspective.  Most of the recipes I found include lots of nuts - Comstock's state fair winning recipe has you sugar glaze pecans before mixing them into the batter.  A recipe I found at food blogger Awake at the Whisk includes roasted cashews, dried apricots, and sweetened coconut flakes.

Cucumber cake is a cousin of tausalli or tavsalli, which Indian blogger Aayi describes as "one of the most loved breakfasts among Konkanis." (The Konkani people live on the Konkan coast of western India.)  Tausalli is a steamed dish which is made with a base of a soupy grain like cream of wheat or white rice.  To this is added a collection of nuts and fruits, such as cashews and coconut, a small sprinkle of sugar, and grated cucumber.  To Americans, tausalli would be more like a rice pudding flavored with cucumber and other spices.  (Cardamom is common in tausalli recipes, as is turmeric.)

Tausalli is also called "cucumber idlii" because it is cucumbers cooked like idlii.  (This is the same grammatical construct as "bread pudding," meaning bread cooked like pudding.)  Idlii are savory cakes which are made by steaming lentil starch and rice and forming them into little cakes.  Ghee (clarified butter) is common to both idlii and cucumber idlii.

I wasn't able to find any information about who first merged tausalli with carrot cake, but in hindsight it's an obvious choice.  The result of this hybrid food is something denser and more moist than a carrot cake, but not as glutinous as tausalli.  And - as you can tell - it's popular with its audience!

Incidentally, I've been on a "submit it to the fair" kick this summer.   I don't think there's a county in the country that doesn't have an annual fair. Everyone I know has a talent - be it cooking, knitting, quilting, or art photography - that is judged at the fair.  Committing yourself to submitting something to the fair (whether the state fair or the county fair) is a great way to push your boundaries, step outside your comfort level, and try just a little bit harder than you usually do.  

And even if you don't win a blue ribbon, many fairs allow free admission for contestants, so there's always that!  What's the worst that can happen?