Lard oil puffed rice cakes enjoy high reputations in the Suzhou area. It used to be sold to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and Southeast Asia around the end of the Anti-Japanese Invasion War in 1945. These days, it is produced and sold only in the Shaxi town of Taicang.

In 1900, during the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, Shen Huanzhi opened up the Ding Sheng Xiang cake store in Shaxi. It mainly produced peach cakes, sesame cakes, sweet fermented rice cakes and meat dumplings. In the second year, inspired by popcorn, he invented lard oil puffed rice cakes and made it a local snack of Taicang.

The rice cake has since become a preferred gift for relatives and friends in Taicang. Other cake workshops, such as Ziyang Workshop, started to produce such puffed rice cakes in Shaxi. However, Ding Sheng Xiang remains the best in taste. Lard oil puffed rice cakes are a seasonal food, normally supplied from October to the Spring Festival in January or February of the second year.