Wuzhen Dingsheng Cake

Dingsheng cake is a traditional rice-flour confection popular in Wuzhen and across the Jiangnan region, made by mixing non-glutinous and glutinous rice flour with red-yeast rice and sugar, pressing it into flower or silver-ingot moulds and steaming. Pale red and ingot-shaped, it is soft, fragrant and sweet without cloying.

Dingsheng cake is said to date from the Southern Song, steamed by common folk to send soldiers off to war with the wish of "certain victory." It later became a requisite good-luck food for weddings, school exams and house-movings across the Jiangnan, present at every happy occasion in a Wuzhen waterside household.

Best eaten warm from the steamer, soft and sweet, it is often served with tea or given as a favour at celebrations; elders would tuck a few cakes into a bride's homecoming or a student's exam bundle for luck.

Its silver-ingot shape, the pale red hue from red-yeast rice and the auspicious wish of "certain victory" are the clearest marks of Dingsheng cake.