Moon cakes, also known as Hu cakes, palace cakes, small cakes, moon cakes and reunion cakes, have a long history in China. Eating moon cakes in Mid-Autumn Festival can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, which originated from the ceremony of Yue Bai. According to legend, in ancient China, emperors had rituals of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and the moon in autumn. In the folk, every Mid-Autumn Festival in August, there is also the custom of Yue Bai or offering sacrifices to the moon. People dedicate moon cakes and fruits to the moon god. After the moon god "enjoys" the sacrifice, people cut the moon cakes and share them according to the order of the young and the old. It is said that they can get the blessing and protection of God. "It's just that the moon cakes at this time are not called moon cakes."

When Zhang Qian was sent to the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty, sesame seeds and walnuts were introduced, which added auxiliary materials to the production of moon cakes. At this time, a round cake filled with walnuts appeared, which was called "Hu cake".

In the Tang Dynasty, mooncakes were first recorded. In the Song Dynasty, records about "moon cakes" began to increase. Su Dongpo has a poem: "A small cake is like chewing the moon, and there is crisp and glutinous in it." In addition, the name of "moon cake" was first recorded in the Song Dynasty, but at this time, moon cakes were still not popular. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that moon cakes really became the official food for the Mid-Autumn Festival and gradually spread among the people. In all kinds of books in the Ming Dynasty, a large number of descriptions about eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival began to appear. In the Qing Dynasty, the production technology of moon cakes was greatly improved, not only beautifully made, but also the variety was constantly increasing, and moon cakes for the moon could be seen everywhere.