"Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker’s Man", "Pat-a-Cake", "Patty-cake" or "Pattycake" is an English nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 6486.[1]

"Pat-a-Cake"
William Wallace Denslow's illustrations for Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man, from a 1901 edition of Mother Goose
Nursery rhyme
Published	1698
Songwriter(s)	Unknown

Verse

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man.

Bake me a cake as fast as you can

Roll it, pat it, and mark it with a B

Throw it in the oven for Baby and me.[2]

Origins

The earliest recorded version of the rhyme appears in Thomas D'Urfey's play The Campaigners from 1698, where a nurse says to her charges:

...and pat a cake Bakers man, so I will master as I can, and prick it, and prick it, and prick it, and prick it, and prick it, and throw't into the Oven.[2]

The next appearance is in Mother Goose's Melody (c. 1765) in the form:

Patty Cake, Patty Cake,

Baker's Man;

That I will Master,

As fast as I can;

Pat it and prick it,

And mark it with a T,

And there will be enough for Tommy and me.

Marking pastry or baked goods with an identifiable mark may stem from a time when households without an oven of their own could take their items to a local baker or bake house, paying to have their items finished for a small fee. Marking the pastry would have been a way to ensure the return of the proper item.[3]

The earliest version set to music appears in James Hook's "A Christmas Box" (1796).[4]

Game

The rhyme often accompanies a clapping game between two people. It alternates between a normal individual clap by one person with two-handed claps with the other person. The hands may be crossed as well. This allows for a possibly complex sequence of clapping that must be coordinated between the two. If told by a parent to a child, the "B" and "baby" in the last two lines are sometimes replaced by the child's first initial and first name.[2]

The "pat-a-cake" song and clapping game was used by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in their series of "Road to" films as a means of distraction. The gag worked by means of adding a synchronised punch into the clapping game routine, allowing them to make their escape.[5]

See also

• List of nursery rhymes

References

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