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

Tommy (or me), according to Denslow

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

Bake me a cake as fast as you can

Pat it and prick it, and mark it with B,

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

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 have brought 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]

A common style of playing pat-a-cake.

The earliest version set to music appears in "A Christmas Box" by James Hook, published in 1796.[4]

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 often used by Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in their series of "Road" 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]

• List of nursery rhymes