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

:Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man. :Bake me a cake as fast as you can :Pat it, and roll it, and mark it with a B :And put it in the oven for Baby and me. ==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. The earliest version set to music appears in James Hook's "A Christmas Box" (1796). ==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. Patty-cake appears as a plot point in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where it is made out to be the toon equivalent of sex. ==See also==