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

Pat the cake, baker, and make it quickly. Pat it, prick it, mark it with a letter so that it is yours, and put it in the oven for the child and me.

Sit facing a partner. Clap your own hands, then both of your partner's hands, in a steady beat. Mime patting, rolling and marking the cake with a letter (use the child's own initial), then slide it into the "oven" at the end.

A nurse in a play of 1698 says almost the same words, so the rhyme is more than three hundred years old. Children clap hands in turns, then mime patting, rolling and marking the cake with the first letter of their name, often finishing by pretending to push it into the oven. Early printed versions differ in the letter (T for Tommy, C for Charlie) and in wording, which shows how freely it was adapted for each child. It is also called patty-cake. The marking may echo households that took their dough to the baker's oven, but that is only a possibility.