# Pat-a-Cake

“Pat-a-Cake” is an English hand-clapping rhyme documented in the seventeenth century, with today’s familiar wording established in later nursery collections.

## At a glance

| | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Sung in | English |
| Words by | Traditional |
| First known | 1698 (early printed fragment); 1911 (version used here) |
| Best for ages | 1–6 |
| Mood | playful, traditional, educational |
| Page | https://littlesongbook.com/songs/pat-a-cake/ |

## Lyrics

### Verse 1 (en)

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man!
So I will, master, as fast as I can:
Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with T,
Put it in the oven for Tommy and me.

### Verse 2 (en)

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 T,
And put it in the oven for Tommy and me.

## How to sing it

1. Face a partner and alternate clapping your own hands with gently clapping both of your partner’s hands.
2. Mime patting, pricking, marking, and putting the cake in the oven as each action is named.

## Common questions

**How old is “Pat-a-Cake”?**

An early fragment appears in the 1698 play The Campaigners, where a nurse babbles “pat a cake, pat a cake, Bakers man, so I will master as I can, and prick it, and prick it… and throw't into the Oven” — no letter and no Tommy yet. The complete wording on this page follows The Land of Play, published in 1911.

**Why is the cake marked with T?**

In this printed version, T stands for Tommy. Other oral and printed versions substitute a child’s own initial, which makes the rhyme easy to personalize.

**Why are there two lyric versions?**

The first panel follows the 1911 historical source. The second preserves the supplied modern classroom wording, whose “bake me a cake” opening is also documented by the National Literacy Trust; initials and names can still vary.

## Sources

- [Thomas D’Urfey, The Campaigners (1698), Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership](https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A36959.0001.001)
- [Thomas D’Urfey, The Campaigners (1698), TCP text at the Oxford Text Archive](https://ota.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repository/xmlui/handle/20.500.12024/A36959)
- [The Land of Play (1911), Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/69302/69302-h/69302-h.htm)
- [National Literacy Trust, Words for Life — Pat a Cake, Pat a Cake](https://wordsforlife.org.uk/activities/pat-cake-pat-cake/)