Pat-a-Cake

DESCRIPTION: "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 [or B], Put in the oven for Tommy [baby] and me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1698 (Tom D'Urfey's _The Campaigners_, according to Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes)
KEYWORDS: food nonballad baby
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(MA,MW,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #2, pp. 2-3, "Pat-a-cake" (1 text plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan8 1693, "Pat-a-Cake" (1 text)
Byington/Goldstein-TwoPennyBallads, p. 113, "Patty-Cake" (2 texts)
Solomon-ZickaryZan, p. 13, "Patta-Cake" (1 text)
Opie/Opie-OxfordDictionaryOfNurseryRhymes 396, "Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker's Man" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-AnnotatedMotherGoose #600, p. 239, "(Patty Cake, Patty Cake)"
Dolby-OrangesAndLemons, p. 162, Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake, Baker's Man" (1 text)
Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, p. 1, "Pat-a-Cake" (1 text)
Abrahams-JumpRopeRhymes, p. 454, "Patacake, patacake, baker's man" (1 text)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 253, "(Patty cake, patty cake)" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: James Orchard Halliwell, The Nursery Rhymes of England (London, 1843 ("Digitized by Google")),#285 p. 161, ("Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man")
Roud #6486
NOTES [63 words]: The version I learned of this has a different second line than the version in most of the sources cited: "Patty-cake, patty-cake, baker's man, Bake me a cake as fast as you can...."
According to the Baring-Goulds, a Patty Cake or pat-a-cake is a small cake with currants. Delamar-ChildrensCountingOutRhymes, however, describes actually patting the imaginary cake one is baking. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: GrD81693

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography