Patty cake (also known as "pat-a-cake" or "pattycake") is an old English nursery rhyme and clapping game mostly popular among young children. There are several versions of the rhyme, but one common modern version is:Pat a cake, pat a cake, baker's manBake me a cake as fast as you canPat it and prick it and mark it with a [child's initial]And put it in the oven for [child's name] and me.The last
. two lines are sometimes rendered as:Pat and prick it and mark it with a BAnd put it in the oven for baby and me.The rhyme also appeared in an 18th century Mother Goose book and in other nursery rhyme compilations. Since the rhyme is passed on from parent to child, many families have their own versions of the rhyme, or have developed their own clapping patterns.The patty cake clapping pattern usually involves individual claps, two-handed claps with another person and sometimes one-handed cross-body claps with another person.There are many instructional videos that feature the patty cake rhyme, sometimes with the traditional clapping pattern. Mother Goose Club Nursery Rhymes features a video of two children doing the patty cake clapping and rhyme together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq0mRxKPSoU. Baby First's Sing and Song series produced a segment in which children sing the song while making cakes, rather than clapping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYQzefYxDtM. The Teletubbies did an instructional segment about patty cake (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_9t1pc91Ic) that includes some unusual clapping patterns - they seem to have incorporated parts of the Macarena.There are also much more complicated patty cake versions. Here's one from Sean Griffin that involves varying the speed of the rhyme and doing hand claps, knee claps, slaps and back of the hand gestures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwdaLphAhdA. Some older children play patty cake as a competitive game, in which the rhyme gets faster and faster until one player is unable to keep up. Here's an example of that kind of patty cake play on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzCoN5ml. Another kind of competitive patty cake involves adding repetitions each time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrV8bhdNlvE.Line and country dancers do a dance that incorporates the clapping from the patty cake game, often called the "Patty Cake Polka," as in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2CZrOLJ6VY. There are many versions set to different music, but all of them involve doing three quick sets of patty cake claps before switching partners. More reference links: http://books.google.com/books?id=jLqXM3U_pzEC&pg=PA142&lpg=PA142&dq=pat+a+cake+clapping+games&source=bl&ots=gyi1-rID29&sig=DQif1L1OBHtmOMhQ9x6Yw-RhDhU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ih7tTrP3GYXYiAKt-_TQBA&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=pat%20a%20cake%20clapping%20games&f=false http://funclapping.com/Patacake.php
