# pat-a-cake same as patty-cake, a term used since 1950 which means not handling cases. From a children's game played by a child clapping hands alone and with another child while chanting a nursery rhyme. From the beginning words of the nursery rhyme: Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man! Bake me a cake as fast as you can, Shape it and prick it, and mark it with B, And put it in the oven for Baby and me!