baking in English, refers primarily to the action of making up all sorts of flour-based goods such as breads and cakes, and cooking them, usually in an oven, although some are ‘baked’ on a griddle. A group of items produced at one time may be referred to collectively as ‘a baking’, and the day on which they are produced as a ‘baking day’. Some N. European languages have similar words (such as German backen, from the same root as the English word) but S. Europeans have no equivalent to this general concept.
