From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Baking \Bak"ing\, n.
1. The act or process of cooking in an oven, or of drying and
hardening by heat or cold.
[1913 Webster]
2. The quantity baked at once; a batch; as, a baking of
bread.
[1913 Webster]
Baking powder, a substitute for yeast, usually consisting
of an acid, a carbonate, and a little farinaceous matter.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Bake \Bake\ (b[=a]k), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Baked (b[=a]kt); p.
pr. & vb. n. Baking.] [AS. bacan; akin to D. bakken, OHG.
bacchan, G. backen, Icel. & Sw. baka, Dan. bage, Gr. fw`gein
to roast.]
1. To prepare, as food, by cooking in a dry heat, either in
an oven or under coals, or on heated stone or metal; as,
to bake bread, meat, apples.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Baking is the term usually applied to that method of
cooking which exhausts the moisture in food more than
roasting or broiling; but the distinction of meaning
between roasting and baking is not always observed.
[1913 Webster]
2. To dry or harden (anything) by subjecting to heat, as, to
bake bricks; the sun bakes the ground.
[1913 Webster]
3. To harden by cold.
[1913 Webster]
The earth . . . is baked with frost. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
They bake their sides upon the cold, hard stone.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
baking
adj 1: as hot as if in an oven [syn: baking, baking hot]
n 1: making bread or cake or pastry etc.
2: cooking by dry heat in an oven