Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Irish) an agitated state, poss. irritated.

1916

Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 92: Doyle is in a great bake about you. You’re to go in at once and get dressed for the play. Hurry up, you better.

2. (UK WWI) the head.

1921

N&Q 12 Ser. IX 466: Bake. Head./ Cushy One in the Bake. Sarcastic description of a bad head-wound.

3. anything bad.

1933

(con. WWI) F. Richards Old Soldiers Never Die (1964) 96: He informed me that it was a bloody bake as Smith had stopped it through the pound.